CASE STUDY - EFFEM EQUINE LIMITED

The process seems straightforward: develop a full colour brochure here in the UK, then let all your distributor partners across nine EU countries arrange translation into their mother tongues and produce printed copies. Of course everyone will be using their own pc to do the work, the production will be very cost effective and meet the planned deadline, so the market gets a consistent message.

This situation would be fine if it worked, but as Mark Crawford, International Marketing Manager for Effem Equine, the country’s leading horse feed manufacturer, was well aware, this process doesn’t work. There are the inevitable problems implementing any promotional activity across other countries. Unacceptable delays are caused by local agents being away from their offices, specialist language translation problems, documents going astray and protracted delivery times. Consistency of brand image becomes increasingly difficult, particularly in an expanding and competitive EU.

Says Mark: "The plan was to put more rigour into marketing across our partner network with the emphasis on consolidating the brand image. Most of them were used to doing their own marketing, which meant that timing was frequently poor. They were not in the office very often because they were out seeing customers. We needed to find a more tightly controlled production system where everyone would benefit and ensure a consistent brand identity."

For Effem Equine, part of MARS group, this consistency was hard to achieve. It was fortuitous that only a few miles away, on the other side of Milton Keynes, was a specialist in cross-border marketing - Mother Tongue Communications Limited - who had developed a highly intuitive translation management tool that would resolve Effem Equine’s difficulties.

Mark Dilks, Mother Tongue Communications’s managing director, contacted the company because their European marketing operations fell within the type of model he believed could make the most effective use of the new system.

"The tool we developed is WordFlow which we commercialised last year. It’s a fast and efficient online application which allows users to manage the development of marketing materials, get them translated, make changes where neccesary, then approve and finalise the finished work within specified and often tight timelines. Moreover the brand image remains intact," explains Mark.

Being web based, WordFlow is accessed in real time, ensuring that the whole process from concept to final artwork is managed quickly and efficiently.

The approved master artwork containing all the copy and pictures sits on the Mother Tongue Communications server for instant access by all the parties involved. The translator converts the copy, placing it back into the system, where it is formatted and streamed electronically into the pre-planned layout. This ability to integrate text in any language into the destination language artwork without any need for human intervention is, undoubtedly, the main USP so far as WordFlow is concerned.

Once in place it can be checked by the local client, corrections made (if needed) and duly authorised for printing by the clients’ head office in Milton Keynes. The studio then transmits the final job direct to the printer.

If this explanation sounds too simple, it’s because WordFlow removes hours of protracted communications, down time and costly errors which can often account for some 40% of the final cost. With nine EU operations involved in the project this is serious money in anybody’s language.

Says Mark Crawford: "This is certainly a much more efficient way of working and being web based is a distinct advantage. It greatly enhances our corporate policy and ensures consistency of brand message across the different countries."

The company cites a new product launch via their Denmark distributor as an example of WordFlow in practice. With a very tight development schedule they were able to go from concept to launch of all of the marketing materials, including point of sale brochures, press advertisements and direct customer materials in 14 days. Using the new system they were able to progress the literature at a much faster rate than any previous method, with the result that WordFlow became a significant contributory factor in everyone hitting their respective timelines.

Overall it has meant that promotional literature is now much more accessible to everyone, with the in-country groups expressing unequivocal support for the software and the strategic, financial, tactical and practical business benefits it brings.