Multicultural Marketing Strategy

We often get asked by our clients the difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese - in fact, many advertisers are confused and call them the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese.

This is a common misconception and is a common “Multicultural Marketing Mistake” as we often call it.

First of all - Mandarin and Cantonese refers to the spoken dialect / language - Mandarin is used in China, Taiwan and Singapore, while people in Hong Kong uses Cantonese as their main language.

When comes to the written forms - there are Simplified and Traditional Chinese used. Simplified Chinese is used in China and Singapore, while Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and by many Chinese communities in SE Asia and overseas Chinese.

While both written forms are compatible - many terms used are very different - especially when comes to translation for cities or countries - the translation for Sydney, Perth and Brisbane are all different as a good example.

As a good multicultural marketing strategy - it is advised to have your website or marketing materials available both in Simplified and Traditional Chinese - this will ensure you can capture audiences from all the different Chinese communities.