If you’re going to spend money registering domains in target countries and doing targetted pay per click campaigns you should also take the time to do some basic market research. And no, I don’t mean pure figures – I mean cultural stuff.
Jonathan Brazil spotted a really silly mistake this morning:
If you go to the hassle of buying a .ie and sponsored Google links for Irish searches, don’t call it EIRE and price your products in GB£
The ad in question:
And here’s another one I found:
I can’t think of anyone IN Ireland using the term “Eire” or in what context they might even try to use it.
Seriously.
If you’re going to try selling to us then learn to speak to us in terms we understand and use.
also, placing the country in caps makes it look like a “fill the blanks” form was used to create the ad.
Irish sales pitch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w0ZyfkukUs
When is the last time you read Article 4 of the Irish Constitution? Or looked at a postage stamp or an Irish issued coin? And someone as well travelled as yourself is surely familiar with the cover of your passport?
The points about GB£ pricing and capital letters are valid, but there seems to be a peculiar forgetfulness about the actual name of the country. I have addressed this issue previously, in print, taking a journalist to task about his inaccurate assertion that the use of “Eire” was a Unionist anti-Irish slur.
Francis
Yes, but the point is that nobody would refer to this country as “Eire”.
We’re talking about marketing and sales here, so using terms that the consumer is going to react positively to is key.
Regards
Michele
Francis: This might be because, from 1937 to 1981, the British government officially referred to what was then the Irish Free State and became the Republic of Ireland as ‘Eire’. It now uses ‘Ireland’ or ‘Republic of Ireland’, like everyone else in the world, but it’s not surprising that some people pick up negative connotations from it.
It’s also, of course, a convenient term for companies in the UK to use to avoid offending Northern Irish people. ‘ROI’ is now usually used for this, though.