Clarkson Branding Service

Service Overview

Are you a Japanese brand that has its eyes on the overseas market?Are you an international brand looking to localize your brand and expand your business to Japan?

We offer translation and copywriting to better communicate your brand to potential customers to increase international sales. Our output includes copywriting in Japanese and English for websites, web stores, catalogs, PR materials, and social media. We also offer simultaneous/consecutive interpretation for consumer research and executive meetings.

Writing that builds your brand.

We answer to your specific needs to ensure your brand’s consistency, while aligning the brand to match the local market. Through our consultation process with you, we are able to clarify the brand’s mission, define the brand’s voice, communicate the personality as well as the overall advantage of the brand.

B2C communication requires the translator to recognize that the job is not only to translate but also to ensure that the audience can enjoy the content. Another crucial aspect of international marketing is to ensure that you don’t alienate potential customers who are sensitive to current and past events.

Your team needs a hand in managing webshop content or social media?

We can also step in as your one-stop content creator, writing articles, preparing images, and creating banners.

Clients: Hobonichi, MDNA SKIN (MTG), NARS (Shiseido), Officine Universelle Buly 1803, Brand News, Okulab ...

Here are some examples of what we have done.

Clarkson Branding Service

Case Study Year : 2017 & 2018

Hobonichi Co., Ltd.

Hobonichi Techo is a planner with over 660,000 users globally. Currently, their sales are mostly in

Japan with some enthusiastic, active fans overseas. Their brand advantage is trust and passion,

which is generated through dependable, trustworthy, and approachable communication.

The Japanese website is very content heavy, initially starting out as a web-based magazine with daily

articles that covered a range of topics from whimsical to serious. These days, the website has a

successful web shop frequented by zakka and stationery lovers. Their web shop painstakingly

describes each product, a characteristic Hobonichi feels is essential to remain「丁寧」or very

detail-oriented. Also, upon hearing from the customer service, it was made clear that their

international audience are mostly non-native in English, many based in China, the Philippines and

across South- east Asia, with some in the U.S. and Europe. These characteristics informed the

brand’s voice for each of their product.

Deliverables

- Translated over 100 distinct pieces of Japanese web shop copy to English for the release of the

new version of Hobonichi planner.

- Replied to requests and answered questions during a live Q&A session at Hobonichi’s brick-and-

mortar shop in Japan to involve and reach out to the global community of Hobonichi planner users.

- Developed presentation material and a marketing kit for promoting the planner in overseas setting

such as the Planner Convention in Brussels, and in-store event in Log-on Hong Kong.

Right: Examples of content we were responsible for.

Clarkson Branding Service

Case Study Year : 2017

MDNA SKIN (MTG Co., Ltd.)

MDNA SKIN is a skincare brand founded by MTG, a Japanese health and beauty device maker in

collaboration with Madonna, a cultural icon.

MDNA SKIN is a brand that aims to be in the prestige business with an undertone of passion. We

consulted with the writing team to define the mission, the voice and tone, and the personality of the

brand. An important facet we helped establish was the particular kind of beauty that the brand strives

for, which they hope to make universal across cultures.

Furthermore, we globalized the ad copy for various marketing materials such as the brand story, the

message from Madonna, the story of Montecatini, new product press releases, pamphlets, and the

brand book for educational use within the company.

Deliverables

- Created guidelines for the brand’s voice and tone.

- We bridged the gap between the beauty goals and cultural expectations in Japan and the broader

international community. For example, omitting 美白(whitening), as well as replacing any messages

that appealed to the nationalistic pride of the Japanese for Japan-made products.

- Whereas the Japanese brand story is in poetic form as seen in many prestige brands in Japan, our

suggestion was to write the English version as a story that shows the brand’s expertise to establish

the brand as being insightful and authentic.

Brand Story Page that we globalized. Japanese to

English.

Clarkson Branding Service

Case Study Year : 2014 - 2017

NARS (Shiseido Co., Ltd.)

NARS is a global cosmetics brand founded by makeup artist and photographer Francois Nars.

Deliverables:

We translated the English promotional material that was created in New York to localize the content

for the Japanese market. As the PR team is always pressed with time, we delivered a translated

ready-for-use press release text within a few days. The key was to communicate the edgy, artistic and

youthful personality of the brand.

Pages from a Press Release that we localized.

Clarkson Branding Service

About Ruri Clarkson

Ruri Clarkson has worked as the web content manager for global companies such as AQUA Co., Ltd. (Formerly Haier Asia) and as the

international sales operator at domestic companies such as Hobonichi. At L’Oreal, she has shouldered responsibilities for brands such as

Kiehl’s, Biotherm, and shu uemura, giving her insight into the luxury market. In her freelance work, she has localized and globalized brands

such as MDNA SKIN, NARS, and L’Officine Universelle Buly, with a special focus on their online contents. Being the founder and designer of a

made-to-order embroidered clothing brand, she is an all-rounder, familiar with both back and front office operations and ready to support

her clients with dedication and creativity.

See more of her work on below URL:

Writing examples :

http://www.ruriclarkson.com/documents/RuriClarkson_writing portfolio_2019.pdf

Design portfolio:

http://www.ruriclarkson.com/documents/RuriClarkson_creativeportfolio_2019_A3.pdf

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You can find more documents listed at:

http://www.ruriclarkson.com/Clarkson_Branding_Service.html