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Make the right move with product localisation

William Hagerup — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 15:27:27 +0000

In today’s inter-connected world, international marketing and targeted localisation are integral parts of a successful growth strategy. Read on to find out why thinking about language will help connect your products and services with the customers you wish to reach.

Locally appropriate yet globally recognisable

Product localisation is an essential part of an effective sales and marketing strategy. You might have heard of “clustering” – a well-known concept in store management which involves adjusting local offers to better fit the profile of consumers in a specific area.

When it comes to going global, clustering can also involve language clusters; firstly because not everyone in the same country necessarily speaks the same language, and even if they do, they often speak it very differently. Sales and marketing professionals tend to consider this keenly when writing copy for their own language markets, but when content is localised, the text is often translated in a generic fashion, which may be wholly inappropriate for the target audience.

Consider it as an inverted pyramid, where the starting point is the mass market – a shared language spoken in a country, for example – which is then narrowed down by segment, niche and lastly the individual consumer. At each step, the language is progressively adapted and targeted to the narrower cross-section of consumers.

This model has been borne out by real-life business experience. American chain superstore Walmart has used localisation across its thousands of sites to provide consumers with locally targeted offers in different regions – even from one town to the next. As a from 2006 about this strategy summarised:

“Too much localization can corrupt the brand and lead to ballooning costs. Too much standardization can bring stagnation, dooming a company to dwindling market share and shrinking profit.”&�Բ��;

One example of localisation leading to increased sales was seen during the re-labelling of a pesticide called “Ant and Roach Killer”. This name sold well in the southern states of the USA, but not in the north. After some market research, the manufacturer decided to remove the word “roach” from the label, which helped increase sales dramatically.

This demonstrates a company moving down to the sharp end of the inverted pyramid to appeal to a large target audience that had been put off by the word “roach”. It shows how localisation within a country and in the same language can lead to increased sales; and the process is very similar when you seek to localise product information and offerings in other languages and markets.

Language clustering

At the time the Harvard article was written, globalisation was really taking off. Many feared this would lead to greater homogenisation, with a few global players selling the same indistinguishable products in all countries and communities. The intervening 16 years have proven the article right in solidifying the exact opposite:

“�Ħ a look at the emerging localization strategies of the leading companies in consumer markets—companies that once shunned customization but now embrace it—reveals how mistaken this assumption is. We are advancing to a world where the strategies of the most successful businesses will be as diverse as the communities they serve.”&�Բ��;

One global brand that has built a localised product marketing campaign – right down to the level of local dialect – is Swedish furniture giant IKEA. In Malaysia, they used that reflected local usage of the suffix “kia” in the Hokkien dialect, as seen in a billboard featuring a picture of a chicken and the words ‘We are not Kay Kia. We are IKEA.’ (Kay Kia is the Hokkien word for chick). Another example features a tall man and the Billy bookcase with the line ‘We are not Lo Kha Kia (a tall man). We are IKEA’.

The IKEA products in question may be largely similar around the world, but perhaps precisely for that reason, using local dialect in the adverts showed that IKEA is aware of the local community they serve.

Layering to target

As demonstrated in the inverted pyramid model, localising into a particular language is only the first step in narrowing the localisation pyramid towards the most receptive consumer. The next steps involve employing other tactics to craft the right message in the right way, not least by securing a thorough understanding of who makes up the market segment.

If you’re producing or selling stairlifts, for example, there is little point in localising the text in your marketing materials and product information to a style that is attractive to people in their twenties. Given that stairlifts are relatively costly, you’re likely to target social groups in high income markets that are more likely to live in suburban houses with more than one floor (urban flats are unlikely to need a stairlift).

The niche thus consists of elderly, well-off, suburban people – they need a very specific linguistic approach, and your ability to adapt and adjust it is crucial to successfully selling to this demographic, both in terms of . This must also be reproduced when the material is localised from one language to another.

Marketing that speaks to your prospect

The sharp end of the pyramid is the individual customer – the one who is actually completing a purchase – whether a private consumer or a purchaser for a retailer.

At this stage, it’s all about finding the right words to trigger the customer’s interest and willingness to purchase.

Matt Lerner, co-founder and CEO at Startup Core Strengths, ,

“�Ħ when you find the exact right words to explain your product or service to prospective customers, words that resonate with goals and struggles that are already in their brains […] a lightbulb in their heads switches on that says, ‘That is EXACTLY what I’m looking for’ — they feel like you’ve read their minds.”&�Բ��;

Finding the right words means understanding that a potential customer’s purchase decision sits within a wider context in their life. The words you use must therefore reflect their situation rather than just your product. But how can you guess what’s in your prospect’s head?

Unless Apple are announcing the release of their new iPhone, it’s pretty unlikely that people are already thinking of a specific product. Instead, their minds are filled with daily struggles, fears, anxieties, hopes, dreams, and much more besides. So, if you want to get their attention, you’ll need your marketing messages to resonate with what’s on their minds.

That brings us to the million-dollar question – do potential customers overseas, speaking different languages, have the same struggles, doubts and goals as those in your domestic market? A recently released book titled ��explains how language can influence the way we think about space and time, and even where we focus our attention.��

The languages your customers speak can be the key to creating messages that resonate with their present or future and inform how you organise the information, or whether you decide to focus on certain things such as gender, movement or colour.

As the aforementioned IKEA example shows, sometimes it’s simply not enough to translate your product information and marketing materials. There are countless examples of slogans, messages and instructions gone wrong when simply translated rather than adapting or transcreating to fit the target audience. Hitting the nail – to fit language, style, tone and culture – on the proverbial head is crucial to reaching all the way to the individual purchaser themselves.

Mr Lerner continued, “I’ve seen companies with language/market fit normally get conversion rates from 8%–40%, which results in much stronger unit economics. Why the sudden jump? Visitors to your site or app store listing bring different levels of intent. It’s easy to convert high-intent users. But if you’re an unfamiliar startup, most of your visitors will have low intent, more curious than desperate. As you tighten up your language, you’ll be able to cut through to that massive pool of low-intent traffic.”&�Բ��;

Lerner’s lesson is a crucial one as you consider who you’re competing with in the various target marketplaces and the level of intent of your potential customers.

The question is, if you offer a similar product or service as another provider, but they have localised their product information and user experience, perhaps even the overall profile of their products and services, who do you think will have the best chance of hitting the sweet spot with the consumer?

Finding the market is finding the language

Language is not necessarily bound to a particular region or nation. Often language traverses political and physical borders, and even within a country there may be significant differences in how different sub-groups communicate; millennials speak and communicate very differently than Generation X or Boomers, and urbanites have very different trigger words than those living in the suburbs.

Take Spanish, a language which is used differently in Spain and across the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America. Then consider Latin America itself; Chile’s Spanish is certainly different from Argentina’s, or the dialect spoken in Bolivia, and within each of these countries, a young, urban audience will differ from an older, affluent or rural one.

A well-considered product localisation strategy will connect language usage to the main variables used in sales and marketing to define a potential target market or audience, such as age, gender, income level, occupation, cultural background or family status.

Given that these variables can span across large geographical areas and cut through languages and cultures, it becomes increasingly important to craft tailored messages that resonate within each group, if you want to reach all the way to the individual customer and influence their purchasing behaviour with your words.

As a result, product localisation should be a key component in your sales and marketing strategy from the very start. Any successful marketing strategy has messaging at its core, and this doesn’t change just because the language changes.

As you narrow down the inverted pyramid, either by geography or language group or demographics or gender, localisation is key to this necessary clustering as you aim to fine-tune your message and influence each individual decision maker.

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3 reasons why English adaptation is your key to entering the UK market

Max Naylor — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 11:16:18 +0000

Thanks to the status of the English language as the world’s lingua franca, the needs of native British English speakers can sometimes be neglected in the UK market entry process. If you’re a US-based company launching a new app, for example, translating your user interface into French, German and Spanish for your European launch is a no-brainer. But what about English?

In this typical expansion model, English is often the overlooked language. As Brits can understand – or think they understand – American English with ease, what’s the incentive to localise your product for the UK market? Many new entrants make the mistake of thinking that there’s little value in UK localisation.

Traditionally, many software companies didn’t invest in localising their product for the UK market. British users were used to seeing Microsoft Word offering options to change the font����Ǳ��ǰ���ǰ����Գٱ��text. In recent years, however, there’s been a change in expectations amongst UK consumers and they now expect products and services to be available in their variety of English.

Here we’ll dispel some of the myths about English adaptation and explain why it’s a worthwhile – or even vital – investment.

Our English translation services

We offer translation services into English from French, Italian, German and Spanish (FIGS), as well as the Nordic languages.

1. US English can be a barrier to entering the UK market

The debate about who English ‘belongs to’ is as old as the hills. Many Brits have a sense of ownership of the English language – the attitude that American spellings, grammar conventions and vocabulary are ‘incorrect’ is extremely prevalent. Although this viewpoint doesn’t stand up to much linguistic scrutiny, depending on your product it could create a barrier to entry to the UK market.

Take the example of , the writing tool. As the product originates in the US, its initial offering didn’t cater for different dialects of English. Grammarly was therefore offering its users in the UK suggestions that didn’t make sense for them – insisting on inserting a comma before��and, for example, or marking UK spellings like����𲹱����Ի����Ի�𲹱��ǳܰ��as incorrect. It��to choose their dialect of English, making their offering much more relevant for a UK audience.

Take the time to research the UK market and understand what the expectations of your new customer base are.

Differences in dialect aren’t just about grammar and spelling though – they reflect cultural and consumer expectations. When it comes to marketing food products, for example, US consumers will be used to seeing terms like��GMO-free,��trans fat����Ի��low cholesterol��on their products. Referring to GMO may actually create a negative perception amongst UK consumers who generally don’t expect food to be genetically modified – their first thought will be ‘why are they having to specify GMO-free?’. UK consumers are unfamiliar with the term��trans fat��(their addition to food is restricted by law) and products generally don’t focus on cholesterol content in the same way as they do in the US.

With this in mind, you might want to emphasise different features of your product. UK consumers value foodstuffs free of artificial colours and flavourings, for example. Labels like��free range,���ǰ��Ծ����Ի��Fair Trade��are also highly prized, although these come with certification requirements.

Take the time to research the UK market and understand what the expectations of your new customer base are. This will inform how you adapt your marketing copy for local consumers. Getting in-market expertise is vital here – don’t try and remotely manage this from the US.

2. UK English brings you closer to your customers

The adage goes that the US and UK are two countries ‘separated by a common language’. This shared linguistic heritage can gloss over some of the differences. There’s a stark contrast in the business cultures of the two countries, for example. Americans’ enthusiasm and initial warmth can be mistaken for interest in doing business, whereas Brits may seem cold and standoffish to Americans in the same situation.

Brits also value small talk as an icebreaker in a first interaction with a new business contact and may be offended if this is dropped in favour of a ‘let’s get down to business’ approach. This aspect of the business culture tends to slow down deal-making, which may be frustrating to Americans used to closing faster.

The principle is the same as for any other language: if you’re selling to someone, sell in their native language.

The differing ways in which politeness is expressed in the two countries can also be problematic. Brits tend to pepper requests liberally with��please, for example when ordering in a café:��Can I have a black coffee, please?��This use of����𲹲��is a standard way of ‘softening’ the request in the UK and to omit it would be considered rude. In the US, however, this use of����𲹲��can often seem passive aggressive, so it’s more common to express politeness with the use of a conditional verb like���ɴǳܱ���ǰ��could��and drop the����𲹲��altogether.

When it comes to English adaptation, the principle is the same as for any other language you localise into: if you’re selling to someone, sell in their native language. By sticking to US English, you pass up the opportunity to build an intimate relationship with your customer base – it will be hard for them to overcome the perception of your business as ‘foreign’. Many US companies successfully enter the UK market, but there have also been plenty of high-profile failures stemming from a lack of consideration for cultural differences:��Ի��to name but two examples.

One aspect mentioned in the��was their neglect to use a local voiceover artist for their TV advertisements. As a result, UK viewers deemed the brand ‘too American’ and weren’t able to connect with it.

Of course, failing to adapt to the UK market is about more than just language: you have to look at your marketing efforts as a whole and think about how to make your offering relevant. Language is a great place to start though. Being open-minded about adapting your marketing copy can make it easier to adjust other aspects of your brand proposition to ensure a successful UK expansion.

3. Adaptation prevents misunderstanding (and embarrassment)

Most of the time, English speakers from both sides of the Atlantic can understand each other perfectly well – or at the very least get by. When speaking, a lot depends on the dialects and accents of the speakers and how far apart they are on the spectrum of English varieties.

The written standards in the US and UK appear much closer. In writing, we don’t have to worry about differing pronunciations, for example. There’s also more of a shared standard grammar which minimises the differences between dialects. However, this doesn’t mean that there’s not the potential for major misunderstandings.

Investing in British English localisation should be a central part of your UK marketing strategy.

Let’s take a look at a few examples. In the UK, if someone’s��full of beans, they’re lively and full of energy, whereas in the US this expression normally means that someone is incorrect (full of s**t).

In the US,��chat up��is increasingly used as a synonym of��talk up��‘to speak positively about, promote’. The meaning is completely different in the UK, where��chat up��means ‘to flirt’.

Then there’s����ܲ԰��– a classic example which is resoundingly a compliment in the US. I’ll allow readers to consult��on Wiktionary to find out why it should be avoided in the UK!

An excellent guiding principle when entering a new geographical market – no matter how similar it may appear on the surface to your home market –��is not to underestimate the need for a tailored approach that respects local consumers’ needs and preferences.

Do plenty of market research and take advantage of the expertise of local translation and marketing agencies. Investing in British English localisation should be a central part of your UK marketing strategy, as tempting as it is to overlook. Why risk failure and damage to your brand?

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Director’s Cut, take 18: See who made it (to the World’s Largest LSPs Index 2019)

Anu Carnegie-Brown — Wed, 29 May 2019 12:34:40 +0000

History is written by the victors. I pondered this much debated quote when studying the latest language services market report. The winners – in this case the Top 100 ranking companies – have the power to shape the narrative about the global language services industry through their press releases, public speaking opportunities, media interviews and the data they share with market research organisations. The highest-ranking companies get to tell our story.

Market research is usually understood to mean customer intelligence — that is, the collection and analysis of customer data. However, in broader terms, market research comprises gathering, analysing and interpreting information about a market, product or service for sale in that market, a group of competitors, or an industry as a whole. The results, summarised in a report, help executives make informed decisions about where their business chooses to focus its efforts and resources. This is the value of market research.

When I started in the translation industry in the 90s, there were no market research companies that focused exclusively on the language services market. Today there are three, each offering analysis on the localisation news, trends, drivers and funding. These independent research firms, , and , publish content that is freely available to the public, as well as reports that are only accessible to their partners and clients.

Not unlike Fortune Global 500, Forbes 500 and FT 1000, all three organisations issue an annual ranking list of the world’s largest language service providers. The purpose of these indices is to monitor the performance of the top companies as a collective group and individually, thus gauging the growth and trends of a whole sector, or the entire industry.

The 2019 ranking lists for the world’s largest language service providers

��	CSA	Slator	Nimdzi
Name	World’s Largest 100 LSPs	Language Service Provider Index	2019 Ranking of the Largest Language Service Providers in the World
Release date	May 2019	February 2019	March 2019
Price	Free	Free	Free
Interesting LSP information	revenue number of FTEs number of offices	revenue growth rate type of ownership	revenue type of core business
Estimated global market size	USD 49.6 billion	–	USD 53.5 billion
STP’s ranking	78	63	100

The 2019 annual reports on the global language services market

��	CSA	Slator	Nimdzi
Name	The Language Services Market 2019	Language Industry Market Report	2019 Ranking of the Largest Language Service Providers in the World
Release date	June 2019	May 2019	March 2019
Price	For members only	USD 385	Free
Interesting market information	Not yet known	examines the market size and trends by end-buyer industry verticals provides market size information and revenue growth potential prediction for each vertical M&A	number of language technologies available: 531 highlights the difficulty of measuring market size and growth rate in USD because the volumes are converted from other currencies and depend heavily on exchange rates of national currencies versus the US dollar
Estimated global market size	USD 49.6 billion	USD 23.2 billion	USD 53.5 billion

How do these two annual market reports serve their intended target audience? They are written for the benefit of the buyers of global content management services, the private equity firms looking for investment potential, the translators working in the LSPs’ supply chains and the LSPs themselves, allowing them to keep an eye on the competition.

1. Market research helps evaluate success against benchmarks

Nimdzi believes that “many of the challenges we face in the language services industry are due to unequal access to the high-quality information”. In their view, “language service providers, translators, enterprise buyers, and investors often don’t see eye to eye because they are each operating with different levels of information”.��Making benchmark information affordable and accessible to all parties increases informed decision-making and helps the stakeholders manage unrealistic expectations at talks across all levels of business.

This year’s figures demonstrate that estimating the global market size is a complex exercise. Research methodologies behind the three reports vary: one organisation may have started by analysing the national markets and building the figures up from there, another may have begun with the client spend in the most established industry verticals. It should also be noted that the volumes outsourced to commercial language service providers versus the volumes translated through other means must fluctuate annually, making the addressable market size only a portion of the whole.

2.��Market research helps identify opportunities in the marketplace

How big is the market? How big is the addressable opportunity? How can you partake of this addressable opportunity? You want to focus on the market that is best for you, and this is not necessarily the largest one, or the one with the highest growth, but the one that best matches your company profile.

Slator states it as their mission to “make business sense out of our rapidly changing, highly fragmented sector where companies merge, acquire competitors, and develop new technologies” – almost monthly. This is a valuable service at a time when just keeping track of the industry news can feel like a full-time job.

3. Market research helps establish trends

When market research is done periodically, it provides data that helps to establish trends – and industry trends of course go straight into the Opportunities and Threats section of every executive’s SWOT analysis. A trend is usually an assumed development in the future that will have a long-term and lasting effect on our business. At the end of May 2019, CSA Research predicted that, fuelled by AI and machine learning, “content will continue to morph as it becomes more conversation-centric to support more and more speech-enabled products and services”.��In other words, there is money to be made from the multilingual audio content game.

The human brain likes simple straight lines. We draw parallels between expertise, greatness and the numbers in a ranking table, thinking that a top position on a revenue-based list equals business acumen and should thus set the benchmarks. However, the business world, let alone the physical one, is far from this linear. In the shifting and changing language services industry, success is bound to have many faces.

Truth be told, the winners don’t always get to tell the story. Look at what happened to the Vikings. Their history was written, not by themselves, but by the Christians they raided, pillaged and conquered. Not the best policy if you want a stellar reputation. It’s not the most effective way of communicating astonishing accomplishments either. After all, who remembers the Vikings for their complex rune script, unparalleled naval engineering or a surprising degree of equality between men and women?

Industry-wide market reports serve a great purpose. But the story based on the experiences of the Top 100 companies is not the whole story. Neither is the story told by the market research experts. Don’t leave it to someone else to tell your story. Make sure you get to tell it – and sell it – yourself.

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