As we reorganize our focus at Blackbird e-Solutions, one of the emerging services that we are now offering is Localization. I was just reading an excellent post the FastCompany Blog about localization and I was reminded of the importance of the industry.
Initially the post discusses the differences in TV advertising across cultures and this made me stop and seriously think about the effect of such differences. One conclusion that comes to mind; If companies do not understand the subtleties of a market they are trying to sell to via TV advertisements, they will be dead in the water. In fact this covers more than just commercials, but any marketing materials, publications, software, product manuals, etc… Many companies fall victim to their own laziness or arrogance using terms from their native language thinking it will help preserve the foundations of the company. In the end it just confuses consumers. One of the keys to success in a foreign market is to create an image as if the product came from that locale. Of course there are exceptions to the rule. For example, if you are trying to sell a good German beer in the USA. You would probably want to use references to Germany or the German language and advocate a German feel to the product. However for such products as software, the text must be concise and foreign text will not look good. This idea is also where the term localization comes from: “Localization is the process of adapting a product or service to a particular language, culture, and desired local ‘look-and-feel.’†-Searchcio.com. If you can achieve this, the road to success will be much smoother.
The article:
Lost in Translation — How Do Linguistic Differences Affect Global Marketing?
