The Idea of Localization

When you offer the right products and services with a solid marketing strategy, your business may see an upward trend within a matter of days or weeks. But that success may not always be a global phenomenon. To reach a wider target audience, there is a need to provide localized support. With the rise in the number of people using the internet, it has now become an absolute necessity to communicate with prospects in a language they understand. Localization helps your business go global and compete with your counterparts much better.

The concept behind localization is engaging with the target audience via its regional language, keeping cultural aspects in mind. It deals with translating most of your online profiles and marketing materials into a local language to communicate better with the audience in pictures.

Various points make up a perfect localization strategy. Apart from translating the content into the regional language, there is also a need to understand the behaviour of the customers in that region. The same company can offer different products in different parts of the world depending on the demand. The target audience must be studied prior to localizing to keep its needs, preferences, and behaviour in mind.

Providing the customers with the option to pay in their own currency while transacting on their country-level domain is a great way to woo the customers and make them accept your brand as a local one, thus enhancing brand credibility and improving the number of returning customers.

Advantages of Localizing

 What good can localization possibly bring to your business, you may wonder!  Well, the positive outcomes are immense and significantly contribute to a company’s overall growth. First of all, it is easier to describe your products or services to a worldwide audience if you are serving the information in their language, and the marketing costs reduce to an extent too. Secondly, the brand value appreciates given the fact that you have a global presence now! This, in turn, helps build and solidify trust among your customers from around the world. 

Also Read: What is CCPA?

Role of Translation in Localization

Localization involves translating content like website content, blogs, graphics, product descriptions, brochures, etc. into the local language while keeping various cultural and regional aspects in mind. While translating may seem an easy task for many, tweaking it for the target audience is the real challenge. It is recommended to take the help of a professional translating agency in this regard. Simply translating a piece of content is easy, but it is a common happening where the translated content may be completely inappropriate for a particular region. We have had several very good localization examples, and also several marketing disasters owing to the wrong way of translation and localization. Take, for instance, the examples of localization marketing strategies of Amazon and Pepsi. While Amazon has very nicely optimized its website content to suit the needs and preferences of its customers all around the world, Coke did a giant marketing blunder in the Middle East once; the result could not be reversed. 

One of the Greatest Marketing Blunders of all Times

Coke ran a campaign in the Middle East with a picture that had three parts:

Now, this would seem to be a perfectly valid illustration where a person is out of energy, he then drinks cola and is then revitalized. Fair enough! But what was the blunder? The translators used the local language in the ads, but forgot the fact that the Arabs read it from right to left! Thus, the idea they got from this creative was that if you are perfectly energetic and healthy, you can drink cola and lose all your energy in a jiffy. Not exactly what the marketers had in mind!

The aforementioned example serves as a lesson to all companies who want to go global with the help of localization and translation services. You can’t deny the fact that localization has long-lasting positive effects, but can’t ignore the fact that just translating the content won’t take you places. An idea of the local traditions and cultural significance has to be borne in mind before launching a campaign. Brand marketing takes a lot of effort and comes at a price, but if you manage to offend a particular community, race, or nationality with any kind of insensitive marketing blunder, the chances of recovery are next to zero.

There is no denying the fact that localization and translation services are great ways to boost the overall reputation and sales figures of a business. It is, after all, evident that customers are bound to trust you more if you communicate in their language and behave as they do. Going global this way will mean your business will cut down on overseas marketing costs and hike up its sales, making a name for itself in the list of top companies all around the world.