Enabling Globalization: A Guide to Using Localization to Penetrate International Markets
Nabil Freij
Copyright 2012 by Nabil Freij
Smashwords
Edition
GlobalVision International Inc.
Editor: Molly Froats
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of GlobalVision International, Inc.
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2nd Edition
ISBN 978-0-615-34853-7
Table of Contents
About GlobalVision International, Inc.
Part 1: When and Why to Localize
Chapter 1: To Localize or Not to Localize?
Chapter 2: The Visible and Hidden Benefits of Localization
Chapter 3: Finding the Right Markets
Chapter 4: Choosing Your Localization Strategy
Part 2: Localization Myths and Missteps
Chapter 5: Top Five Localization Myths
Chapter 6: Top Five Reasons Why Product Localization Fails
Part 3: Best Localization Practices
Chapter 7: Product Localization Processes
Chapter 8: Single Sourcing for Technical Translation
Chapter 9: Authoring For Localization
Chapter 10: Do’s and Don'ts of Localizing Art
Chapter 11: Selecting Your Localization and Translation Team
Chapter 12: Selecting Your In-Country Reviewers
Chapter 13: How to Plan and Budget for Localization and Translation Projects
Chapter 14: Fuzzy Matches and Word Count Demystified
Chapter 15: Last-Minute Updates and Your Budget
Part 4: Promote Quality and Contain Costs
Chapter 16: Reducing Localization Costs
Chapter 17: Ten Tips to Reduce Localization Update Costs
Chapter 18: Localization QA: How Important?
Chapter 19: Ten Tips for Achieving Quality in Localization
Part 5: Technology, Translation, and Localization
Chapter 20: Why use a Translation Management System (TMS)?
Chapter 21: Translation Management System Benefits during Localization
Chapter 22: Search Engine Geo-Optimization
Chapter 23: Google’s Free Translation Portal
Chapter 24: Statistical Machine Translation for All
Chapter 25: Localizing Your Website
Chapter 26: Localizing into Chinese
Chapter 27: Collaboration in Localization
Part 7: Keeping the Commitment
Chapter 28: Ten Localization Resolutions
About the Author
N
abil
Freij is the founder, owner, and president of GlobalVision
International, Inc. He is trilingual and holds an MSEE
from Brown University, as well as an MBA from Bryant University. With
over 20 years’ experience in the hardware, software, and
localization industries, Freij has traveled the world and lived in
five countries.
He is frequently published and quoted. His articles and interviews can be found in magazines, books, and websites by groups spanning the localization industry, academics, business organizations, and beyond.
The Society for Technical Communication invited Freij to speak at the STC Technical Communication Summit and 55th Annual Conference, where he presented “Translation Management Solution (TMS) Benefits during Localization.” The Society also publishes his articles in its magazine and its journal of scholarly white papers.
Many of his company’s clients have recommended Nabil Freij based on his expertise, customer-focused approach, and high-quality results. His project management skills and ability to accommodate the special demands of a wide range of projects are also often cited as reasons why clients continue to turn to Freij and his company for their localization needs.
Nabil lives with his wife and two children in Massachusetts. You can read his blog at http://www.globalvis.com/blog.
About GlobalVision International, Inc.
Founded in 1996, GlobalVision International, Inc. is a privately held company specializing in translation and localization solutions for a wide range of industries:
Information Technology
Software and Online Documentation
Hardware
Medical Devices
Media and Web Communications
Telecommunications and Engineering
Manufacturing and Industrial Production
Consumer Products
Business, Legal, and Finance
We are globalization enablers. We help companies penetrate international markets by localizing their products, documentation, websites, pay-per-click campaigns, and marketing and sales collateral into all commercial languages.
GlobalVision International, Inc. has offices in the US, Japan, Europe, and the Middle East. We employ native talent with advanced language, technical, and project management skills to handle not only Latin-based languages, but also other turnkey languages that have double-byte or bidirectional requirements.
Our company relies on the latest technologies in Web 2.0, search engines, databases, workflows, and computer-aided translation to facilitate efficient translation reuse and maximize quality. We use innovative software and communication tools often unique to our company.
Our mission: To enable our clients to reach their global markets by providing them with high-quality localization and translation services, on time and on budget.
Abstract
Comprehensive and easy to read, this book is designed for anyone who is considering penetrating international markets via localization or is currently localizing but wants to do it more efficiently.
The book begins by defining localization and distinguishing it from translation, which is just one step in localizing a product or its documentation. Seven parts clearly mark the topics that its chapters explore. Part 1 explains the benefits of localizing, and then helps readers choose the right markets and strategies. Part 2 illustrates why entrusting localization to experienced professionals is the most cost-effective approach by exposing ten myths and mistakes that cause so many projects to fail.
The industry’s best practices are well outlined in depth in Part 3: First, choosing the correct localization process is critical to successful globalization, and each option is explained here. Next, create localization-ready documentation by employing up-to-date methods and a staff that knows how to write and illustrate for a global audience. Then, make quality your primary standard when choosing teams for localization and for in-country reviews. Finally, design a realistic project plan and budget that accounts for all expenses, and involve your localization teams in the early stages.
Part 4 explains how to contain costs while keeping the quality high. Technology is the focus of Part 5: Translation management systems used in collaboration with a professional staff can improve results and afford significant savings. Online tools and techniques offer great promise, but cannot duplicate the quality of an experienced localization team.
Part 6 confirms that both the explosion of the Internet worldwide and the growing Chinese market indicate that it is time to localize websites, and to localize into Chinese. Basic guidelines are given here. Then, Part 7 provides a ten-step guide to conducting an annual self-assessment of your localization strategy.
The wide range of topics, arranged in chronological order with ready-reference markers, make the book an ideal companion for every company with aspirations of penetrating international markets.
Introduction
We’ve built this guide because despite the need, nothing like it exists: a concise, step-by-step handbook for globalization and localization in the new millennium.
New clients come to us with a desire to go global but unsure of what the process entails. Some face a Catch-22 dilemma. They want to penetrate international markets, but they fear that they cannot justify the involved costs.
Others – some who have been localizing for years – want to know more about the new tools and processes that will improve both their results and their bottom line.
Welcome to Enabling Globalization: A Guide to Using Localization to Penetrate International Markets. Here you will find the practical advice you need to start on your way and follow through to a successful finish.
First, consider this: Of the US’s top 10 trading partners, 1.9 billion of these nations’ consumers don’t speak English. So, does that mean that your solution is to hire a translator? No. Simply translating your products, documentation, and/or website isn’t enough to make them accessible to international customers. Translation is merely changing words from one language to another. Making your product usable and appealing in another culture requires professional localization: adapting it to the local styles, customs, needs, and preferences.
Also, just because your products are localized does not mean that clients will beat a path to your door! Enabling Globalization offers you the essential information you need to accomplish your goal. Over the course of our 14 years’ experience, we’ve seen how many companies do it and have passed along the knowledge we’ve acquired by offering newsletters and articles covering a wide range of topics related to localization. Here we compile a selection of them, updated to reflect the latest trends and technologies, in a comprehensive guide.
Helpful features make it easy to find just what you need now. Each of the guide’s 27 chapters fall within one of seven parts, from Getting Started to Keeping the Commitment. Cost containment, best practices, the latest technologies, and special challenges are just a few of the areas of interest explored along the way.
So, whether you’re just entering the wide world of globalization or you’re a veteran of the field, this guide is for you. We invite you to take a look inside the industry through the eyes of a successful localization company. Enabling Globalization will enlighten and inspire you – and leave you eager to tackle your next international market!
Part 1: When and Why to Localize
It’s been a couple of years since you began developing a new product for your local market, and you are finally starting to reap the fruits of your labor. Orders are coming in! Clients are happy and referring others! Your controller is at last telling you that you are starting to bridge the gap between your books and black ink!
Heartened by your long-awaited indicators of success and encouraged by a cheap dollar overseas, you start eying international markets in hopes of further capitalizing on your recent triumphs and shrinking your path to profitability. You contemplate hiring an international consultant or signing up value-added resellers (VARs) and distributors, but quickly find out how expensive and expansive the world can be. Undeterred by the challenge ahead, you start your international offensive by strategizing and prioritizing.
Congratulations! You have taken the first step toward joining the global economy. But don’t do it unprepared. Navigating your company through treacherous international waters is not for the faint-hearted, inexperienced, or ill-equipped. Going international requires determination, experience, resources, and a finely tuned process to get you where you need to go.
It all might sound overwhelming: Where to start? You’ve chosen the right place. In part one, we’ll explore four areas key to launching – or improving – your localization effort:
Chapter 1: To Localize or Not to Localize?
Chapter 3: Finding The Right Markets
Chapter 4: Choosing Your Localization Strategy
The information in Chapters 1 and 2, To Localize or Not to Localize? and The Visible and Hidden Benefits of Localization, will help those who are contemplating localization – and those who’ve already made their choice. Chapter 3, Finding the Right Markets, gives you two approaches to identifying where you’ll earn the most profit. Choosing Your Localization Strategy (Chapter 4) explains three approaches to localization and how to match yours to your company’s goals.
Chapter 1: To Localize or Not to Localize?
All companies selling internationally will sooner or later face the question: Is it time to localize?
If you are the person in charge of making this decision or recommendation, how should you proceed? This chapter walks you through the questions that need to be asked of the different company departments, and the answers that need to be collected, before such a decision can be adequately made.
Here, we look at the roles of six key groups:
Engineering
Marketing
Legal
Production and Customer Service
Sales
Finance
Engineering
Engineering should be consulted first in order to understand the true extent of the global push at hand. To them, localization is a side issue. The real issue is internationalization - the changes that must be made to the product before producing a localized version. So, important questions to ask, such as these, focus upon the potential for adaptability:
Is the product enabled for double-byte (to handle Asian languages) and bi-directional (to handle middle-eastern languages) support?
Does it handle different locale nuances, like different date and address structures, international keyboards, currencies, and character encoding (Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Chinese…)?
If the answers are yes, then your product is localization-ready. This may give you a true time-to-market advantage over competition. Otherwise, serious engineering efforts may need to take place, particularly if you’re undertaking any Asian or Middle-Eastern language localization. In this new millennium, most development environments are now internationalization-ready. So unless you are using legacy software, you should be in a good shape.
Marketing
Marketing approaches this issue on two fronts completely different from Engineering:
Are competitors localizing their products?
What value could localization bring to our prospects and end users?
Studying the habits of different international end users while considering localization is key. In many countries such as Japan or China, the end users’ specific needs inevitably require localized products. In others (such as the Netherlands or Canada), English proficiency and/or cultural similarities mean that it may not be a must-have.
Since the value of localization to your end users will vary, marketing should always weigh it against the feature and functionality improvements that could be made to the product itself. The more mature a product, the more likely it will benefit from localization.
Legal
Many companies forget that their legal departments should play a key role in reaching a localization decision. Their main questions will protect you from litigation:
Are there any international regulations requiring us to localize?
Are we under any contractual obligations to localize?
These are serious matters. Many countries are imposing laws requiring localization, such as France’s Toubon Law. What is important here is to try to gauge the liability to your company in any country it sells into if it does not meet local language regulations.
Production and Customer Service
There are significant logistical issues that production and customer service will have to deal with in order to produce, stock, and ship products to international clients, and then to support them. These are just a few topics to address before you start:
Should the product be shipped simultaneously in all languages?
What impact will a simultaneous ship have on the software quality assurance (SQA) group?
Should the customer-support knowledgebase be localized?
Plan for added overhead when following through on the localized offering.
Sales
The sales department is the place where you can get tangible answers about the opportunity that localization will bring to your company. It is no secret that most companies that localize do not do so until they have a major international customer demanding it.
If you ask your domestic sales force, you know what the answer will be. Exactly the opposite answer will come from the international arm. Neither point of view is sufficient: Although localizing your product will help increase international sales and reduce the support burden, it could also distract Engineering from adding other enhancements to the base product.
Resolving this dilemma is another reason why localization needs executive-level attention, by consulting the VP of Sales. Pose these questions:
Do you have any clients demanding a localized offering?
How much additional revenue can we get from a localized version?
What are the possible savings in support calls?
Are you willing to take on additional quota if we localize the product?
What you learn will be critical to financially justifying your efforts.
Finance
Finance now has the relevant data from the field and from the Marketing, Engineering, Production, Customer Service and Legal departments. The task for Finance will then be to determine the potential financial impact of localization for your company:
What is the return on investment for localizing in specific languages?
What are the short- and long-term impacts on the bottom line?
These questions aren’t easy. Yet with visibility into the process and access to all the data, Finance may be able to pull the numbers together and make a business case for or against localization.
Making a final decision
Even when you’ve involved all departments, the decision-making process probably still won’t be black and white. But you will be able to study the relevant issues and balance the subjective versus objective forces that guide you.
What’s next
Before you can make the most informed choice, you’ll need to know the results of localizing your products in international markets. One major advantage is obvious: You’ll open yourself up to a whole new population of potential customers once you offer your products to them in their own language.
But many business owners find that they weren’t aware of all they would gain from localization until after they’ve made their decision … one way or the other. In the next chapter, you’ll discover the ways you might profit – and the problems you might avoid – by internationalizing your products now.
Chapter 2: The Visible and Hidden Benefits of Localization
Acting on the ongoing overall globalization trend worldwide, companies all over the globe are accelerating their activities in foreign markets.
Executives possessing a global vision are convinced now more than ever that to succeed internationally, they must localize their products and literature. The following are some of the many visible – and hidden – benefits of localization.
Tangible competitive edge
Visible commitment to customers worldwide
Strong local and international image
Effective communication with international customers and prospects
Unparalleled market penetration
Reduced liability and copyright infringement
Tangible competitive edge
If your competition already localizes its products, then you cannot afford not to. If they are not yet localizing, you can gain a tangible competitive advantage by acting now. Don't underestimate the power of selling to and servicing your customers in their own language when your fiercest competitor insists on offering English-only products. After all, the language of business is not English; it is the language of the customer.
Visible commitment to customers worldwide
There is no better proof of your commitment to your international prospects and customers than having your products, literature, and website localized for them. When worldwide customers and prospects log on your website and find it offered in their native tongue, their impression of your company changes. Not only will visitors clearly understand your services, they’ll also feel secure and comfortable with your company.
Strong local and international image
Localized products, literature, and websites will project a strong international image essential to servicing customers both globally and locally. As demographics in many states shift, Spanish and Chinese localization for the U.S. is becoming more popular. Canada continues to depend on both English and French to satisfy the need of their Quebec citizens. Similarly, as new nations join the European Union and workers across Europe relocate, many companies are quickly addressing the different language needs of their newly created market pockets.
Effective communication with international customers and prospects
Are your international customer support costs very high? Product localization reduces your support costs where they are the most expensive – overseas. A properly localized product will help international users better understand and apply it. In addition to lowering your support calls, localization will produce a happier customer experience.
Unparalleled market penetration
Many companies are already selling abroad, but are looking for ways to expand their international sales. They can do that either by increasing market penetration or by selling to new international regions.
Consider localizing your products for both. It will give customers in new markets a compelling reason to buy your products and enable a market penetration otherwise unattainable.
Reduced liability and copyright infringement
Many countries require that products sold on their turfs speak the official local language or languages. Furthermore, translating contracts, agreements, product use agreements, and end user license agreements will minimize conflicts due to miscommunication or language barriers. Users legally must obey copyrights presented in their native language.
It’s clear: The language of business is truly the language of the customer. If the cost to localize is much less than the opportunity it creates (plus the liability it eliminates), then it’s time to move forward. The key to successful localization will be creating an execution strategy to develop the localized offerings and bring them to international markets.
What’s next
So, what global regions could hold the most potential for your products and technologies? Identifying these areas is a process that is much easier – and more effective – when you know how.
In Chapter 3, you’ll learn to pinpoint the markets of interest and recognize where you stand to gain the most. We’ll outline the techniques for evaluating each one for their possible return while you keep your costs in check. With the confidence of our validation strategies behind you, you’re then ready to move into the top tier of the global economy: penetrating international markets.
Chapter 3: Finding the Right Markets
You’ve determined that localization is both feasible and financially advantageous. Developing your execution strategy begins with two processes:
Finding The Right Markets
Choosing Your Localization Strategy
Here we focus on the first process, where localization begins: identifying the geographies with the greatest potential for your localized product.
International Markets: Stars, Cash Cows, Question Marks, and Dogs
In the 70’s, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) developed the product life cycle matrix to help companies analyze their product portfolios for the purpose of strategic planning and effective resource allocation.
They divided products into four groups:
L
ow
relative market share and low market growth rate:
They called it a “dog” and recommended phasing out these
products.Low relative market share and high growth rate: They called these products “question marks” and recommended investing in some.
High relative market share and high growth rate: They called products in this category “stars” and recommended heavily investing in them.
High relative market share and low growth rate: They called it a “cash cow” and recommended maintenance only, milking the product until it turns to a “dog” and then phasing it out.
BCG emphasized the need for companies to have a product portfolio that contains products in all of the question mark, star, and cash cow quadrants.
Fast-forward to the globalization era. Your geographical market portfolio should match your product life cycle matrix portfolio!
The same techniques and principles can be applied when appraising your international markets and how they rank within these four quadrants. Based on that, you can decide on the amount of resources to apply to product localization.
But if you are new to international markets, how do you avoid investing in “dogs”?
Here is a tested approach that you can use to achieve international market penetration incrementally and judiciously. Think of it as a compass to guide you as you embark on your international journey.
The Three-Tiered Approach: Evaluation, Validation and Penetration
Winning the world is best done the old-fashioned way: Divide and conquer! All companies, no matter how large or small, must operate within certain constraints. Your rewards can exceed those constraints – even as you work within them.
Market Identification Stage
If your product is offered and supported in English, you are in luck. With the product as-is or with minor tweaks to it, you can target the entire English-speaking world. This includes the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, - first, sixth, and eleventh in world GDP – as well as Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and others. According to the International Monetary Fund, English-speaking countries contributed $20 trillion to the $80 trillion world GDP in 2008. This is roughly 40% of the world market!
Additional resources should be allocated to the markets that offer the most opportunity, which are typically the largest. Consider these figures:
Japan is the second-largest economy after the US, with a $4.9 trillion GDP.
Mainland China (excluding the islands) is in third place at $4.7 trillion.
In fourth place is Germany. Along with Austria (whose language is also German), they have a combined GDP of roughly $4 trillion.
France, the fifth-largest, along with French-speaking Belgium and Quebec, pulled in over $3 trillion.
In sixth place, the English-speaking UK earned nearly $3 trillion alone.
Italy is in seventh with roughly $2.3 trillion.
Spain, in ninth place, combines with Mexico, Argentina, and other Spanish-speaking countries in Central and South America for a combined GDP of approximately $5 trillion.
Brazil is tenth, at $1.5 trillion.
If your product is released and supported in eight languages – English, Japanese, German, Simplified Chinese (the written script in Mainland China), French, Italian, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese – you can effectively double your market and target 80% of the world’s GDP.
You’ve identified your markets in this initial stage. But before you jump into localizing your product and building sales channels all over the world, pushing your company back in deep red ink, consider this conservative approach. It consists of three tiers, building to Tier 1:
Tier 3: Market Evaluation
Tier 2: Market Validation
Tier 1: Market Penetration
Tier 3: Market Evaluation Stage
The Market Evaluation stage is the research stage. Here you can analyze and measure the importance of each strategic market, individually and inexpensively.
The thrust of the process lies with targeted Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns for each of the strategic markets you want to evaluate. This involves the following steps:
Establish and activate international PPC campaigns on local prominent search engines. You can localize and adapt your existing PPC campaign for each target market.
Localize one or a few key web pages and link them to your main corporate site. These will be the landing pages from the international PPC ad campaigns. They will lead to a form to complete, a telephone number to call, or an email address to write.
Localize your basic product literature. You’ll need to have basic fulfillment material in PDF in the needed language to send to international prospects. This can include a marketing brochure, your product datasheet, and a few white papers. Once this is done, you can sit back and monitor the activities the PPC campaigns generate in the different parts of the world.
Note that in the Market Evaluation stage, you do not necessarily need to be selling products or services online. Your PPC campaigns’ goal is to create sales leads for each international market by generating inbound leads via telephone, web or email, requesting more information about your product. This will allow you to turn low-hanging fruit into international revenue. From the number of requests coming in – or the revenues you are generating – you can gauge the level of interest in each of your strategic markets.
Your investment is well contained while your activities are revolving around identifying the markets that have the most potential. This process is a low-cost alternative to participating in international trade shows or hiring high-priced research firms to recommend an international channel strategy – a strategy that they will not be responsible for executing or making successful.
Tier 2: Market Validation Stage
You have identified the key geographies that appear to have the most potential. Now, you can transition these geographies to the Market Validation stage while leaving the others in Evaluation. Your goal in the Market Validation stage: Establish sales channels that will actively pursue selling your product in the promising geographies.
While you are setting up your sales channels, whether they are value-added resellers (VARs), distributors, in-country sales offices, or online shopping carts, consider any additional localization requirements that your international clients will expect.
Correct localization takes time and a serious effort. It is best orchestrated by your corporate marketing and product development groups, not by your to-be-hatched, trained, and launched international sales channels.
Additional marketing collateral and web pages will need to be localized. You may also want to consider localizing other sales collateral, such as your press releases, sales presentations. Furthermore, your product may need to be localized.
If you are selling a software application, consider localizing the graphic user interface, help system, or high-level support documents.
If you are selling hardware, commercial, or industrial equipment, consider translating the basic user or instruction manuals.
Since full product localization and support can be costly, keep expenses in check in the Market Validation stage. For instance, try to localize the 20% of your product or website that is used 80% of the time.
Tier 1: Market Penetration Stage
The Market Validation stage serves the purpose of justifying full localization and simultaneous releases of your product into the needed languages. When it is justified, move these target markets into the Market Penetration stage, Tier 1.