If you’re running into hurdles trying to secure that increase in your 2015 localization budget, you’re not alone. Upper management often undervalues the effort, resources and budget required to successfully adapt products to international markets. So how can you capture their attention and convince them of the phenomenal impact that translation can have on your company’s profit margins?
How do brands with global reach integrate themselves into new markets with local appeal? While the potential promise of millions of new customers is reason enough to explore opportunities internationally, finding a sweet spot in those markets can be a real challenge.
While some companies find their business model happens to be fortuitously timed with an emerging economy, others have to identify clever ways to introduce themselves as a brand with a feel for the culture. In this post, we’ll look at three brands that have discovered profitable ways to introduce themselves to international customers.
If you’ve got a lot invested in your creative content — whether it serves to convert prospects, carve out your brand niche or carefully groom your burgeoning international reputation — transcreation will be an unavoidable pit stop on your path to global.
Have banks embraced the digital revolution? Not sufficiently, according to a recent article by McKinsey. While we may be wowed by the way our smartphone cameras can be used to make digital deposits, the future of the global, digital bank will depend on far more than front-end magic.
Disruption comes to all, and the global financial services sector is at a turning point. Where will massive cost-savings be realized? Will banks make moves to protect traditional annuity streams from third-party start-ups? How are mobile solutions in emerging economies making inroads over traditional banking? What lessons can banks learn from the localization and translation moves made by major new media giants in the past five years?
In this article, we’ll take a look at McKinsey’s findings and explore the answers to these questions.
Technology has completely transformed the face of international travel. Whether it's booking a flight, finding a stellar ramen house near the hotel or fitting in some easy sightseeing between meetings, there's now an app for our every travel need. In this blog post, we'll share a few of our favorites.
When you’re looking for millions of new customers in international markets, a country’s population size can be a major contributing factor in your growth projections. But in the world of eCommerce, complex forces can often undermine the common sense wisdom of “go where the people are.” Compare India and China. China is an eCommerce juggernaut, while India does but a fraction of China’s online shopping.
Key indicators suggest that may be about to change. Could India be on track for an eCommerce rocket ride? Investors think so. In this post, we’ll take a look at the sea of changes which may turn India into the world’s next eCommerce powerhouse.
With World Cup 2014 underway, the world’s attention turns once more to the pageantry of competition in Brazil. A country once believed to be an unstoppable force in terms of economic growth, new realities have made the game in Brazil more complicated. There have been a few injuries—hobbled exports to China and inflationary hamstrings among them—but within the uncertainty opportunities remain.
Standby for the corner kick. Brazil is preparing to take the pitch and get the game underway again.
If you’re going global with your next eCommerce launch, understanding international payment and fulfillment options is essential to your success overseas. The localization process doesn’t end at your cart’s product descriptions and customer service pages. The logistics of payment and shipping should also be carefully localized, as they are vital drivers of customer service and trust. From Brazil to China, international shoppers will abandon their carts if forced to pay in U.S. dollars and wait weeks to receive their order.
In this post we’ll take a look at options for accepting international eCommerce payments and how some companies are fulfilling orders for customers around the world.
Global scalability and speed-to-market have never been as crucial as they are today. In our hyper-connected global marketplace, copycats are replicating proven concepts and taking them to emerging markets at record speed. So how can your startup edge out the competition in the race to global?
What do fashion, eCommerce and Southeast Asia have in common? Forecasts are strong for the dominance of all three in 2014, particularly with the launch of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplaces. Read on to find out more about the implications these trends have for consumers and sellers alike.
When a currency’s exchange rate shoots from 1:13 USD to over 1:1000 USD in a single year, you can bet it will make headlines around the world. Such is the story of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency which debuted in 2009 as a means of peer-to-peer payment online.
But what happens when an online currency makes the leap offline? With merchants around the world embracing the cryptocurrency, the implications are global. Hedge funds are trading it, governments are banning it, and consumers? They’re spending it.
In planning your global expansion, you may be initially overwhelmed as to which regions or countries would be a good fit for your company and its products or services. No matter your strategy, you will want to make sure your global customer base will respond well to what you have to offer.
The historically more mature markets of Western Europe have some competition with up-and-coming regions in Asia, South America, and the Middle East. In today's post, we highlight six of these areas, their economic strengths, and how to approach translation.
Is your tech startup ready to go see the world? In the past, travel was a leisurely luxury. Those of means (both financial and temporal) used to take a Grand Tour or ride the Orient Express through Europe; today it’s jets and five capitals in five days. Get ready to move quickly.
Planning ahead is key to get make the most of your global entry. Knowing the latest social working sites and mobile trends are a definite must. Read on for four tips when your startup is setting off to see the world in style.
Is the open source enterprise education revolution almost upon us?
If you’re wrestling with the best way to keep your international teams up to speed on organizational intelligence and training, you may want to keep your eye on MOOC.org, a partnership which aspires to create a new global portal for eLearning.
Never heard of MOOCs? Join us for an overview of the MOOC.org partnership, the way Massive Open Online Courses are redefining access to education, and where all of this may fit in your company’s global eLearning strategy.
Watching the America’s Cup sailing and England’s Premier League soccer matches recently, I was struck by how two sports with global reach have remarkably different audiences and energy. I’m a lifelong sailor and weekend soccer fan with my kids, and I also happen to be a New York Red Bulls season ticket holder. The stadium crowds and rowdy camaraderie of supporters as the MLS playoffs approach contrasts with the smaller, more reserved enthusiasm of high-performance yacht racing at the culmination of sailing’s premier global event.
This made me wonder if there might be insights our clients, senior marketers, and brand managers might draw from these sports and their rising profile both in the U.S. and abroad. It seems to me that international sports teach international business lessons, too.
Recent reports point to a marked growth in the UK's economy, a happy change for many. Much of this acceleration is due to a burgeoning service sector, with construction, manufacturing, and services on the rise. With positive forecasts for the foreseeable future, we dive into just why your business should consider expanding into the English-speaking markets across the Atlantic.
The PGA Tour continues this week with The Barclays tournament returning to Jersey City, NJ. Golf for some might be a good walk spoiled, but for many it’s the perfect way to unwind through 18 holes. Whether you’re an aficionado or budding amateur, these three golf-inspired lessons can get you to the international green on time and on par.
Falling out of fashion is the old startup approach to going global: Get established in the U.S. and then begin branching out slowly overseas. Tech entrepreneurs are quickly learning how internationalizing early can save money and fuel unparalleled growth.
If you’ve got the next big startup in bootstrap mode, you’ll do well to learn why adopting a global mindset sooner rather than later could be the key to reaching funding stages. From culture to code, overseas growth could make the difference.
In this article we’ll talk about the benefits of internationalization and localization for startups and take a look at major startup success stories internationally.
Every year we see companies branching into new language markets, producing more content than ever. The demand has flooded the translation space with a wide spectrum of solutions, some of which promise fast, low-cost alternatives to traditional human roles in translation.
Yet while translation technologies have improved and will continue to become more sophisticated, the demand for human translation has grown steadily. In fact, the demand for quality human translation is arguably rising faster than the supply. What lies behind this seeming contradiction?
There’s more to capturing new markets than the transactional, information-based function of communication. The growth and protection of global brands depends upon brand voice. When it comes to voice, the human touch is the gold standard in translation.
Within the market, there’s a place for every tool. But the billion dollar bets in translation are placed in human hands. In this article, we’ll take a look at why.
Seemingly everybody has been talking about China’s economic growth and potential as a marketplace for Western brands over the past decade. And with an expected growth rate of over 8 percent in 2013 alone, it’s not difficult to see why. But what about the other players in Asia? East Asia, for example, is poised for a 5.7 percent increase, lead by up-and-coming countries like Indonesia. Mobile adoption is on the rise, eCommerce is rapidly growing, and social media is key to reaching customers.
Looking for a roadmap to these burgeoning Asian markets? Read on for our guide to reaching the billions of customers waiting for you in China and Indonesia.
Smart, fun and useful. Acclaro shares news and tips on translation, localization, language, global business and culture.