At the highest level, your number one objective in any market is the acquisition and retention of customers. While these fundamentals are so obvious they often go unsaid, it’s amazing how quickly they are forgotten when companies seek customers in international markets. There’s something about English-centric bias that tends to minimize a full-court approach to sales and marketing in a global environment. This is most evident in the arena of content marketing.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the compelling research behind the value of a global content marketing strategy, and the competitive advantage global content marketing can give your business.
English-to-Japanese translation is in demand as American companies vie for mindshare in one of the world’s leading economies. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the intricacies of the Japanese language and recommend an approach to the translation process that will produce stellar results, both linguistically and economically for your business.
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.
A U.S. brand launch in a new international market faces a unique challenge when it comes to earning trust and establishing mindshare. Selling local means sounding local, and the leap from English to a foreign language is one in-country competitor brands don’t have to manage.
An increasing number of companies are using global brand evaluation services to help inform their global launch strategy. In this post, we’ll talk a bit about why translation and localization are crucial components of international brand positioning, and the types of questions global brand evaluation services help answer.
Looking for a competitive advantage when it comes to generating buzz for your company in the media? The press release is an overlooked tool, especially when you adopt a global mindset. While U.S. companies often restrict their releases to English-speaking North America, an enterprising number of firms are harnessing the power of press releases translated for international journalists.
In this post we’ll discuss why the press release is still alive and well, and how translating your news for the world can open up global opportunities.
Are you a citizen of the country of Facebook? What about Google+, Weibo, WhatsApp, WeChat, YouTube or LinkedIn? Although the biggest social media sites go beyond physical borders, social media usage trends still often link to both geography and language. Curious to know if your company is getting the most out of the international social media scene? Read on for where you should invest your efforts in 2014.
English remains the dominant language in the United States, but almost one in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home. Are you missing out on customers who are more comfortable doing business in languages other than English? Read on to learn how your company can profit from translation within the United States.
For the first time in recorded history, the Chinese are drinking more red wine than the French. Wineries in the U.S. and Europe are looking East to reach new wine drinkers and grow revenues. But wine translation for China involves some delicate cultural and linguistic considerations. Read this post for a beginner's guide to Chinese wine translation.
Internationalization and localization. To the uninitiated they sound interchangeable, jargon deployed in the profitable process of exporting software to new international markets. Abbreviated i18n (internationalization) and l10n (localization), they have specific definitions which you’ll want to understand if you’re contemplating turning your app or service into a brand with global reach.
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is, this short overview will clarify the particulars and help provide a framework for what to expect when you work with a translation agency to expand your market overseas. We’ll take a look at their definitions, their scope, and the teams who have a part in the process.
A global business’ best asset is a global website. However, it’s not as simple as just translating your website — all those global customers need to find you. Your company, service, or brand may already face stiff competition in another country, making visibility a challenge. Utilizing your English search engine marketing (SEM) campaign and tailoring it for your international markets can help ensure you rank well on global search engines. Today’s post gives you some tips to make sure your website doesn’t get lost in SEM translation.
What do Johnny Walker, Nike and Beats by Dr. Dre have in common? All three companies have successfully used global branding strategies to take their marketing campaigns across the world. But the best global brands don’t just cut and paste what worked in France and do it again in China. Instead, led by smart Chief Marketing Officers, these companies have honed techniques that range from the concepts at the heart of the campaign to the importance of names.
Ready to learn some top global brand strategies and how they can help your company? Read on for the secrets used by CMOs to make global campaigns that really work.
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.
While Spanish is primarily spoken throughout Latin America (though not in exactly the same way), it is an extremely diverse group of countries and cultures. Marketing to the Spanish speakers in the region requires some forethought to avoid potential linguistic and cultural challenges outside of mere translation. In certain instances, something as simple as the color of your clothing or the meaning of your name can differ between various countries. You may also want to look at your non-verbal content and make sure it is as appealing as your copy. Today's post gives you some pointers on how to get started.
All marketing and advertising in the age of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube is global. As any PR rep or social media manager can tell you, even the most obscure of local brand campaigns are only a tweet away from global exposure. And as any global brand manager can tell you, there’s a fine balance to maintaining global consistency while still respecting cultural differences and local preferences. Coming up with individual campaigns for every local market is costly to both budgets and brand consistency. More and more brands are finding that the best approach is to go glocal: craft a global campaign and adapt it for local markets.
So your business plan is in place and you’re ready to enter new markets. But is your content ready? Developing and managing international content for multiple language markets isn’t something that happens overnight. From creating localization-ready source content to figuring out a content management strategy, there are a lot of factors to consider. But with some advance planning, you can set your international content up for multilingual success. Read on for some of our top tips for smoothing the international content creation and management process.
Social media has gone global and, in the process, redefined how companies approach market segmentation. A tried and trued approach to marketing, market segmentation has stood the test of time by evolving and expanding to include factors that go well beyond the traditional. Today, in addition to relatively demographic statistics, market segmentation also takes socialgraphics, psychographics and the critical role of influence into consideration, forcing global companies to dig deeper to find marketing gold.
Sunday, February 10th marked the beginning of the Year of the Snake for many people around the Asian world. And continuing a global business trend, international retailers took notice as snake-themed items hit the shelves (both digital and otherwise). Not only is this a timely move for marketing and advertising teams, but a smart one, as this is a major gift-giving season for millions of people.
Complex eCommerce platforms can present challenges when entering global markets. Each platform in a different market acts much like an independent entity, especially when you consider the market-specific customizations you may need. Today's post gives you five pointers to make the process easier and more cost efficient.
The next time you’re in your local 7-Eleven, ask the clerk if they stock fresh bags of Lay’s “Mint Mischief,” “Numb & Spicy Hot Pot,” or “Lychee” style chips (pictured above, along with some other tempting flavors). Assure him you’re serious. These aren’t the inventions of a practical joker, but careful flavor forays into Indian and Chinese markets.
What begins as a humble potato married to salt and fat quickly blossoms into a buffet of international taste engineering. While the long-term strategy of PepsiCo, the maker of Lay's, extends beyond the realm of these snacks, they’ve created an empire of crispy international options across almost every continent, perfecting the art of product localization.
We know that coming up with an English name for a brand or product can be hard enough, but if you’re thinking about taking it to international markets, your work isn’t done. Names aren’t easily translatable and may end up being offensive or inappropriate. We doubt that even the wordsmith Shakespeare, whose famous quote from Romeo and Juliet is adapted for this blog title, would have an easy time with international naming.
So how do you go about evaluating how your brand, product or service name sounds to ears accustomed to another language? It helps to know a few basic ideas behind naming. Let’s take a look at aspects of naming that are important for your international naming project.
Smart, fun and useful. Acclaro shares news and tips on translation, localization, language, global business and culture.