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.
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.
Valentine’s Day isn’t just a Western affair. Like love, holiday traditions cross borders, and with them comes big commerce. The thought might count for many, but the spending on Valentine’s Day gifts really adds up.
Holidays in translation always have a localized flavor, though. Gifts vary, as do who sends them, who gets them, and when they’re traditionally sent. For some, Valentine’s Day is the smaller of the big spends.
So what’s it going to cost you to say “I love you” around the world? It depends on the gifts and it depends on the culture. Let’s take a look at how that special someone makes out in the East.
Food has a lot of cultural pull. Consider the gastronomic delights of a gourmet French restaurant, the artistic beauty of the sushi roll, or the fragrant panoply of Indian cuisine. You can be sure to find global cultures represented in restaurants such as these the world over. Sushi in Stockholm? Sure. Tacos in Tel Aviv? Yep. Pasta in Pakistan? No problem.
Today's post takes you out of the restaurant scene and into a more casual — and often more interesting — offering: snacks, specifically those found in Korea.
With an eye to an untapped market of, at minimum, 50 million new customers, Ikea has done amazing cultural engineering to open up demand-side India — including possibly manufacturing the welcome mat! It’s an amazing lesson in retooling just about everything a company does and still remain true to the brand in philosophy and practice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Effective communication is a concert of the writer’s and the graphic artist’s distinctive voices, harmonizing to express the same message. Good graphic design echoes the writer’s voice in its own abstract way. While some of the cultural context of language may get lost in translation, internationalization of graphic design, the rich visual component of your communications, will ensure that your brand and your message will reach your global markets and stakeholders.
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.
Last month Facebook announced the launch of Global Pages, a new structure for brands on Facebook that engage with multiple countries. This social network is definitely a key part of many social media strategies and offers some new options for international companies. Here are our pros and cons on Global Pages and their impact on brand development and global marketing strategy.
Beauty is in the eye of beholder, which is why global cosmetics companies take care to adapt their products for a local gaze. Whether it’s a tweak to an existing product or a shift in marketing strategy to accommodate different beauty priorities, product localization in the beauty industry is nothing new. Now some major players are upping the ante in the beauty localization game for China’s ever-expanding market.
Global beauty giants like L’Oréal and Estée Lauder are competing with Japanese and Korean beauty companies like Shiseido, Kao, and Amorepacific for market share in China. How are these North American and European companies using localization to make themselves more attractive to Chinese consumers? Read on to find out.
In celebration of our tenth anniversary at Acclaro, we are taking a look back at how the translation and localization industry has changed over the past decade to accommodate technology and contemporary trends. Global marketing has changed dramatically in the past ten years and our clients’ needs have changed with them. Now, instead of localizing print campaigns, we’re more than likely to translate email and mobile advertising campaigns. Read on to learn more.
How do you explore new international markets for your business online when full translation and localization of your website is a significant commitment? An affordable alternative to global market research is the multilingual microsite. Done well, it not only positions you for greater success abroad, but might also open your eyes to unrealized opportunities.
A microsite can be a condensed version of your full website — whether it’s for eCommerce, customer support or marketing. Or it can be a minisite that delves deeply into your brand, a specific product or value proposition. No matter the microsite’s focus, it’s a concerted effort to introduce new audiences to your brand, gauge demand and meet product- or brand-specific objectives in a controlled environment online.
In this article we’ll suggest 10 ways to maximize impact while minimizing cost when thinking about international microsites.
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