How an LSP can help with your globalization strategy
Are you planning on taking your products or services across international borders? This document takes a look at preparing to market to international audiences, with a focus on how a language service provider (LSP) can help you through the process.
There are four stages to connecting with an international audience: Globalization (G), Internationalization (I), Localization (L) and Translation (T) – GILT. The contribution of an LSP is essential for the last three stages.
Globalization
Simply put, Globalization (G11n) is the planning stage. It takes into consideration all of the necessary business decisions to establish an international presence. Below is a product value chain that provides a sampling of considerations when launching a product or service internationally. The considerations that are highlighted in red are those where an LSP can make a significant contribution. We’ll review these in more detail throughout this article.
For both physical and virtual products, the complexities behind entering a new international market have been broadly simplified for the purposes of this document.
-
Physical products
Depending on the industry and the capabilities of your company, the examples above will be of varying importance. For example, in manufacturing, importation and regulation documents will often need to be translated before gaining market authorization. Some LSPs offer auxiliary services such as regulatory formatting like MSDS authoring.
-
Virtual products
Examples of virtual products include software, apps and websites. The obstacles organizations face when introducing tangible (physical) products are largely negated when dealing with intangible (virtual) products. This is primarily due to their comparative simplicity in design (no complex materials, machine tool or moving parts), and convenience of distribution (downloading).
Internationalization
Internationalization (I18n) is the stage that is dedicated to cleansing the product of any characteristics unique to its country of origin. These characteristics can include cultural or regional references. As indicated in the table below, products can be divided into five levels: Core, Basic, Expected, Augmented and Potential.
In the context of I18n, you can expect the core level to be identical between markets. When redesigning a product for a new international market, heavy scrutinization will take place at the basic level. This is also the level of focus for LSPs. The components of the basic level are brand, packaging and labeling, pricing, distribution, marketing material and promotional communications in general. Prior research on the expectations of the new target audience may inform the language and other attributes used at the basic level. This is also true for any product support services.
Localization
Localization (l10n), in the context of language translations, is the stage of taking the newly internationalized product and customizing it for the new regional market. Localization may include changes in design and layout, measurement units, date formats, etc. Depending on the type of product, this process can be more or less intensive. For example, a trivia game that tests pop culture knowledge would essentially have to be recreated for each new international market entered, while the Rubik’s cube may not need any localization. Localization also tends to be much more intensive for virtual products such as video games and software..
Translation
Translation is the final stage in connecting with an international audience and plays a significant role with respect to representing the face of the product, as well as the company. In this stage, a newly localized file is translated from the source language to the target language. Translation quality depends on four components: translators and editors, the project manager, technology, and the process that manages everything. A quick and comparable measure of quality for the entire process is the % of errors per project.To ensure few – if any – translation errors, be sure to choose an LSP that has high ratings on all factors. Mistranslations can negatively affect your timeline by requiring re-translation, not to mention additional costs.
Summary
Connecting with an international audience may not be as simple as just translating a website, product and marketing material. With respect to the i18n, l10n and translation stages, it will be in your best interest to partner with an LSP that specializes in all three.
If you’d like to learn more about how BURG Translations helps you ensure high quality translations, contact us today.