What is Localization? Why do you need to know what localization is?
The question I always get from my friends is: "What the heck is localization?" I take for granted that I know what it is and that I know why everyone needs to know what it is. The challenge is actually articulating to people outside of the industry and actually selling it as a vital service with complexity and unique challenges.
First, I would like to define what localization means from my personal perspective. I spent a large amount of time working for a large corporation in their graphic design and video production team. The U.S. would create a "marketing campaign." This would basically be the story that will entice the consumer to buy the product. My job was to take that campaign and adjust it for international consumers. This would include making sure the copy (text) was able to be translated or specially written into the appropriate language and the content (imagery) is tailored for the country it is being marketed in. Simply put, it's versioning content for foreign markets.
Here is the fun part. Not everyone defines localization in quite that way. If you are a translator, it means that you are creating a version of the text that will be understood by people who speak that language. If you are an engineer, it means that the functionality will work for people in another country. If you are a global marketer, you generally don't use the term localization at all but the campaign you created gets adjusted per each market. If you are a producer, it may be a large portion of your budget that you must allocate for.
In this series, I will delve into localization and globalization from my own perspective: the production perspective. What happens after you decide to go global? Who are your actual stakeholders? What does the scope look like? What challenges may I expect along the way?
With localization there are usually more questions than answers. There are learnings and re-learnings. There can be big wins and embarrassing failures. With those failures can bring great comebacks and consumer trust or the inability to sell your product to your consumers.
Here are my three basic rules to localization:
Will I insult my customer?
Will I be lying to my customer?
Will I be sued?
Please be advised that not everyone in the localization business will agree with me on the three basic rules. These rules have evolved after an extensive background in Business Affairs and Marketing Production. In Business Affairs, you always worry about being sued and false advertising and in Marketing Production, you are always rushing to meet the deadline. My unique background has moulded my perspective. My goal is to promote localization and why it needs to be top of mind for every business with a production mindset.
From the marketing purview, the brand is everything. You want your customers to feel at home with your product and get a sense of what it is that will translate wherever it is sold. But you want to respect your customer's unique needs. That is where localization gets tricky and why I am so passionate about the subject. I love finding out what I have in common with people and what's unique about them. It would be great if you could create one version of your product and have one campaign. It would certainly save a lot of time and money. However, that is never the case and why we all need to know what localization actually is.
I will always tell producers, "You are always localizing, even when you are not localizing." Your product user interface (UI) may only be available in English and the copy may remain in English because you know your consumers understand the language. Unfortunately, even with those two large components taken care of, you still have to "localize." At least with your marketing and social media. There may be features or content that is not available and you can no longer have one campaign that suits everyone.
In my past articles, I have spoken about the pitfalls of poor localization. In this series, I will delve into the production perspective. The importance of the people you need to have in place for success in foreign markets. Too often, I see the toll on the people. Burnout, turnover, fear of being replaced by machines, and poor communication are commonplace. Let's put a stop to all that by promoting why the humans are necessary and how it makes "good business sense."
Being a producer has taught me that the job will always happen when you want it to. If you hire me, the project will be on time and on budget. It's what happens from point a to point b that we're going to talk about here. Bringing in great people, supporting them, and creating a responsive team. My hope is that we will convince the C-level executives of the world how vital localization is to their business. So vital, that localization needs to be staffed correctly, scoped for properly, and included in every conversation. I hope you will enjoy this series as much as I love talking about localization.