On an international stage, Total Marketing also means speaking the customer’s language, or does it? TML looks at the recent developments in Global Information Management and its impact on global business, and markets (e.g. sales and customer experience).

The pace of technological change in the past decade has moved companies from being known as ‘multinational’ to operating in a truly global environment, with international trade expanding accordingly. We are now at the stage whereby digital information can be delivered and accessed almost anywhere in the world.

B2B customers and particularly B2C consumers are, today, much more confident undertaking a variety of activities online – from personal banking to purchasing. As a new generation of users who have grown up with this technology start to gain purchasing power, the importance of the Internet will only increase.

With this in mind, global organisations have more market penetration than ever and can now sell anywhere in the world. Therefore there’s a new challenge for firms with global aspirations: reaching and delivering to each different market with a clear, consistent message. As organisations seek to grow, it’s crucial that they put a structure in place to manage their total marketing to ensure a consistent brand experience for all elements of customer contact.

As users move from early adopters of Internet technology to mainstream users, demands change. Whereas the early adopters were excited to just have access to the web and were content with the odd system error, mainstream adopters now expect to have information faster, cheaper and with high levels of customer service. A similar change has occurred in company communications and customer expectations online.

No change: we’re human beings

Despite the political and technological developments that are driving global business, human beings and the way they function remains unchanged. We will always have a close attachment to our own culture, and language remains a crucial part of our identity. With two thirds of today’s Internet users being non-native English-speakers, successful organisations must use a combination of technology and human understanding to truly communicate with its customers.

Whereas early adopters of technology were happy reading information in English, the mainstream adopter is more demanding and wants to read content in their native language. Why? Three reasons among many: culture, identity and trust.

Culture and language affect how individuals perceive themselves. Cultural identity has been described in sociology as being based on self-definition and giving a sense of belonging. Language is a strong part of that culture and one of the most effective ways of expressing identity. A threat to this cultural identity is what some refer to as the ‘McWorld culture’ – it represents itself as western, advanced and all the same. It is perpetuated largely by Hollywood and is seen by many to represent a real threat to cultural and linguistic heritage. Aside from this, it has been proven that people can assimilate language three times faster when it appears in their own language.

Trust and confidence

Trust and confidence are very important factors when looking to purchase online. Consumers are typically more confident when making decisions based on information in their own language. If you are making a purchasing decision, you want to be 100 per cent, not 98 per cent sure that you have understood all the information involved in that decision. You also want to know that you trust the source of the information and a good way for organisations to build that trust is by speaking to them in their own language.

The growth of BRIC economies is also driving the need for diversified content. Economists are predicting that by 2050, the wealthy world powers will be Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) and this should ring alarm bells for any western companies currently operating only in English or a handful of languages.

So with the rise of the BRIC economies and other developing countries, the American powerhouse will not be the only global economic power. As a result, the requirement for different language versions will only increase – we will move to a world where there are several global languages.

Understand human needs

From a global business perspective, organisations need to combine their use of technology with an understanding of human needs in order to develop an effective communications strategy. They need to think globally but act locally. This means they need to communicate in the language and culture of the people they are selling to.

Many global organisations are aware of this requirement to localise. Research on 300 global websites conducted by Byte Level Research showed that the most popular websites translated into three times as many languages as the less successful ones. The average number of languages supported by the top ten sites was 46, while the other 300 had an average of 14.5. The research also shows that in the last year companies have increased the number of languages on their sites by an average of 18 per cent. Many are also looking to incorporate the BRIC countries into their plans if they are not there already.

There has been a rise in the last two years for translation work in Japanese, Traditional Chinese and Russian. Also, in response to growth in the European Union, demand for Eastern European languages such as Polish and Czech has grown.

The time taken to translate is a challenge for many companies who are launching products into global markets simultaneously. Furthermore, the cost of translating large amounts of content such as web pages, in technical user guides, marketing collateral and documentation, can amount to millions of dollars, euros or yen. Many companies simply do not have the infrastructure to support the localisation process, nor the funds to translate the amount of content they would like translated. So what can be done to produce high-quality multilingual content more cost-effectively and quickly?

Technologies exist in the market today such as translation management systems, which help large organisations improve the process and file-handling of large amounts of content. Translation memory and a data bank of previous terms is used by many translators around the world, so that the re-use of work is always maximised.

Knowledge-based translation

An extension of these technologies is ‘Knowledge-based Translation’. This process combines automated translation and human translators, to provide companies with high-quality, publishable content. Many people think of automated translation as something very basic that currently cannot provide high enough quality. Fortunately, this is not true.

HP, Microsoft, CNH, Best Western, The Chrysler Group and RS Components successfully deploy Knowledge-based Translation. They employ a combination of automated translation technology and human translation skills, cut costs on average by 30 per cent and shorten the time-to-market for global content by 40 per cent. This provides huge competitive advantage and the ability to achieve revenues far sooner across the globe.

Technological and political developments have changed the landscape of doing global business. With more countries and their consumers having access to technology, the demands of the consumer are putting pressure on companies to communicate in more languages. Organisations now need to reach their customers faster, more cost-effectively, and with the high quality expected by today’s 21st century customer.

By Sophie Hurst,
SDL International

Senior Product Marketing Manager
+44 (0)1628 410100