In general, the software industry is a ’’magic’’ place where each company around the world can sell its products abroad without making big changes for responding to the local needs. In most of the other industries however, at some point, the business owners begin asking themselves some critical questions.
They are regarding the amount of localization of marketing services. Whether they need to adjust their website materials in the specific local language. And is this strategy going to assist their business in broadening the market in a given country?
Undoubtedly, it is not a piece of cake to get to the core of these questions without knowing the difference between localization and internationalization. When you localize your services or products, it means that for your business to be able to sell as much as possible in the new international market, your company should make modifications to its offering.
For instance, let’s take a look at the food products. They need some of the most powerful product localization, thanks to the variety of clients’ preferences throughout the world. We all love soup, right? But when it comes to localization, things are not very simple. There are many countries around the globe preferring soups to be condensed. Others like them to be sold as powder packets. Penetrating new markets abroad offering soup requires a major change in all details of the product creation and packaging. And although this step could be expensive, you should remember that localization boosts your offering’s local appeal.
Highly technical products like scientists’ software, stand on the opposite end of the system. It is critical to emphasize that typically, researchers follow similar techniques no matter the region or the country they target. As far as software downloads are concerned, most scientists have access to the Internet for them. And that process is named Internationalization – when services and products are being standardized with insignificant modifications for the local market.
Local Regulations
One thing is sure: it is impossible for a service or product around the world to be offered and sold globally without carrying out any localization. And the fundamental reason for this lies in all the local regulations that come on the way.
It is vital to emphasize how important being familiar with the specific local laws in your industry is. Remember that it could lead to an alteration in the way your products are marketed. And it could require adding some explicit references to your packaging for customers to be aware of how your product is made. Besides, it is not a secret that to be locally compliant, lots of industries make huge changes in the essence of what they sell.
Cost-Benefit Trade-Off
Did you know what trade-off was doing? By altering the appeal, it helps to offer and to sell more to local customers versus the price for establishing such modifications. For instance, if the specific changes are cheap and easy in comparison with the good profit margin and enhanced demand, then those alterations are worth.
As far as the American businesses are concerned, localization specialists insist they should remember that the localization’s up-front costs will pay off with time when their services or products are already established abroad. Widening your business to global markets around the world will undoubtedly boost the annual revenue of your company.
However, what you need to take into consideration is the fact that you need to carry out proper localization. One of the biggest misconceptions nowadays lies in the wrong assumption in lots of companies that simply translating their content is enough. Instead, localization is the magical key that you indisputably need. What is more – you should change your website content, your products, and even adjust to different languages.
As a conclusion, we would emphasize the importance of content localization. If you take it for granted and skip it, penetrating international markets will turn into a disaster for your business and your success – hard to gain. Localization is more than simply accepting various currencies and translating your content. Therefore, carry out solid research and then bet on a trustworthy and recommended company that will build a proper localization strategy, thanks to which your business will be successfully expanded globally and as a result, you will get a great profit.
