Non-localized products impose a “consumption” tax on customers abroad:

If your company tries to attract lower-level customers or new customers to organizations, you’ll find that those new customers may not respond to your marketing messages or may not be able to use what you offer unless you offer them localized products and supporting information in their own language, adapted to their own environment and business practices. Whether they could (or would even try) to use your product depends on what the Common Sense Advisory calls the “the point tilting the localization balance “:

“The point tilting the localization balance” is the intersection at which adaptation becomes mandatory for a given market. Factors such as the educational level of consumers and business customers, the required level of compliance with the regulatory framework, as well as the cost of owning the product, make companies adapt individual products, services, marketing, sales systems, documentation, websites and other materials to specific market needs.

“The point tilting the balance” is not an absolute or constant quantity. It turns out that it varies according to the country, the individual product, the consumers – and even according to the sales channel. For example, shoppers may be more language-free when selling online than in the supermarket. This turning point also changes over time, so today’s decision not to localize the product may be wrong after six months – as consumer attitudes, competition and other external pressures never stand still. Advances deeper into retail channels and transnational supply chains are increasingly imposing on consumers products created in a single language that do not meet their needs or expectations.

The text is provided with the kind assistance of the leading consulting company “Commonsense advisory” www.commonsenseadvisory.com

Local, regional and better localized international competitors are taking market share at your expense; you suddenly register a loss of your market share; customers are beginning to traditionally use competing brands.

Localization costs

• Translation and adaptation costs for marketing materials – printed matter, websites and advertisement
• Engineering adjustments to adapt transactional and operating systems
• Costs for translation and adaptation of user manuals, FAQs and other help materials available online
• Costs for translation of the Q&A sections (FAQ); foreign language search engines; “Knowledge base”; diagnostics

Costs for option without localization

• Limited impact of your marketing programs
• Sales are limited to customers who freely use the original language
• Bad reputation in terms of usability; trademark damage; and higher maintenance costs
• Dissatisfied customers; expensive problem-solving procedures through telephone service centers

• Comprehensive service: Our ability to combine language services with software engineering, the localization of User Guides and software development allows us to offer you comprehensive services – from the initial assessment to the final solution of your needs related to software localization.
• Single contact point:: You only contact with the project manager throughout the localization process – from language translation to functional tests.
• Adaptation to the target market: We adapt the content of software products to meet the needs related to cultural and national norms and customs. Multimedia applications may differ in terms of individual criteria – such as the color, size and shape of objects in certain countries (eg coins and banknotes, taxi companies, telephone booths, mailboxes, buses, etc.).
• Saving money and time: We use translation memory systems that save a lot of money and time.
• Quality guarantee: The order processing process is standardized and highly professional. The quality of our services is based on our extensive experience and is supported by a quality assurance system in accordance with the standards EN ISO 9001: 2008 from TÜV.