Global business? Speak the language and content of your client

According to many sociologists, in recent decades we have been experiencing a “sea change” in various fields of humanity, from technology, science, economics to politics. This great change that they talk about is called “Globalization” and it has profoundly affected our lifestyle, our habits, the entire social structure and, therefore, the way we deal with the contemporary world.

In fact, our world seems to have been experiencing a kind of space-time compression since 1972, as stated by a famous anthropologist and geographer, David Harvey, in his famous book The condition of postmodernity: an investigation on the origins of cultural change (HARVEY, David, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Investigation of the Origins of Cultural Change, Blackwell, 1992). Think about the rapid flow of information unleashed by the ICT revolution that today allows us to send a message to the other side of the world in real time through “a click of the palm of our hand”. Think of the greater flexibility of means of transport thanks to technological advances that allow us to move around the world in a matter of hours. All these improvements have made the world smaller and smaller in a metaphorical sense so that today in the business world organizations are no longer limited by their geographical location.

Suddenly their markets have no limits at all and they can start looking for new opportunities abroad where they couldn’t even imagine going just a few years ago. In other words, what happens is that they go global and, as they reach this new status, their new customer targets are no longer made up exclusively of local customers. New global segments are emerging that share more or less the same lifestyle thanks to globalization. For example, Chinese women from the emerging middle class act out and identify with American women.

Companies willing to go international have a desperate need to start by internationalizing their communication … but wouldn’t it be enough to use English for their external communication? Perhaps, the jury is still out on this issue, but Not! We definitely think not and we’ll show you why below.

Multilingual communication: essential to globalize business

In today’s global economy, multilingual communication is an essential tool to be successful in business because:

• Buyers in all countries are increasingly demanding products or services described in their own language.

• Companies that realize the above point too late inevitably lose market share and a 33% reduction in long-term profitability of the product life cycle on average, according to McKinsey & Co.

• global company brands lose value if they speak a non-local language

Unfortunately, it appears that many organizations are not steering their efforts towards localization and translations alongside the creation of relevant and valuable multilingual digital content. If they do, most of the time it is an accidental process without a carefully considered plan or relying on a well-conceived strategy behind it.

Redefining the value of content management: towards multilingual global content management

The user, potentially interested in a product or service, simply Google it on the Internet and guess what? Among the list of Google results, select and click only those that are delivered in your own language. This action will be repeated at any point of contact of your online journey before you finish buying the product or service you are looking for.

Therefore, what a company would do best is to start redefining the value of its content management and upgrade it to multilingual global content management. The latter drives the overall customer experience, increases customer satisfaction, promotes brand awareness, consistency, and supports time to market goals. In addition, since content is an important corporate asset, it must be managed like any other corporate asset, so it is imperative to make it multilingual and work tirelessly on its translation into the client / user’s language.

As former German Chancellor Willy Brandt once said:

If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. If I am buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen.

(Then we must speak German)

Although one might be led to think that simply embedding a Google Translator plugin on your business website would work, you would soon find out just how shortsighted this option is. Not only would the translations turn out to be of poor quality, but this would also greatly affect your business and brand reputation.

Furthermore, a global economy increasingly demands not only multilingual content, but also content that is appropriate for the target population. In other words, a company must meet the expectations in terms of localization and translation processes of a destination country, otherwise even a perfectly translated message can sound strange to a native speaker.

For example, a Spanish company could use an expression such as

take the cat to the water

to highlight that they have accomplished a very complex task in a particular job, a feat.

Clearly, the English translation does not convey the same meaning as the Spanish original and a web user would be puzzled when reading this expression. As a consequence, that company would not be perceived as professional and its reputation would soon be shattered. It goes without saying that the potential user / customer would run to another business website and perhaps purchase a product or service from the competitor.