Rebecca Translate 4 Africa author (t4a)

How professional can marketing translation and localization be done?

Majority of companies exploit the chance to take their business across borders with excitement! Unaware of the fact that they’re about to join the infamous rank of international marketing fails. They think they’re taking along plenty of hard-earned know-how from home. But sometimes this all pales in comparison to a few little mix-ups when it comes to language. Borders might be disappearing, but cultural and language barriers still stand strong. Hence the need to learn how professional we can deal with our Marketing translation and localization process.

Translation traps

Translation traps are everywhere, be it a badly translated slogan, a company name or a cultural blunder. For instance, the most recent translation blunder was with MTN-Uganda where they displayed a promotion banner (MoMo Nyabo promotion) in Soroti town with miss-spelled content. When locals had a glance at it they couldn’t hold it back, so they had to inform MTN instantly. In no time the Company had to pull down their banner. And to make matters worse even the apology had errors still! Oh my! This was really bad to both the Company brand and to the locals themselves. Checkout the image below;

Conquering a new market

Conquering new markets is all about the right marketing, and marketing means translating ideas, not words. So, let’s find out what translation and localization mean;

Translation

Translation means conveying your content from the source language into the target language, respecting grammar rules and syntax. It’s not a word to word translation, but a complex process that takes into account each language’s standards and guidelines. Translators are required to produce accurate work to make sure the message in the target language keeps the original meaning of the source text.

Localization

Localization means more than rewriting the text into a different language. It adapts your message to local audiences. Localization is widely used for websites, mobile apps, software, video games, multimedia content and voice-overs. Localization means you’ll need to provide content for that particular setting such as Ateso, Acoli, Ganda, among others even though these groups have English as their official language. Just as English varies from the US, to Australia, UK and Canada, most languages have local versions and dialects that you need to consider when building your marketing strategy.

In this context, translation is just a small step in the localization process. It’s essential to have a good team of translators to localize efficiently, but you’ll also have to work with local marketers and consultants, to make sure you respect cultural aspects and local laws for each market you’re localizing in. Regular translation probably isn’t enough for your business to be successful in local markets. You need to localize your content to gain the trust of local public. Because selling in a foreign country or locale means more than overcoming language barriers. It means coming up with a customized message, specially made for each local audience. You need to go beyond translation, as cultural barriers can make understanding the original message difficult. KitKat, for example, didn’t just translate their famous slogan into Japanese when they launched their product in Japan. The Company changed ‘Have a beak, have a KitKat’ with ‘Kitto Katsu’, which means ‘surely win’. They also launched a series of exotic chocolate bars to meet the local taste. This strategy made the KitKat Japanese campaign a localization success, clearly demonstrating how to use the same words that clients do to express themselves.

Simple steps to follow for a successful marketing translation and localization strategy

Define your audience:- Determine your language combination. When appropriate, be sure to target a particular region or country to ensure appropriate use of language based on the target region and culture. For example, choose English(UK) to Spanish (SP), rather than simply English to Spanish. Are your readers young or old? Industry experts or the general public? Local or International? With a clear target audience in mind, the translation team will be equipped with that knowledge when localizing the content for that target audience. Consider the subject matter and target audience. Legal, medical and technical translations usually require a serious, formal tone and in some cases, use of the passive voice. In contrast, marketing content allows more freedom in language and tone, including the use of an active voice to feel natural.

Set publishing requirements:- How will your translated project be distributed? For example, a website translation project will require clear communication with the ‘language service provider’ on project scope; that is to say; Meta data, SEO, graphics localization and content distribution. Some companies may have duplicated versions of their website that are hosted in their new target countries. Others may opt for a language navigation menu within one content management system. Dynamic language can work directly within your content management system and upload translated content or be provided source code that is translated and returned in the same format. It is important to set these publishing requirements before beginning the project to avoid overruns on project deadlines, budge and scope.

Quality translation:- Consider using both native and professional translators for your project. This can help you capture both translation and localization at the same time.

Proofread:- Check for linguistic and cultural errors, as well as punctuation, and capitalization. Then, check for layout consistency of bold or italicized words, date/time and number formatting.

Create a terminology glossary and style guide:- A terminology glossary and style guide will boost translation speed and ensure preferred terminology, and consistent tone/voice throughout this and all future translation projects.

Communicate any hard deadlines:- The turn-around for your translation project will depend on factors such as translator and editor availability, language combination, and word count. Other possible factors to consider are difficult terminology and the requirements of a niche industry or highly-targeted audience. However, if you have a particular deadline, that information should be relayed to ensure adequate resources are available. Review content for any idioms, expressions and cultural references that may require localization or even trans-creation. Taking the time to prepare a quality translation project will improve the quality of translation and speed of delivery.

Advantages of proper Marketing translation and localization

Marketers are often plagued with a dilemma when reaching out to a new market: to standardize or localize? To standardize is obviously the easiest from an operation standpoint, meaning that you use the same marketing style and theme for all your products and services regardless of where you’re marketing them. However, there are disadvantages and advantages on both sides, but when reaching out to a new market, it’s actually more advantageous for marketers to choose localization.

With marketing localization, you are able to create linguistic and physical adjustments to your existing products or services so that it fits in with your new target market’s specific needs. It takes a lot of work to customize and make adaptations of existing products and services, especially if there are multiple products to launch, but it allows companies to resonate with their customers, and resolve the deepest needs and desires of their new market from the market’s own perspective. Checkout some of the advantages of Marketing translation and localization below:

Reduces the barrier to entry:- When introducing your company or idea to a new market, there are several barriers to entry that may be observed. It could be government monopoly; limited or scarce channels of delivery of goods; tight competition; or lack of product or brand awareness. Market adaptation is mandatory in many countries and so it makes perfect sense to localize marketing. This could be the translation of product packaging, removing/altering product ingredients or packaging, changing brand names and so on.

One classic example for this would be Coca Cola in China. Coca Cola is currently known as Kekoukele in China. This is because its original brand name, when translated into Chinese, means “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse fastened with wax,” which are unusual and inappropriate. It would have been incredibly unappetizing to buy a drink thus named, so Coca Cola had to do a change to their brand name to adapt to the Chinese market. They chose the brand name Kekouleke because it means “tasty fun” and it is close to the original brand name. This dramatically changed Coca Cola’s image in China, and it helped them connect to locals in a more language-appropriate and personalized way.

Customizes customer experience:- In many first-world countries, products are often sold in larger-container quantities, which is done based on both consumption and convenience. On the other hand, the same products sold in third-world countries may not be affordable for the majority of consumers and that would greatly affect the sales. Due to these pricing constraints, companies may create products in different and smaller packaging, such as sachets or pouches, for the greater market to be able to afford it.

Breeds cultural respect and appropriation:- It’s no secret that cultural patterns, religions and norms affect people’s habits, outlook in life, the media they choose and even the products they buy. Advertising or identifying your brand with a Christmas or Christmas-related promotions, for example, in a largely non-catholic country may not be accepted by the target market. On the other hand, advertising your brand with a Christmas theme in Christian and catholic countries will be largely appreciated and remembered. Outsourcing experts from Translate4africa.com have seen how hiring local marketing executives in Africa, where every border is a new country and culture, played a big role in providing contextually correct translations and preventing conflicts with the target market’s culture.

It results to better brand identification:- Marketing translation and localization “personifies” a brand, which helps it connect to its target market on a deeper level. Some brands become an extension or expression of culture in some countries by integrating culture into their brand message and active storytelling.

Hastens local business development:- Marketing translation and localization accelerates business development. Creating a demand for your products or services is not your ticket to success. Knowing your target market deeply and seeing their needs from their perspective is the key to providing products or services that are in demand. You won’t be able to achieve this if you use the same standards for all your target markets all over the globe. This can only be done with marketing localization based on in-depth market research.

In conclusion

Marketing translation and localization is a complex, yet often an underestimated field. While it consists of translating from one language to another, it also involves writing appealing and persuasive content that has impact to the local audience. Unlike general translation, marketing translators need to be good writers first and foremost. Marketing translation can also involve trans-creation, where a translator and writer work together to create truly and powerful content. Choice wisely! Always be conscious of your marketing content, as it’s your key to either success or marketing failure.

Website localization most effective points not to miss

Do you have an urge to expand your brand’s global markets? Website translation is one step not to miss. However, having your website content translated may not achieve you much. That is why it’s vital for you to go past just translation to website localization.

Localization is vital to your business’ success. How! Localizing your website ensures that your content resonates with your entire potential target audience. Beyond simply translating the words on the page, localisation adapts your website to meet the needs of a particular language, culture or desired population’s “look and feel.” A correctly localized website attracts more traffic and increases click-through rates that improves conversation rates and inevitably sales.

Changing your site’s color scheme, adapting your SEO and social media strategy, and even remodeling the design of your site itself can all impact positively to your success out there. Checkout the crucial points to remember for your multilingual and multi-regional websites.

Content localization

The first step in localization of any content is to know who you are selling to. For that need to analyze which markets will bring in the greatest revenues but going global without proper research would lead to losing customers instead of bringing more. Conduct specific research before deciding to take a step ahead. Know your international buyer personas by carefully researching on the language they speak, their cultural background, traditions, and buying habits. Try asking these simple, yet useful questions when identifying your target market:

What is the target market’s growth rate?
Can local buyers afford to buy your products?
What are the buying habits and preferences of the target customers?
How much is the competition in the market?
What are the cultural and linguistic nuances to be kept in mind before localizing?

Contact information

Be sure that each of your localized sites has the correct contact information localized to that particular locale.

Legal considerations

Make sure that your legal considerations such as terms and conditions page and cookies agreement adhere to the requirements of that particular territory.

Product details

Ensure that details on your site’s products or event listings, such as sizes, measurements, dates or currency, all conform to the standard units or formats in your target country.

Images and videos

Images and videos also need to be altered and optimized, including subtitles on video content, or reworking text-based images into your target language. All in all, you should ensure that your images and videos themselves are culturally sensitive to your target audience.

Make your instructional imagery as easily-comprehensible as possible, and be sure to adapt any step-by-step graphics for any territories reading from right to left. You should also make sure that any gestures and scenarios in the photos on your site which may register as inoffensive to western audiences (such as drinking alcohol) are altered or replaced in order to avoid upsetting users in other cultures.

Keep local SEO(Search Engine Optimization) in mind

As with the text and layout of your pages, the overall structure of your site will need to be revised in order to adhere to localized customs in your target markets. Researching how your local competitors organize the navigation of their sites will give you a better idea of how companies in your sector structure their websites, particularly when it comes to organizing products and services.

Beyond this, developing a local SEO strategy to these new markets is also essential, making sure that any link building campaigns target locally-relevant websites. As well as translating your onsite content, revising elements in the back end of your website, such as your title tags and Meta descriptions, allows you to accommodate localized keywords, and set canonical tags on any pages which could be flagged up as duplicate content. Hosting these versions of sites at different local domains has also been recognized as a positive ranking factor, so investing in a “.co.ug, .bf or .za website alongside your primary global domain will help your site’s visibility. You should also keep your Google My Business profiles updated with all information for any local offices you might have in these other territories.

In conclusion

Website localization may seem terrifying, but it can easily be primed by your market research and the collective knowledge of the staff in the territories to which you are expanding. Depending on the number of countries for which you will need to localize, the process will likely become easier the more.

How to win the African market

Are you a manager or business person and you want to sell your services or products in Africa? Or are you planning on settling on the continent and creating a company? Thanks to the user-friendly online platforms like WordPress and social media, where small businesses and startups can tap the same powerful sales channels and marketing tactics used by big-budget players. In fact, brilliant entrepreneurs regularly outperform major brands by creating attention-grabbing content that attracts vast audiences worldwide.

The key to your success will be: selling well. The majority says, “It’s like everywhere!”, but the reality differs from that. In other markets, it’s just about recruiting the right people and doing some market analysis. Africa has other particularities you must consider as to win its market namely:-

Know your product and your target

Knowing who is most likely to buy your product is step one in winning the African market. The whole point of learning how to market a product effectively is to connect you with your audience and convert them into paying customers. To achieve this, you first need to identify and define who is looking for and most likely to buy your product. Having your ideal buyer in mind helps you develop an engaging product story that will make them want to buy and target your tactics to the channels they’re most likely to use.

Assuming you know your product well or you are already very familiar with the service you are going to offer. It is essential to identify your target accurately:

Region (Central Africa, West Africa, East Africa, etc.)
Country
Language
Cities (ports, capitals, etc)
Socio-professional categories

Checkout detailed information about these:-

Region

Identify which section of Africa you are more interested in for your particular product or services. Could it be in the West, East, the north, south or central of Africa?

About Africa
Africa is the world’s second largest and most-populous continent, being behind Asia in both categories. At about 30.3 million square km(11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth’s total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the world’s human population. Africa’s average population is the youngest among all the continents, the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos with Algeria as its largest country by area, and Nigeria as its largest by population. Africa contains 54 fully recognized sovereign majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. More about Africa. So, with this in mind, choose a region(s) that will best suit your product or service.

Country

After identifying the region, it’s also vital to be specific with the particular country/countries you’re targeting within that region. For-instance, in East Africa, it could be Uganda, Kenya or Tanzania, Rwanda or Burundi! Choose one or those that are most compatible with your products or services.

Language

I believe that it’s hard to find even a single country in the universe using a single language, right! Usually countries use various languages lets say French, Ganda, Swahili, just a few listed. If Tanzania (northern) is your focus country, it would be brilliant for you to localize your product content to Chaga language, and other dialects such as Kivunjo, Kimarangu, among others. Localizing your product content into your target country’s languages can work like magic.

Cities

Within the country that you yarn to win market, it’s important to identify which cities you hope to put more emphasis. For example in Uganda one can base on cities like Kampala, Jinja, Mbarara, among others depending on what you’re willing to offer and the environment. Now, one may wonder why these among the other cities? Personally I’ve never seen or heard of any business person aiming at being average, have you? We all aim at excelling beyond. The above cities have got the largest population with both business people and final consumer, in such a way that people travel from wherever to reach these cities for their desired products or services. So be critical about that as well.

Research the competition

Studying your competition can tell you a lot about the customers who buy similar products, where they shop, and how much they’re willing to spend. Many business marketing classes teach participants how to perform a SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities and threads) analysis. You have to start by taking a serious look at your competitors. Make a list of the businesses that offer products or services similar to the one you plan to launch. Even if you think your new product or service is entirely unique and without existing competition, it’s important to put yourself in your prospective customer’s shoes and imagine what they might buy in place of what you plan to offer. Once you decide who your competitors will be, take time to review their marketing materials, including their websites, brochures and ads. Gauge how your new product or service will stand up against what’s already being offered, in what ways you’ll excel, and which companies or their offerings pose the greatest threats to your success.

Define your marketing tactics, tools and channels

Once you know who your customer is and what your competition is up-to, you’re ready to choose your sales and marketing channels to reach buyers. Will you market online, via catalog or through dealers, for example? Generally, multi-channel marketers achieve the greatest success because customers who can shop when and however they like tend to spend more and shop more often. Suppose your strategy is to market a product to people who can’t afford high-priced home equipment. You might choose traditional direct marketing plus online sales as your primary channels, and employ tactics including direct marketing plus online sales as your primary channels, and employ tactics including direct response TV spots and online ads and email solicitations that link to your website.

Craft up a compelling story

A product story that solves a problem or elicits an emotional response is what resonates with shoppers, converts them to buyers, and makes your brand memorable. At this stage, you should have a clear understanding of what you must offer in order to stand apart from your competition and who will want to take advantage of your offer. However, do you know why customers will want to buy from you vs. the vast field of competitors out there? What benefits and features will you provide that your prospective customers will value most? All in all, make sure that your product or service “bundle” is unique and meets the needs and desires of your best prospects.

Localize your website/ content

Localization simply refers to the process of making something local in character or restricting it to a particular place. Many companies have realized a boost in global sales, have won a global brand presence, and have generated product acceptance as a direct result of their localization efforts.

As you wish to grow and look to expand to Africa, localizing your website or content is crucial to ensure successful market entry. While the World’s Internet usage has increased since the year 2000, most of the world market, in terms of internet usage, still has not been tapped leaving immense room for growth. You must look at localization as not only a strategic advantage, but as a necessity to capitalize on your growth opportunities in Africa.

Here are some of the changes that you need to make to your websites: rewriting text and translating text, modifying graphics and creating new graphics, changing colors and layout, and modifying tables, forms, databases and database fields.

Plan for long-term success

Successful product marketing is a pursuit with intermittent spirits, so planning includes a mix of long- and short-term sales channels and outreach tactics.

Test your concept and marketing approach

With all the money it takes to bring a new product or service to market, it’s risky to rush into the launch phase foregoing testing. What should you test? It’s best to examine your product or service bundle plus your marketing message and your marketing materials. Depending on what you plan to market and your budget, you can use formal focus groups or simply host round-table discussions with members of the target audience, employ online research or marketplace confront studies, or distribute your product to a select group of users for testing. Only after testing is complete, should you proceed to the final creation of your marketing tools and materials.

Unveil your campaign

Public relations often play a vital role in the launch of a product or service. You can use media relations to place articles and win interviews, get coverage by allowing key press to review your product, hold a launch event, or use popular marketing to build buzz. But no matter what publicity route you choose, first make sure your product or service is completely ready and available for purchase in order to maximize returns from the coverage you receive. And your other marketing efforts should follow closely and the heels of your press unveil. Monitor the results from all media, and in the first weeks and months, be prepared to adjust your campaign to take advantage of what’s working best.

Know your product’s life-cycle

The campaign you use during the introduction and education phase of your product or service launch will need to be updated as your product or service matures. If you’re monitoring your marketing results carefully, you’ll begin to see diminishing returns that will indicate when it’s time to revise the product or service itself, alter your media message, or even phase out this particular offering and lay the groundwork for the launch of your next great idea.

In conclusion

We’ve talked about the many product marketing tools and tactics at your disposal. However, to maximize these efforts, you really must start at your product marketing journey in Africa with a good understanding of your target buyer and competition. You can certainly consider “a know how to win market in Africa for a new product”, right; but above all, you must start with good fundamentals. Good-luck as you bundle to stow the African market.