Unlocking global potential: The six layers of localisation

Expanding your business into international markets takes time and investment to ensure that you are effectively reaching new customers by localising your product or service to their language, culture and habits. As with all important decisions about your business, globalisation comes with some risk attached, so it is best to have a detailed plan and strategy in place.

But when it comes to the task of localisation, it can feel quite daunting. Where should you start? Below, we outline for you the layers of localisation that you must understand and consider before creating a plan for your company’s expansion.

Adapt sales and marketing materials to your new audience

Whether you use TV advertisements, social media posts, or brochures, sales and marketing strategies are key to your business, as they are often the first point of contact with a potential customer. Localising these aspects of your business can be useful because:

Customers can clearly understand and identify what your product or service can offer them, making them more likely to purchase it.
You can build a personal connection with customers, who might feel that your brand sees them as more than a number by investing in an inclusive and accessible marketing strategy.
By relating better to customers, you can build more brand awareness and long-term brand loyalty abroad, making localisation an investment in your company’s future too.

Think of...Airbnb

Each time a user opens the Airbnb app and searches for a location to travel to, they not only see possible accommodation in that area, but also additional materials, like city guides, tips, and deals on local activities and tours. This content differs depending on the location a user wants to travel to, making the user feel like the app experience is tailored to their needs. It also changes based on the user’s own location when searching; for example, as many people from Asian countries prefer group travel, Airbnb adjusts its offerings and deals based on this in-depth understanding of its audience. Ensuring that these materials are localised means a better experience for the user, making them more likely to purchase through the app and return to it in the future.

Ensure compliance with local laws and regulations

When adapting a product and translating documentation, compliance with the regulations of your new target market is crucial, especially in industries like finance, medicine and tech, where regulations can differ significantly between countries and markets. Since getting this wrong can be very risky to the business, a deep understanding of how local laws can impact your product is an important starting point. From there, translation of documents, as well as adjustments to your product, will likely be necessary.

Think of...Pharmaceutical companies

In the pharmaceutical industry, accurate translations are not only important for legal reasons, but mistakes can put people’s lives at risk. Exporting medical products abroad means researching the new market’s regulations and laws to not only make sure you comply with them but also so that people can use your product safely.

For example, any new medicine must be approved by agencies in the relevant countries, such as the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration, which have different regulations and requirements. This can impact the translation of clinical labels, clinical trial documents, and other supporting documentation for the new medicine. Without such adaptations, selling the medicine in overseas markets might not be possible or may even be unsafe if the documentation is not in line with local regulations.

Tailor your pricing strategy based on local market research

It’s no secret that price often dictates why we want to purchase a product or service, sometimes even more than the usefulness of the product itself. But every region of the world has a slightly different understanding of affordability based on their cost of living and will therefore be willing to pay more or less for your product. So, if you want to engage new customers, your company’s pricing must reflect this.

To gain knowledge specific to your product, industry and target market, you must conduct diligent local market research and then adjust your price and profit expectations. Some questions to ask yourself while doing this research include:

Think of...Spotify

Music streaming has become the most popular way to consume music nowadays, and Spotify is one of the primary providers of music streaming services. Having expanded to so many new markets over the last decade, Spotify has had to make many adjustments to its product, including changing its subscription cost based on user preferences.

For example, a subscription to Spotify Premium is generally more expensive in Europe and North America than in Asia, Africa and South America. It is most expensive in Denmark and least expensive in India. Making this adjustment in terms of price makes Spotify’s product more accessible because local consumers are more likely to afford it when the price is based on their circumstances.

Adopt multiple payment methods to include local users

Adaptation is also necessary when it comes to payment systems, as these vary greatly by country and region. Localising this aspect means that there is no barrier when it comes to payment, as users will not want to use a method that they are unfamiliar with. A key part of preparation for expansion into new markets is understanding how local users pay for their products. Examples of payment methods include:

Think of...ASOS

ASOS is a great example of how to find success in e-commerce, as the brand has grown significantly over recent years without a single physical store location. Despite being based in Britain, much of its business comes from international customers, meaning it needs to offer personalised user experiences for people who speak many different languages and come from different backgrounds.

By offering 10 different payment methods for customers, including Klarna, Clearpay and Paypal, ASOS ensures that it remains inclusive to potential customers across the world. Plus, it ends up selling more of its products, which is certainly an important added benefit.

Match your product to user expectations

When users engage with the product itself, its features must be in line with local expectations, including the language, functionalities and even units, images or advertisements. This is true regardless of the industry; whether it is an app for mobile phones, a medical device, or even a mode of transportation, consumers in different regions may expect different things, and to be successful your product must account for these different expectations.

Some products, of course, may be more universal in their structure and use, and therefore warrant less localisation than others. This is also why an understanding of localisation is key during the development stage of a new product, as certain decisions are made that can make a product easier or harder to localise.

Think of...Uber

Some companies even take it as far as changing their product entirely to meet the needs of people in a new market. For example, Uber not only offers cars as taxis, but in certain countries, it also offers motorbikes, boats, or even rickshaws. The company saw an opportunity to reach more customers by expanding its service offering, and it certainly took that chance and ran with it.

Other smaller UI and UX adaptations are also essential, like when Uber changed the colour of their cars in the app to red in China, which symbolises luck. This helped the company stand out from competitors, as it had done its due diligence to understand the local culture and people.

Provide multilingual customer support for new audiences

When using a product, customers often need help, whether they have a simple question or a more complicated issue. However, when you are choosing to expand into other countries, you must remember that not everyone is comfortable speaking in their non-native language. This is especially true if they are already confused or frustrated by the issue they want to resolve.

So, to ensure a positive experience for each customer regardless of their location, it’s essential to provide support to customers in their language or through a platform that they’re familiar with, whether it’s WhatsApp, WeChat or Facebook Messenger. Not only will you be able to help resolve issues more effectively and efficiently, but your customers will also appreciate a more personalised approach to customer support.

Think of...Slack

Slack, a workplace and community messaging platform originally developed in North America only 10 years ago, has been steadily expanding abroad. Part of their expansion strategy has included localisation, both of their website, app and customer support “Help Center,” into 12 languages. The platform still does not support right-to-left languages but is planning to expand to include them in the near future.

Why has this been important for their expansion? Personalising the customer support process means that more people are likely to feel satisfied with the product, as it is not as difficult or challenging to resolve issues when they can communicate in a language that is familiar to them.

Knowledge of your target audience is key

As you can see from the examples above, these companies have all done well because they have put in the time and effort to develop a detailed localisation strategy based on in-depth research and a proper understanding of their target audience.

The process of localisation itself is complex and requires knowledge in several additional areas, such as cultural sensitivity, user expectations and market knowledge, and scalability and flexibility. As a result, localisation must be a team effort, including input from UX designers, developers, as well as linguists.

Expert linguists are particularly vital in this process because they can leverage their knowledge of culture, language and local markets to provide high-quality and impactful translations. Our team here at Sandberg is full of talented language specialists who can help bridge the gap between you and your new target audiences.