Localization improves interactions with customers: 5 examples

Localization improves interactions with customers: 5 examples

Better interactions through localization

Think back to the first time you met someone your age who grew up in another country.

Did you get the impression that a superficial conversation was relatively easy, while deeper communication was difficult? Did it get confusing when you told stories related to local conditions, your culture or your family life? Perhaps your friend was used to a different school system and didn't know what you meant by “third grade”. Or maybe she told you what her favorite thing to eat and you didn't know the dish or its ingredients.

They spoke the same language - and in a way they didn't.

It is a mistake to believe that just because they speak your language, your target audience will automatically understand the meaning of your messages. This is an important point when communicating with people from other cultures. But this is particularly important for brands that appeal to customers around the world.

How can a brand ensure that its message gets across to every customer correctly in every language? In order to build a relationship and encourage interactions on a deeper level, brand content needs to be localized.

Localization is the key to effective communication between different languages ​​and cultures. Localization allows brands to change the wording of the content and much more. This makes it possible, for example, to take into account the linguistic and conceptual subtleties that make up a culture. Localization allows the language, style, design, graphics and even units of measurement for brands to be adapted to the culture of the target group.

The advantages? The brand's content becomes more engaging for every customer, regardless of where they are. In the following, you will learn about five positive effects of effective localization on interactions with customers worldwide.

Localization gives the messages a more personal touch

Every message from a company (including this one!) Is carefully crafted by an author to convey a specific idea. The author uses language and culture-specific elements to express an idea and create and promote a brand voice.

A clear brand voice helps potential customers understand your corporate identity. The brand voice expresses the personality of your brand, regardless of the content type and media platform.

If you just translate the words and phrases, you won't be able to express your brand voice in different languages. However, localization also makes your message relevant to local customers in different markets around the world. By localizing content, you can get in touch with each and every customer on a more personal level - even those who don't speak your brand's original language.

We know that buyers worldwide now expect the brands they support to be personalized. Build customer relationships by personalizing your message through localization for every customer in every market.

Localized marketing offers what customers want

Different cultures have different preferences and a company's marketing material must take these differences into account. A retailer marketing products for young women in the US is likely used to pointing out the latest trends and emphasizing the low prices to encourage female customers to keep up with the latest trends. In the French market, however, the company may need to focus more on timeless aesthetics and high quality items that match the customer's personal style.

The global marketers also need to know the differences in worldview. One should not believe that a hamburger chain can succeed in India, where cows are sacred to many people. McDonald’s succeeded in doing this. The company did without beef and pork in its Indian branches and replaced the “Big Mac” with the “Maharajah Mac”.

McDonald’s also thought about what Indian visitors expect from the restaurants in order to target these customers. So the “Aloo Tikki Burger” was introduced, which is astonishingly similar to traditional Indian street food.

These extensive and elaborate measures paid off: the range of dishes and the advertising campaign of the restaurant chain were optimally geared towards the local culture. This got Indian consumers to embrace the brand and ensured the company's success.

Customers respond better to localized advertisements

In a study by Common Sense Advisory, more than 72 percent of consumers said they prefer to shop on websites that are available in their native language. 55 percent only buy from such websites.

That is understandable. Why should someone buy a product they don't really understand the description of? Localization solves this problem.

Localization in terms of dialects is just as important as it is with languages. For example, a British bank entering the US market would have to use the term “ATMs” - the American name for ATMs - instead of “Cash Points”.

When you localize your content, you're sending a clear message to your customers: It's important to you to communicate with them. Content sounds much more familiar and catchy when it is written in the target group's native language. If you take into account the preferences and habits of the target group, you demonstrate a certain sensitivity and respect and thus encourage interactions.

Localization can avoid cultural faux pas

What is completely normal in one culture can seem very tactless in another.

For example, baby care product advertisements often feature images of infant feet. For Western target groups, these images are completely innocent. In contrast, in many Islamic countries it is extremely impolite to take photos of the soles of your feet. Buyers in these countries may not respond well to advertisements originally designed for Western audiences.

Translated text can also cause problems. There are numerous stories of companies that have literally translated their slogans and ended up doing very badly.

Mistakes like these, however innocuous they may appear, can be extremely offensive to local people and damage corporate reputations. Even if they happen unintentionally, they send the message that the brand doesn't know their consumers. Expert localization can help marketing professionals around the world to get the message across. In this way they avoid negative headlines and resentment in the local markets they want to reach.

Localization makes content relevant and compelling

When experimenting with targeted posts on social media, the Nieman Journalism Lab found that regionally-oriented content performed six times better than posts with a global focus. According to Lathan Fritz, founder of Amerisales, geotargeting is effective because "it creates a more intense connection with prospects than general advertising".

When a company localizes its customer messages instead of just translating them, its target groups feel more personally addressed and included. At Wordpar International, we make sure your content gets through to customers. In doing so, we include all levels, from the type of images presented to the choice of words by our experts for the translation. We help you to reach customers worldwide - and to retain them in the long term.

Are you ready to localize your content and get better interactions with customers in new markets? Contact us today so we can get started.