Vio Localization
Bette Keesee
Localization is the process of adapting and customizing a product to meet the needs of a specific market, as identified by its language, culture, expectations, local standards and legal requirements. Localization can apply to any type of merchandise or service that targets multiple audiences with different cultural backgrounds. The term localization is often represented as l10n, where 10 is the number of letters between the word's opening L and closing N.
Localization and translation are sometimes confused or treated as one and the same. However, localization transcends simply translating text into the local language. When localizing a product, an organization must address a wide range of issues to ensure the product is properly prepared for its target market, even if it's accompanied by an internationally recognizable brand.
A localized product should appear to have been developed specifically for the local culture. It should account for the many subtleties that distinguish one culture from another. To this end, the localization process must consider several factors:
Besides all the factors already mentioned, organizations must consider iterations such as time zones, national holidays, gender roles, geographic references, and how names and branding will translate to the target language and culture.
Localization is frequently part of a larger globalization effort encompassing internationalization and translation. Globalization, internationalization, localization and translation, commonly referred to as GILT, together provide a structure for efficiently getting a product to a wider market.
While the figure shows only two products, a globalization effort can include many products. What's important is how the four GILT elements fit together and the specific role each plays in delivering a product:
Each process is often represented by a numeronym, a type of abbreviation that includes one or more numbers. The numeronym includes the first letter, last letter and the number of letters in between. For example, globalization is often represented as g11n, where 11 is the number of letters between the word's opening G and its closing N.
Localization is the process of adapting a piece of content's full meaning for a new region, including translation, associated imagery, and cultural elements that influence how your content will be perceived.
Localization is all about making your website feel like it was written with that audience in mind. Fully localized content resonates with users because it incorporates relevant cultural nuance to feel familiar instead of simply replacing English words with translated text.
For localization to be successful, however, you need to first perform the process of internationalization. This technical foundation step often gets lumped into translation and localization. Essentially, internationalization is the process by which developers prepare your codebase to support multiple languages and formats.
While translation is simply about converting written words from one language into another, localization takes it one step forward, looking at the culture of a region and the related nuance in language as it relates to that culture.
Localization is your brand's key to unlocking these new markets. By offering your brand experience in a language that feels familiar, users will be much more likely to engage with your content and ultimately make a purchase.
With the right mindset, strategy, and tools in place, brands can turn translation from a cost center into a revenue center. And that's exactly where Smartling fits in. Smartling helps brands customize localization workflows, so they work for teams around the world, in just a few steps:
Smartling offers a world-class translation software solution built for you however you plan to scale your business. Professionally translate and localize all of your content across devices and platforms without sending a single email, touching any button, or managing strings in spreadsheets.
Localization (l10n) is the process of adapting a product to meet the cultural, linguistic, legal, and other requirements of a target market. Established global brands know it well: No matter where people are in the world, they can use services like Airbnb or Uber in their own languages and enjoy a user experience (UX) that aligns perfectly with their preferences and expectations.
By addressing cultural nuances and language preferences from the start, you reduce the time it takes for potential customers to connect with your offering, ultimately helping your business gain traction more quickly.
When facing local competitors in a new target market, it can be challenging to compete against companies that are deeply ingrained in it. Local businesses often find it easier to establish trust with their audience compared to new players.
While your rivals may struggle to navigate the complexities of catering to local preferences, your commitment to localization positions you to capture a larger share of the market and solidify your presence in regions where others might falter.
Instead, making a product accessible to people across markets means adapting it to cultural differences, linguistic specificities, purchasing habits, legal requirements, local payment methods, and more.
The same goes for text direction: Right-to-left languages such as Arabic or Hebrew need to be taken into account when designing the UI. This means, first of all, that you should internationalize libraries, fonts, and tools that support them.
Last but not least, there are also legal requirements that can differ from one country to another and which you need to consider during localization. For example, different countries have different laws and regulations regarding terms and conditions, privacy policies, cookies, and so on.
Software localization involves adapting all UI elements, including in-app tooltips and call-to-action buttons, and other in-product copy to align with the preferences and needs of your target market. It also includes changing units of measure, date and time formats, and currencies to conform to local standards.
Game localization is the process by which a video game is adapted to the culture and language of players in a target market. It encompasses elements such as spoken dialogues and instructions, characters, game manuals, marketing assets, and many more. Game localization aims to make a video game seem as though it was made in the target language and culture.
Product localization involves customizing a product or service to meet the specific needs of a particular market. It includes adjusting features, pricing strategies, user interface elements, images, and other product elements to align with the cultural and linguistic preferences of the target audience. The goal is to create a UX that feels native and relevant to local customers.
A localization strategy is a plan that a company implements to adapt its products or services to the cultural differences, customer behaviors, and purchasing habits in different target markets.
Unlike a global standardization strategy, which aims to develop and apply uniform standards across multiple markets, the goal of a localization strategy is to frame the market positioning of a brand or product in a specific business geography.
A sound localization strategy will help you avoid this pitfall by ensuring that the selection of content for localization is based on concrete business goals and that the content localization process is managed effectively from start to finish. This will result in fully localized content that accurately reflects your brand identity and resonates with your target audience.
Developing a localization strategy may require an initial investment of time and resources, but it will save you money in the long run. This is because a well-thought-out plan will help you avoid common localization mistakes, such as handling multilingual content that may not bring an immediate return on investment, wasting time on manual processes, or avoiding bottlenecks that can slow down your growth.
This data can then be used to get localization buy-in from stakeholders, adjust your localization budget to reduce costs, and allocate resources more effectively. In other words, it will inform future decision-making and help you optimize your localization efforts for maximum impact.
A localization strategy will help you understand the impact of cultural differences on customer behavior and identify any potential pain points in the customer journey. This knowledge can then be used to inform your localization decisions, ensuring that your content is culturally relevant and engaging for your target audience.
Going back to the elements that make a solid localization strategy, this is also the stage where you will define your KPIs, assign roles and responsibilities, establish a budget, set timelines, and determine how you will review and update your strategy.
Regardless of how many steps you break your localization process into, it should ideally run in parallel with the product development process to enable uninterrupted delivery of multilingual content. In other words, linguists should be able to work with content as soon as developers make it available. This practice of integrating translation workflows into agile product development cycles is known as continuous localization.
A data-driven approach is essential for effective localization, and one of the reasons data is crucial is that it enables you to measure the effectiveness of your localization strategy. Deciding what data to track is a crucial consideration.
For the purposes of a continuous evaluation of strategy effectiveness, make sure you have relevant goals and both measurable and achievable objectives. This typically means breaking your relevant KPIs down into smaller, manageable metrics that can be hit on a quarterly or even monthly basis.
In addition to translating its platform, Airbnb also creates localized content to appeal to users in different markets. This includes things like blog posts about popular travel destinations, as well as user-generated content like reviews and descriptions of listings.
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