After attending a conference in London last week, I was lucky enough to meet a "Localisation Outsourcer Consultant" A type of consultant I hadn't heard of before, therefore I was eager to learn more, with my notebook at the ready I began to "network"..With companies competing on international markets now realising that if they are going to maximise the value from their company websites, they need the capability to localise the content to suit the language and cultural sensitivities of the markets they are targeting. Therefore this allows the opportunity for "localisation outsourcers consultants" to offer to help companies do this. Usually they combine a mixture/combination of humans translators and machine translation technologies to translate and edit text in a culturally sensitive way.
But that's not all, Specialists claim that they can help clients protect the company brand by providing control over web based marketing strategies on a global basis. This is simply done by following a basic concept consisting of the following: Centralise the message, translate it, and colloquialise it.
Of course these specialists will also examine design concerns, such as looking at the cultural implications of color in advertisements. For those thinking now, hold on a second what does it matter what colours do I use around the world.....Well did you know that in some parts of Asia white is the color of death..........hence why Ronald MacDonald doesn't exist in Asia!
Another useful element these consultants can offer is to ensure you follow all legal and regulations set in different countries. I was shocked to find out following facts:
In France - Consumers can enjoy a one week grace period after they receive an online purchase.
In Germany - Comparative advertising is banned on the web.
In China - Company's may become unnerved when they find out that encrypted websites are regulated by the Chinese government.
