Localization v Personalization
Photo by Stillness InMotion on Unsplash
This is the second installment in my series “Globalization Motivation,” where my goal is to oversimplify in order to evangelize localization, globalization, and above all collaboration.
In my mind, gaming was the ultimate form of localization. This entire industry is focused on personalization. Further to that point, if you create anything in a malleable and flexible format, you have the ability to expand and grow. I would like to refine common terminology and map out my views on localization versus personalization and why I believe they are connected with various players. I’m going to be unpacking a lot here and your heads may spin, but my goal is to tie together the big picture. If you visualize all available outcomes early in your process, you’re ready for anything and everything.
If you look at gameplay, the ability to experience your game in your native language, with your special avatar, and execute your personal strategy to win the game, is all thought through early in the process. Kate Edwards recently appeared on Multilingual’s Locfact Episode 7. Kate goes into great detail, as a gamer herself, about the painstaking details required in game localization from the development stage. Give it a view and you will be surprised just how many things can be altered for customers in various locales. If you closely follow the gaming industry you can prepare for the personalization trends within each step of the buyer’s journey for virtually any industry.
In recent years, we have seen more demand for the localization of marketing. Marketing deliverables are complex in nature. There is often copy that is untranslatable and imagery that needs altering. It is common to think that content versioning is limited to your marketing campaign and that is a myth.
Let’s take a look at a standard webpage for example and determine what could possibly be altered depending on the depth of the localization. I’m using a webpage from a local meal service I use. Let’s say they decide to go global. At first glance, there is just text and photos. There are two call to action buttons where we want customers to sign up, there is a date, photos of healthy food options for Americans, and even a tagline that includes a phrase “insanely delicious.” Even a simple page like this could be versioned. Also, once you are a customer, there is the ability to choose what food you would like to order for the week. Food availability would be different per locale and the experience would be different. There are also privacy laws to consider. At first glance, we have language that requires transcreation, photography and perhaps legal language to consider. The complexity of the language includes the appearance of the language as well. For example, German may not fit on the buttons.
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Every customer and user are unique. However, tailoring your product and awareness surrounding your product to each and every person on the planet, who may or may not become an actual customer, is bad business. That’s where strategy comes in. If your content strategy has accounted for localization, you actually limit the versions of your product or service and therefore are protecting your budget. This is exactly where you figure out just how malleable and flexible your product and supporting content are.
Marketing was only the beginning of personalization and we can learn a lot from it, but it’s not the only place where extensive versioning exists. It may have been the first thing that broke. Perhaps, customers complained when they were insulted by a campaign or did not receive what they thought they originally purchased. Versioning is not limited to marketing. Every aspect of the product or service has the ability to be personalized and therefore localized. However, marketing is the first stage of customer awareness and the customer drives everything. If we have no customers, we don’t have a business.
Personalization refers to a unique experience and localization is a component of this. Depending on how your company is structured, the ultimate decision on how many versions of a product exist will vary. If localization is actually a segment of personalization, then what else is involved and what exactly is the localization team responsible for?
Again, let’s look to the gaming industry to see where they have run into issues. First, you have a unique language. At the beginning of LocFact Episode 7, before speaking to Kate Edwards, the hosts discuss creating a unique language for your game. They discuss Simmlish, which was created for The Simms. The variables seem endless in the gaming world. You can have a unique language created for the game, a unique world, and even a persona.
In marketing, Lead Generation is very popular. The term identifies and measures the various touchpoints for possible customers with the ultimate goal of creating customers. There is a journey and these touchpoints vary by campaign and even geography. The benefit to lead generation is that it promotes collaboration within an organization. With this methodology, it connects every team to the customer. Sales, marketing, advertising, product, c-suite are all connected and support one another.
These touchpoints can be the website, social media, and direct marketing campaigns. You may wish to localize your campaign and you may choose to have completely different touchpoints for global consumers. For example, in China, most global social media outlets are restricted and you will need to use social media outlets that are based out of China. Lead generation tools allow you to manage all of your metrics in one place and there is much room for personalization with each campaign.
Algorithms are also an integral part of personalization. They are explained very well in Netflix’s documentary “The Social Dilemma.” An algorithm is basically artificial intelligence that is designed to automatically anticipate what a user’s interests are. This special code is not limited to social media, which is integral to the overall buyer journey. Many technology companies use algorithms to automatically personalize the experience. In this particular documentary, there are engineers that feel that this exploits the user and should be regulated. The reality is that these are programs designed for personalization and there can be negative outcomes if not well thought through. However, streaming services like Netflix, Spotify, Apple Music, and many others have tailored their algorithms to suggest content to the viewer based on content they are currently consuming. “If you like this, you’ll LOVE this!” The overall goal is to use AI to keep the user happy.
The ideal personalization strategy would be to enable or create versions of a product and supporting content for the purpose of satisfying the customer and user. This would include the localization team to advise on language and cultural requirements. Personalization can include versions that target groups of people or the experience could be programmed to be completely unique to each and every user. The possibilities are endless and overwhelming, but your localization team can be there to anticipate what lies ahead.
Below is a glossary for the terminology that I reference above:
Personalization - Refining customer/user experience. No two experiences are the same.
Localization - The versioning of product or content per groups of people (community). This can include but not be limited to language, imagery, and/or media.
Algorithms - Code created with the express goal of anticipating content the user will consume based on behavior.
Lead generation – The tools used to measure and reach various touchpoints of a buyer journey.
Buyer journey - The stages that lead experiences with a product or service that leads them to becoming a customer.
Globalization content strategy – Mapping out early in the process the various versions of a product, service, and marketing that will be required.
Marketing deliverables – Verticals tied to a marketing campaign. This may include website, social media, direct marketing, and printed materials.
Call to action button – The ability to click through in order to complete an action, such as progressing through the steps of the buyer journey and/or making a purchase.