"He who whispers down a well
About the goods he has to sell
Will not make as many dollars
As he who stands up straight and hollers"

Geoffrey Kingscott of Praetorius shared this poem by Ogden Nash with me, and I think it is a rather apt way to describe some of the marketing issues facing all sectors of the localization and translation industries.

While the localization industry seems to have come out of 1998 with an increase in sales, there are some disturbing clouds on the horizon:

• One representative from a major telecommunications firm told me that the management in his marketing department regard translation as a nuisance, while another hi-tech establishment abruptly canceled major translation projects leaving a vendor in the lurch with the deadline approaching.
• Another representative from a major automobile manufacturer told an outsider that they wanted to get their translation costs down to one US cent per word. Not exactly an environment where you can market value added.

In other words, for localization managers within companies wanting to increase their budgets, for publishers wanting to sell their products and for localization bureaus wanting to sell their services, the war is not over.

Although many of us dutifully attend LISA (as well as other professional) meetings dealing with languages and localization to express our opinions on a wide variety of issues, mostly technical, this is really "well whispering" to the outside world. Others would label what we say to each other as "preaching to the choir." As budgets for localization and translation get larger, the decision to actually do the work gets pushed up the "corporate decision-making ladder," where many key executives may not have heard of any of our jargon before.

I once worked for the best marketer in the language field (fired from his job after the conglomerate that bought his firm was bought by another conglomerate). He had a knack of relating language and localization work to the global issues that a company faces. His uncanny knack helped the careers of many localization and translation managers because he was able to attract senior management to meetings that they had previously shunned. He was also able to convert mind-numbing meetings that dealt with corporate glossaries into ones on globalization. He organized translation "summits" where anyone connected with global sales would be invited and come. As an industry we need to do what this man did individually.

His antithesis was an internal localization manger at a Boston-based software publisher who allowed herself the title of "Manager of Human Factor Localization". How many budget decision-makers would interrupt their day to say "I have to go to a meeting led by my Manager of Human Factor Localization?" Internal marketing for budgets is crucial, and the way in which managers market themselves internally makes a difference to their success. I have seen a title of Globalization Manager assigned to someone who handles translation and localization for a multinational company. My rule of thumb is: if you can't give yourself an intelligible title, don't give yourself a title at all.

More marketing is necessary but, what can be done, and more importantly what is do-able?

Sponsor a multi-client research project where decisions are made regarding the purchase of localization and translation services.

This could be a project sponsored by LISA members, who would benefit from the research. We all feel that people with titles like Chief Information Officer are now becoming increasingly involved in translation and localization decisions, but is this really true? Multinationals make decisions by consensus, and even though you might have eight people agree to a course of action, the one who doesn't can bring things to a halt.

At the same time, the research should indicate where the people who make such decisions get their information from about our industry. Is it from their own staff, specific magazines that they have read, or another type of media? LISA members have some of the most elaborate Web sites I have seen, but do the people who sign our checks see them?

I know that several companies in this business have sponsored informal surveys, but good management decisions are made on the basis of good information. This type of project could reveal information that could benefit everybody, including vendors, publishers and companies that buy services from the aforementioned people.

Managers within companies that purchase localization and translation services are always under pressure to justify their budgets. Often, the sole criteria seems to be; what are our competitors doing? Any research project that is undertaken can be used to develop some insight on this question.

A key question to ask decision-makers would be whether they consider translation and localization essential, useful, or discretionary. Is the decision made in headquarters during product planning or out in the field under the responsibility of sales? If the answer in all cases is not essential to these decision-makers, then how do we change perceptions as to what they should be?

Based on the results of the research, devise a campaign to change decision-makers' perceptions.

The most popular marketing campaign in the United States is the one sponsored by dairy producers whereby celebrities are seen with "milk mustaches." The object of the campaign is to show that drinking milk is the thing to do. This is the old sales principle that share of mind is share of market. If you are still thinking that this is irrelevant to a high-tech group like ourselves, a major travel group recently added a third vendor to its bidding process for a contract worth almost $2 million dollars. Why? Because one of their managers read about them in an in-flight magazine. There is a lot of work involved, including localizing interactive video kiosks into 17 languages. Naturally, they will have to compete on price and competence to win the contract, but old-fashioned marketing got them "invited to the party."

The professional sessions that we hold are all concerned with the arcane world of utilizing this or that technology. Little attention is given to making the media and corporate decision-makers aware of the risk of no or poor translations. Arthur Andersen and The Perot Group had their PR efforts in full force selling logic (fear) on the YK2 problem, which has resulted in the awarding of millions of dollars of contracts (replete with rush charges) to similar firms.

Share information on what works in dealing with the trade and popular media.

The key to success in running a good political or marketing campaign is to always keep to the same message with a certain audience in an appropriate form. The media is more than willing to carry any message as it becomes more controlled by bottom-line publishing houses that give little direction or incentive to its editors to go out and get stories. Therefore, if you have the proper approach, your message will come across. And the most important one is not whether this or that company can do the job, but rather that the job needs to be done.

In an upcoming article we produced on translation for a leading US management magazine and a leading publication for the auto industry, the editors informed me that they wanted a lot of quotes from several different companies. And even though one company sponsored the articles, quite a few people in the industry will benefit.

Localization project managers within companies that buy services sometimes get the impression that only service companies should be concerned about marketing.

Everyone has to be proactive and this is a call for greater cooperation in this area.

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John Freivalds
JFA
5160 Colonial Drive
Minneapolis, MN 55416
USA
Tel: +1-612-525-0731
Fax: +1-612-525-0659
E-mail: JFA@worldnet.att.netn