Globalisation. Internationalisation. Localisation. What’s the difference?

The terms globalisation, internationalisation and localisation all relate to the way the modern world is more interconnected than ever before – and how you can adapt your business to take advantage of it.

All three terms sound very similar. So much so that they’re often used – incorrectly – almost as synonyms of each other.

But they’re not. And understanding the important differences between globalisation, internationalisation and localisation will help you identify the best global target markets for your company, build a strong customer base, and start to sell effectively worldwide.

Here is everything you need to know to get started.

What is globalisation?

Globalisation technically refers to the way people, businesses, and countries around the world have started to interact and integrate more and more.

It’s a process that’s been a gradually increasing feature of human affairs for centuries. Yet it’s really come into its own since around the 1700s as the technologies required for faster transport and communication – faster sailing, then steam-powered ships, and the telegraph and telephone – began to be introduced.

The modern speed of the globalisation process has accelerated even further thanks to technologies like the internet, the jet engine, and the mobile phone.

The globalisation of the economy and why it matters

From a business and commercial standpoint, globalisation has been both a curse and blessing for many companies.

On the one hand, it means increased competition from international brands. On the other, it means that there are huge new global markets you can reach and sell to.

In the business world, the term globalisation is often used to refer to the way companies around the globe have:

1. Started to identify the best global markets for their products and services
2. How they intend to extend their assets to sell to these markets
3. How they plan to overcome any logistics challenges that may prevent them from doing so

Examples of companies that have succeeded in globalising their products or services include giants like McDonald’s and Netflix. These brands have globalised so successfully that they are accepted and used by customers in almost any country you care to name.

The processes they used to achieve this success are internationalisation and localisation.

What is internationalisation?

Internationalisation (sometimes written as i18n) is the process of designing your business assets – things like your products and services as well as your website, app, and documents – so that they are as easy as possible to adapt for the individual target markets you intend to reach out to later.

This process is often a very technical one. For example, developing your website so that it can be easily adapted for other markets isn’t easy. The considerations any properly internationalised multilingual website will need to be ready to handle include:

• The fact that text in another language may take up more or less space.
• Languages that use different character sets and even multi-byte characters.
• SEO for different regions may follow different rules due to preferred search engines as well as requiring multilingual keyword research.
• Images might need to be replaced with more suitable or appealing options.
• A completely different layout that corresponds to local cultural tastes might be called for.

Internationalisation of your assets and why it matters

If you want your products and services to even approach a kind of global, mass appeal, internationalisation is the process that will help you take a big step towards it.

A really clear, basic example of this being done with a single company asset in the real world is the Starbucks mermaid logo. All you need to do is compare the original with the one you’ll see outside their cafes and on their coffee cups today.

The original logo featured the words “Starbucks Coffee”. The modern one does not. This is a sensible step the company took to internationalise the logo ready for a more global, non-English speaking audience.

It is possible to successfully adapt your assets to different global audiences like this without internationalisation. But internationalisation is the way to make it as cost-effective as possible.

Either way, the process you will actually be using to adapt your assets is known as localisation.

What is localisation?

Localisation (sometimes written as l10n) is the process of adapting any asset to the linguistic and cultural expectations of a given target market.

Translation is a key part of the process, of course. Translating the original words on your website, marketing materials, slogan, instruction manual, and so on is important if you want someone who doesn’t speak English, or whatever your native language happens to be, to be able to read it.

But translation is only a small part of the localisation process. Localising any given asset actually incorporates a whole lot more than just making sure the written words can be understood.

It may involve adapting almost every aspect of your asset so that it seems natural to someone from your new target audience. This might include adapting:

• Images and imagery – adapting these to local norms and tastes. Perhaps using models who are more representative of local people, locations that are more representative of local sights, and eliminating concepts that are offensive or unusual to local people.
• Format and layout – not every culture is used to the same sort of format or layout for everything from important documents to websites. For instance, a Japanese audience is likely to appreciate an interface that would look overcrowded and busy to most “western” eyes.
• Idioms, slang, and humour – directly translating things like colloquial language, aphorisms or humour rarely works. That’s why the translation process localisation calls for often requires some creative thinking on the part of your translators. Some projects may be suited to transcreation, a full creative re-imagining.
• Units of measurement – such as currency, date and time, sizing for clothes, phone numbers, addresses, and more should all be adapted to local norms.
• The payment process – for something like an e-commerce website, this is one of the key things to localise, ensuring your audience feels safe and trusts the methods and manner of payment.

Localisation of your assets and why it matters

Your goal with your localisation efforts should always be to make any given asset appear completely natural to someone speaking your target language and raised in your target culture.

Ideally, you want a member of your target audience to feel that this asset was created just for them and people like them. Because recent history is littered with tales of brands who tried to reach out to new markets and failed (to the tune of millions of pounds of wasted investment).

This failure was almost always due to some combination of a lack of proper engagement with the localisation process, a lack of proper research, and a low level of true commitment to the region.

These are things that rapidly become obvious to audiences exposed to poorly localised products and assets like advertising. This is especially true when local people in a given region are accustomed to international brands trying to waltz in with minimal effort being made to take local interests and preferences seriously.

Most localisation errors brands make tend to come in one of several flavours:

1) Translation errors

The classic example of this is KFC asking their new Chinese customers to “eat your fingers off”. You can see how they got there from “Finger-lickin’ good”. But it was still an – at best – humorous and, as it turned out, immensely costly mistake.

Localising things like brand or product names and slogans often requires transcreation delivered by skilled creative copywriters who also happen to be highly qualified linguists.

2) Linguistic misjudgements

Some companies completely fail to do their research before entering a new market. This can lead to translations that have unexpected implications – or a failure to localise where localisation was very much needed.

A well-trodden example of this is men’s razor brand Tiz. This company assumed that people in their new target market in Qatar spoke Farsi. That isn’t the case. The official language of Qatar is Arabic.

As if this wasn’t enough, the word “Tiz” means “buttocks” in Arabic. Needless to say, this didn’t go down well with their new local audience.

3) Cultural misunderstanding

Lack of understanding of local cultures can also lead to misjudgements about product or asset suitability in general.

One example of this is Pampers when they tried to break into the Japanese market. The company used its usual stork image to try to sell its nappies there. Unfortunately, the traditional folk tale that links this bird with newborns is completely unknown in Japanese culture and massively confused their new local audience.

You might also consider the US toothpaste brand Pepsodent. They attempted to market their dental products to parts of South-East Asia where dyeing one’s teeth dark with lacquer is a common practice. Most of this audience had little interest in “whitening” their teeth.

You always need to know a great deal about the specific audience you want to reach out to. It’s not merely a case of language either. For instance, British English and American English are very similar to each other. But the cultural underpinnings are quite different.

How globalisation, internationalisation and localisation work together

Combined, the processes of globalisation, internationalisation and localisation are powerful tools to increase your business’s revenue. Although this is a lot of information, there’s an easy way to picture how the three interact. Imagine a pyramid:

• On the bottom level is globalisation. This is both the general concept of how the world is getting smaller because of advancing technology as well as the processes to follow to successfully adapt and expand your business to take advantage of this.
• Resting on the level above is internationalisation. This process involves designing products, services, and other assets that are ready to be adapted to these different global markets.
• At the top is localisation. This is the actual process of adapting your assets for individual international markets.

What is GILT – and why does it matter for your business?

The acronym that’s sometimes used to cover the way that these processes interact is GILT (Globalisation, Internationalisation, Localisation, Translation).

You only need to look at examples of what companies that have adopted these principles and processes – brands like McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Netflix – have been able to achieve to see why this is worthwhile.

Understanding and making use of these processes allows your business to:

1) Identify and enter profitable new markets

Use these three processes in combination to choose good markets for your products and services and sell to your new local audiences effectively.

Even if you don’t immediately plan to go global, internationalising your assets like your e-commerce app earlier on can mean big savings and smoother localisation later on down the road.

2) Grow positive brand awareness

Many regions around the world face constant attention from international organisations that come in and expect to roll over the local competition with minimal effort or commitment.

Set yourself apart from these brands by properly adapting your offering and the way you communicate it to different regional audiences. In return, you’ll gain a loyal following that you can count on to be ambassadors for your brand as well as use your products and services.

3) Give your revenue a big boost

The GILT combination empowers your business to massively expand its revenue. Firstly, by being a natural fit for local norms, expectations, and demand.

Secondly, by making it easy and natural for your local audience to use your website, app and more to buy from you and otherwise interact with your business.

It’s a virtuous circle that will further grow positive awareness of your brand around the world and attract still more clients.

Start leveraging globalisation, internationalisation and localisation

It’s rarely too early to start planning for the future global expansion of your business. By understanding a little bit more about GILT and how those processes interact with one another, you’re ready to start leveraging for the betterment of your company.

Globalisation, internationalisation and localisation might have differences between them. But by building one on top of the other you can reach new international audiences and communicate with them in a way that maximises your Return On Investment in a process that’s one of the most effective ways for all kinds of businesses to increase their revenue.

01/09/2022