What’s the role of language in global marketing management?

Globalization has transformed the way many companies advertise, promote their products, and reach consumers. Global marketing management was the tool that allowed them to connect with a community that transcended borders, languages, and cultures.

However, this mass approach, so successful at the beginning and still used by some big names in different industries (like McDonald’s and Apple), has given way to a somewhat different perspective. It also supports the  external expansion of the business, but it does so by putting the focus on the end customer, not the brand.

This requires local adaptation in each market. It’s international marketing, with its customized and specific message, which is not only translated into the language of the customer who receives it but is also aligned with their cultural values.

The importance of global marketing management for companies that aim to be recognized worldwide

Awareness and access to new marketing channels are just two of the benefits of global marketing management. Perhaps the most important is how that strategy opens up access to data.

Stepping outside your domestic market must be done carefully. Decision-making must be informed by objective knowledge, and these are the insights that such an initiative provides.

Advantages of global marketing management

Global marketing management is much more than sales support; it’s an advantage that allows conceptualizing the brand and making it known to the general public. It’s considered a first step that works extremely well for companies of any size, not just the biggest ones, at the beginning of their international expansion plans.

Investing in global marketing results in more visits to the business’s website and its e-commerce, in increased brand recognition, and it benefits its reputation.

Monitoring the results of global marketing campaigns allows you to know which markets respond most positively and then make decisions on the best local investment strategy.

This strategy will then become international since it will have to adapt to the market, its culture, and local consumer profiles. To do so, the marketing mix, based on an analysis of the market and its segments, competition, and possible partners, is adapted to support the objectives defined in the marketing plan for that target. All actions rolled out must be monitored and controlled to ensure they are a good fit, relevant and up-to-date.

Global marketing management strategies

Adaptation to the culture and habits of the consumer, alignment with compliance requirements in the target country and language availability are some of the basic strategies that any company aiming for global or international branding needs to consider.

These are tactics that guarantee good results, increase operational profitability and, most importantly, help present the brand as trustworthy to its audience.

Why is it useful to know the behavior and habits of your target audience by region?

In addition to understanding the usage and purchasing habits in each country, using language localization in communications is beneficial. It’s not the same to localize your message in Spanish for an audience in Argentina as it is for an audience in Colombia or Spain even though they all communicate in Spanish: there are turns of phrase, variations, and expressions specific to each place.

Design with translation in mind 

Keep global marketing management in mind from the very early stages of your expansion plan. If the objective is to be global, translation into different languages must be taken into account from the early stages of the design of marketing campaigns. Don’t you think that the logo design for a new product should convey the same message in all countries where the brand has a presence?

Marketing campaigns include various projects and communication channels, from lead nurturing campaigns to publishing audiovisual content on social media. It’s true that the goal is to maintain the consistency of the campaign message globally, but that has to be achieved by communicating and appealing to the local market with a message specifically targeted to them. 

When designing global marketing campaigns, finding out, for example, how images and colors are perceived in different markets can be useful. In each country they have a different meaning that may influence consumers’ perception of the product, even affecting the formation of commercial partnerships.

Why is language adaptation necessary?

Translation, localization, and interpreting in the service or product to be introduced in a global market are key. 

To achieve these objectives, your website’s content manager must make sure several languages can be included and that it is easily adaptable to the tech used by language service companies. They are the ones that make it possible to easily localize or update all new content.

Automation and strategy alignment

Automation or standardization is key to align strategies in each country. To do so effectively, we must start from a common core, such as the slogan.

The chosen theme will be behind each communication, aligning all brand-related actions globally. This notwithstanding the fact that, locally, in each country, promotion, price, and product are adapted to the local market.

Localizing your content is important, but transcribing it is even more so

Localization and transcreation services help to achieve that goal. Because to adapt it, it’s not enough to repeat the same phrase in another language. You need personalize more, go into detail, and contextualize.

This way of presenting the company’s value proposition adapted to the interests and needs of potential customers is what brings you closer to them. But to achieve this, it’s not enough to translate; you need to delve deeper into economic and social factors, trends, regulations, openness to innovation, the use of technology, and a plethora of other aspects.

Global marketing management: behind a brand with an international calling

Any company that aims to be a global enterprise has to take language needs into account from the very start of its marketing strategy and follow through all the way to the end. Language is the cornerstone of any company’s global marketing management strategies and knowing how to use it to adapt and contextualize the message in each market is that company’s competitive advantage.