This is a guest post from Mark Rodgers, CEO at Cipherion. Like many of us in Enterprise Ireland, Mark is totally passionate about regaining Ireland’s once enviable position as a nation of multilingual businesspeople:
At a reception in the Japanese Embassy in Dublin last week, there was an interesting discussion about one topic that’s hot with Japanese CEOs, i.e. the need for Japanese exporters to adopt a “China plus One” export strategy.
The current concern among Japanese CEOs is that should something happen to the Chinese economy then Japanese exporters could be left with little alternatives within Asia. Currently exports from Japan to China are doing well. However, a more balanced approach to exporting can mitigate against market risk. Japanese organisations are now focused on targeting multiple Asian markets: i.e. adopting a “China plus One” strategy meaning, for instance, “China plus Vietnam” or “China plus Malaysia”.
At Cipherion we believe that this concept could be used to Ireland’s benefit, albeit slightly modified, to encourage Irish CEOs and exporters to be more adventurous and more ambitious in their business development efforts.
By adopting an “English plus One” export strategy, Irish organisations would focus on, for example, exporting in “English plus French” or “English plus German”. So as well as targeting our traditional English-speaking UK or US markets, Irish exporters should be encouraged to take the leap and target another non-English speaking market – for example, the large French, German, Spanish or Italian markets where there are over 250 million consumers.
What’s the real challenge for Irish exporters? (more…)
Content, localisation, Marketing
A smart investment in localisation could be the killer move for Irish companies targeting European online customers whose spending will remain buoyant in 2012 according to Cipherion and the Irish Internet Association:
Multilingual website translation and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are forecast to be in strong demand by Irish organisations operating overseas, according to research released November 24th, 2011 by leading global communications provider, Cipherion Translations, based in Dublin. The research, conducted amongst Cipherion’s client base in tourism, hospitality, life sciences, exporting, technology and multinational sectors, reveals that 58 per cent of companies will require website translation services in the next year and 35 per cent will be rolling out international Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) campaigns.
The research also indicates that French, German, Spanish and Italian will remain the focus for exporters and multinationals, with over 70% of respondents indicating a future requirement for these languages.
According to the UK’s Centre for Retail Research over 85% of European online retailing spend of €202.9 billion will be made by non-English speaking consumers in 2011. Commenting on these figures, Mark Rodgers founder and CEO of Cipherion said: (more…)
Internationalisation, localisation, Search Engine Marketing
This is a guest post from Steve Gotz of the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL).
I am excited to announce that the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) will offer a ‘sneak peak’ at the localisation and global content intelligence technologies of the future, when we present our annual Innovation Showcase on 16th November 2011 at Croke Park Convention Centre, Dublin. The showcase will highlight the economic and societal impact of work at the SFI-funded centre, while also presenting a selection of exciting technologies that are ripe for commercialisation via a variety of channels.
Why should you attend?
Technologies such as machine translation, text analytics, speech processing, digital content slicing and adaptive hypermedia are radically changing the way businesses operate on a global scale. Attendees at the Innovation Showcase will have the opportunity to not only view fundamental scientific advances that will be impacting their businesses in the not-to-distant future but also a chance to discuss real-world challenges and opportunities with some of the leading academic minds in the fields.
Our showcases have become particularly fertile grounds for companies looking to solve specific problems or find new product offerings. I look forward to a productive day working with the indigenous community of Multinationals and SMEs to ensure that Ireland remains at the forefront of content management and localisation innovation.
CNGL’s Innovation Showcase is being presented as part of the Innovation Dublin Festival 2011. The event open to the public and free to attend; however spaces are limited. For full details and to register, see www.cngl.ie/showcase
CNGL, Collaboration Tools, Content, DCU, I18N, Innovation Dublin, localisation, SFI, Tools, Trinity, UCD, UL
SMEs have a slight upper hand over larger companies when it comes to location-based marketing – for the time being at least. That’s according to Des Martin, founder of Irish firm Local Search Marketing.
“Interestingly, a lot of national chain stores that have a local presence in towns all over Ireland have not adopted a ‘local search’ strategy. This often gives SMEs an edge in this space,” he says.
(more…)
eBusinesslive, eMarketing, localisation, strategy
This is a guest post from Caelen King, founder and CEO of WhatClinic.com, a seach engine for health clinics worldwide that has recently expanded into the UK Dentist & UK Plastic Surgery markets. Caelen recently completed Enterprise Ireland’s iGAP 2 Programme.
Recently I was listening to Dermot, one of our salespeople, while he was on the phone. He was slowly but clearly spelling out our key advantages, but it was obvious from his careful enunciation that he was talking to someone whose English was very poor. What I didn’t know was that he was talking to a dentist in Mexico who didn’t speak ANY English.
From my perspective everything looked pretty normal. Dermot waited for the dentist’s reply and nodded sympathetically. Unfortunately, however, Dermot speaks no Spanish, other than a poorly pronounced “Hola” or “Gracias”. Despite this, and in his best Limerick accent, he stated the price of our product in Euro and in Pesos several times and listened.
Somehow, even with the language barrier, he made himself understood, and he listened again to the dentists unintelligible reply. The conversation continued like this for another five minutes before I finally heard Dermot taking down the dentist’s credit card details and closing the sale.
Now, I’m sure hearing this story you’re thinking that it is slightly implausible, if (more…)
localisation, Mexico, Potential Exporters, Translation
Localisation means more than simply translating your website for foreign audiences – especially if you’re serious about tying your social media efforts in with your overseas sales strategy.
Ensuring that your message – and, by extension, your brand – is consistent across your foreign and domestic social media channels is essential to any serious localisation effort. (more…)
eBusinesslive, eMarketing, localisation, Search, Social
The European localisation and translation services market is one of the few IT sectors showing strong growth throughout the recession, according to a 2010 report from market research firm Common Sense Advisory.
It’s easy to see why: More than 200 languages are spoken in Europe alone and 23 of those are official languages of the European Union. Meanwhile, as the recession bites at home, more and more companies are looking toward exports to grow their business. (more…)
Currency, eBusinesslive, eMarketing, localisation, Transactions
As Irish companies expand their global reach through the internet, the need to create websites especially designed for foreign markets has greatly increased. The first step to reaching a foreign audience is translating your website content into the native language in question.
In general, Irish companies are not too bad at translating their sites for foreign markets, says Damian Scattergood, managing director of Star Translation Services. “Ireland is the centre of the world for translation. We benefit from having massive software companies here and they have brought a lot technical know-how into the country. Because of that, over the last 15 to 20 years, a huge amount of localisation experience has been built into the country. We also have a very multicultural population, and that gives us the benefit of a natural awareness of language.” (more…)
Content, Copy, eBusinesslive, eMarketing, localisation
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