Marketers, copywriters, and journalists are craftsmen (and women) of words, ideas, concepts and visions. In an era where doing business on the other side of the world can be a mouse click away, some organizations and individuals are taking the "easy" way out when it comes to International Marketing. 

Several factors go in to making a global project successful. These include project concept localization, graphic localization and IT localization.

Marketing campaigns consider cultres, emotions, needs, wants, education levels, economic levels and so much more. Likewise, when adapting a product or concept to a foreign market, pinning down these same elements is crucial! 

For example, the American concept of Fast Food is really like no other in many parts of the world. Some cultures that are centered around family meal preparation and dining may not even take to "drive-up windows" or "take-out" pizza. If they do, they may not be as driven to buy using the same methodology as in the U.S. 

Consult with an expert to make sure your concept can be appropriately localized to the market before wasting valuable time and money.

For example, the buying habits of Hispanic Americans are centered around different impulses than non-Hispanic Americans. If you want to be effective, you must know what they want and why - the emotional factors behind it. 

How do we attract their attention to buy our product or service? Just as we do with any market. Take off your Anglo thinking cap and put on your Hispanic thinking cap - not your sombrero. One of the worst mistakes any advertiser can make is by assuming that if we translated our campaign, then add a "Mexican Flare" like Fiesta Fonts and Chili Peppers, that we'll attract all Hispanic Americans and they'll flock to our product. WRONG! 

We must do our demographic research and target this market just like and other, with creativity, current style and classy flair. This may mean changing the graphics, angle, and/or textual content completely of an ad or campaign, but it's worth it to send the right message in the end!

When localizing for IT, many elements come up that may not be considered like:

Abbreviations: Shortened words do not always translate - is the space dependent on the abbreviations? 

Product Markings: Consider pricing, bar codes, regulatory compliances - they are not always the same in all markets.

Shortcut Keys: Not all shortcuts will work because many are based on the English language (crtl "O" for Open). 

Forms & User Inputs: Phones, addresses, currencies, name formats and dates are all very different depending on the market. Consider the flexibility in the software for these issues.

Text Shrinkage/Expansion: Text will chrink or expand based on the languages. Consider this during development or expensive changes in design may occur.