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The signs are here: daylight savings time, tax season, birds chirping.... It is time to shake off our winter blues and reduce stress!

We know that you have more than enough to do. Let your multilingual projects become our responsibility. We work with you to deliver successful projects that meet your or your clients' needs. Whether small or large, our projects are on time and on budget. Moreover, we offer convenience and flexibility to our clients.

From translating on-going printed brochures for a health care provider and internal communication materials for a pharmaceutical company, to a Chinese website globalization for a trade data provider, please read about our most recent projects (see side bar). Feel free to contact us if you'd like additional details and references.

In this newsletter, we bring you results from the "Can't Read, Won't Buy" survey led by Common Sense Advisory and some information about the Global Reputation Index. We hope that these reports will help you consider the positive impact of website globalization.

At the end of the month, we will conclude our Winter Promotion aimed at advertisers in the Export Yellow Pages Directory, but our affinity program with the World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia continues. This program offers a 20% discount on Trade Show/Trade Mission Package for members of the World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia.

During the upcoming second quarter, we will re-design our website to provide improved ability to browse our portfolio of past projects as well as previous newsletter articles. In the meantime, should you need detailed information about our services, methodology, experiences ...request a comprehensive marketing kit.

Warm regards,

Myriam Siftar

Common Sense Advisory surveyed the online global buying preferences of more than 2,400 consumers from eight non- Anglophone countries in Europe, Asia, and South America. Specifically, the research was conducted to assess online language preferences and its subsequent impact on purchasing decisions. The eight-nation survey, which included Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Spain, and Turkey, was completed during this past summer.

The data collected reveals that more than half (52.4%) of consumers buy only at websites where information is presented in their language. The report also reveals that nationality impacts the demand for local-language content in online transactions. The percentage of those who buy only at local-language websites jumps to more than 60% of consumers in France and Japan. French and Russian consumers are four times less likely than Spaniards to buy from an English-language site.

Other findings from the report include:

• Just 10% of the low-or-no English participants make most or all of their online purchases from Anglophone websites, compared to 37% of the English-speaking group. Even for those who can read English, more than 60% prefer buying from sites in their own language.



• Most will pay more for products with information in their own language. The survey proposed that "when faced with the choice of buying two similar products, I am more likely to purchase the one that is less expensive even if it does not have product information in my own language." Two thirds of Brazilians and Russians don't agree with this proposition, indicating a more adamant stance of having materials presented in their language rather than paying a lower price.

For many American manufacturers, English-speaking customers represent 40% or more of the world market, but meeting the linguistic needs of the other 60% means creating product information, marketing materials, support documentation, website, and other items in dozens of other languages. At the very least, companies targeting the top 25 must translate content into 17 languages. The price of not translating is high: in 1998, research by Common Sense Advisory showed that business buyers are 3 times more likely to buy if addressed in their own language, while this new research shows that consumers are 6 times more likely to click the buy button when information is presented in their native tongue.

Besides many languages, global businesses must contend with the fact that the content they are translating is a moving and growing target. As measured in bytes, corporate content grows in excess of 50% a year. This increase in volume is compounded by new content requirements, such as new content types like Flash animations, MP3 audio files for visual and spoken support information.

The bottom line: If your potential customers are not native-English speakers, dont miss on selling opportunities because you didn't translate the content related to your products or services. Website globalization and multilingual marketing information will improve your businesss credibility as well as raise your visibility among your competitors.

Leger Marketing, the leading Canadian-owned public opinion and marketing research firm with an office in Philadelphia, has developed the Global Reputation Index (GRI) to help businesses effectively manage their reputation. The GRI combines survey research from key stakeholders with content analysis of print and broadcast coverage of your organization to provide an index score.

In the business world, a company has a good reputation when it is both visible and credible. Therefore, to improve and consolidate its reputation, a company needs high visibility and strong credibility. Visibility has to do with the awareness of a company and how much media noise it attracts. Credibility has to do with the various commercial and social dimensions that are referred to as reputation drivers. The GRI gives a benchmark of your organization compared to your competitors and other global brands (it includes more than 20 countries). The measure is an effective tool to evaluate an organization's reputation trend. For more information, download the brochure.