Can’t Read, Won’t Buy: The Conflict between a Strong Brand and Local Language

Dr. Donald DePalma
Chief Strategist & Founder
Common Sense Advisory

If you read English natively, you have enjoyed the best of the web since its creation. Content in this language has dominated the medium for nearly two decades while companies have catered to English-speaking markets and the enormous spending they generate. However, many corporations realize that billions of people don’t read English at all or well enough to make buying decisions, so they’re increasing the amount of information that they offer in other languages. As they reach out to global prospects, the big question is: If they localize their websites, will more buyers come? If they translate product literature, will they sell more? How much will localization help them grow?

To answer these questions, Common Sense Advisory surveyed consumers in 10 non-English-speaking countries to test the hypothesis that companies can increase their sales by localizing their products and websites. In this presentation, Dr. DePalma summarizes the results of this survey, analyzes the linguistic preferences of consumers, and discusses the impact on their online behavior. He will discuss the interaction of brand and language, and explore the customer experience (CX) through the lens of language.