Gemini Translation Services Blog

Not quite stop the press but have the press had a hand in all of this?

Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and now RBS (the big four as they once were, until some got shrunk in the wash) are all now posting double, a head of forecast etc profits and the stock market from a terrible position of 3,800 points or so is now flirting and buying lady luck a few drinks around the 5,500 point mark.

That’s some turnaround in a relatively short period of time and that’s just in the UK. The rest of the world ain’t doing so bad either: NIKKEI, DOW, DAX etc

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we all witnessed the near collapse of the financial markets, the future at that time sure wasn’t bright it was bleak, very bleak.

Now it looks like Mr Taxpayer is going to make a bucket load of cash and everyone is a happy bunny. Quite surreal would be an understatement but Lady Caution is still at the party so no party poppers and champagne just yet.

Where exactly is the tie-in? To be honest not 100% sure but it goes something like this:

Take Tesco a FTSE listed company. It derives a high % of their turnover from non-UK sales and more importantly from non-UK-non-food sales.

So, if the banks are benefiting from better investment driven business as opposed to just pure retail or high street stuff, then the focus surely is that globalisation is actually about not having all your eggs in one basket (i.e. UK Plc) but spreading the load (like spread betting), so you end up capturing all bits of the rising tide.

But to get those rising tide benefits you need to be in it to win it. To create, develop and then maintain a non-UK presence to offset future changes requires skill, research, knowledge and a fully trained team to implement it.

The starting point will be a strategic plan which will at some point include an International Communications Policy (ICP) see blog dated July 20th 2010. Getting your positioning right will give you options, get it wrong and well, cash to burn springs to mind!

Your translation service provider (TSP), whoever they might be should be able to advise you pre-project on the things you might like to consider. Then it’s up to you and your plan to see if there is a fit, if not discount it but the point is the added value your TSP can offer if brought in at an early stage.

Your marketing guys will do their stuff for sure but the TSP can help devise the best form of implementation for the best return on investment and save you from some of the nightmare stories we all see plastered on the web.

Take the Electrolux USA sales campaign, which kicked off with ‘Nothing sucks like an Electrolux’. Catchy maybe but surprise, surprise bombed big time (I can assure you this was not a Gemini project).

Localisation can save you from those mistakes! What exactly that has to do with bankers profits I’m not sure and may sound all very random but it’s Friday and the creative juices are nearing the end after an exhausting week of business planning for the new financial year at Gemini, which will be upon us very soon.

Everyone have a great weekend. Over and out until next time.

By Darren Elliott