Brief for a Successful Localization Project

For professional translators, the essence of a localization project is to understand your company, the product or service you want to market, and the target audience, so that they can deliver the content that will meet your needs, seduce your target groups, and provide or exceed the ROI, that you expect.

Detailed information about the following points are useful:

1. Project goal

What do you want to achieve with the project – is it a market entry, is it a website launch, do you want to launch a new product line or offer a new service, etc.? Explain what you want to do, how you want to do it, and why.

2. Brand identity

Describe your brand. How do you define your company’s identity? What makes you different? How do you want to present yourself and your product or service to your German target audience? Bear in mind, that the brand defines your company’s identity, and it is essential in creating the framework for the communication approach and content strategy. The brand identity shapes the story that the company is telling its customers about its product or service, it is a recurring theme, that will eventually create brand awareness in the new market.

3. Brand voice

Another important thing is creating a voice for the brand. Will you address the German audience with the formal Sie or the informal du? This is a tricky question – in German marketing, they are in a plain transition from Sie to du, so there is no one-size-fits-all answer to that and the decision highly depends on the company’s tonality and the target groups.

Think about your company’s tonality and decide, if you want to come across as serious, secure, business-like, or you prefer to be playful, easygoing, inventive, creative, strong, glamorous, attractive, etc.

4. Target audience

You need to have a clear picture of the audience you want to reach. It is important to use the right language to get the attention of your audience and keep it, otherwise, they will lose interest in a matter of seconds and go to a competitor that addresses them in a more appealing language. The profile you provide should include detailed information about age range, gender, socio-economic status, and interests. A target audience description such as “German users on our website” won’t help to localize your content efficiently.

5. Target market

Why did you choose the German market, and what are your expectations? Please share any market-specific information that might have an impact on the content creation. Are there any legal and compliance aspects that should be taken into account? Is it forbidden to use certain wording? Is the company obliged to include specific information about their products in the German market? Don’t forget that the source content, more often than not, does not cover all the requirements for all the markets in which the company is operating. And last but not least, who is your strongest competition in the German market? If possible, name at least three companies.

6. Product / Service

Provide product descriptions with high-level features, user workflows and exceptions, and screenshots of the product if they are not already available online. The same goes for a service. The translator needs to understand the product/service very well before starting with the localization.

If you have an updated list with the keywords in German, that would be of great help.