Vol. 45, September 2004

The Translation E-Buzz
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Profile
Natasha McElroy

We often refer to our corps of colleagues as the “McElroy family.” Each month our readers are introduced to the interesting and diverse members of this group as E-Buzz features a personnel profile in each issue. Over the years I have been asked countless times,“Is there really a Ralph?” YES!! The “real Ralph” founded McElroy Translation Company in 1968. With vision he understood that the need for translations that existed then would continue to grow. The quality systems that he implemented using technical editors are industry standard today.

This month we have the pleasure and privilege of introducing the newest member of the “McElroy family.” And this time we really mean “family”! Ralph and his wife Diane recently became the proud parents of Natasha. Natasha is from Perm, Russia, which is about two hours northeast of Moscow. Natasha is a delightful three-year-old who greets every new friend with a hug. Her hugs are divine – they come complete with a tight squeeze and a radiant smile.

Natasha was welcomed by seven-year-old sister Anastasia, also originally from Russia. Anastasia came to the States with Ralph and Diane when she was three, so she will be the perfect big sister to love and nurture Natasha. Anastasia is doing her best to be a model big sister as she adjusts to sharing the devotion of mom and dad.

Ralph is a gifted linguist who speaks seven languages. While English development is stressed, he speaks Russian with his girls and wants for them to retain an understanding and respect for their national heritage.

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So You Think You Know Everything?

This is “just for fun.” McElroy Intake Coordinator Vicki Wunneburger shared these fun facts that arrived in her e-mail inbox one day.
  • A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
  • A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
  • A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
  • A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
  • A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
  • A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
  • A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
  • A snail can sleep for three years.
  • Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
  • All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
  • Almonds are a member of the peach family.
  • An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
  • Babies are born without kneecaps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
  • Butterflies taste with their feet.
  • Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
  • “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.
  • February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
  • In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
  • If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
  • If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
  • It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
  • Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
  • Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
  • No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
  • On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
  • Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
  • Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
  • Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
  • “Stewardesses” is the longest word typed with only the left hand and “lollipop” with your right.
  • The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.
  • The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
  • The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
  • The sentence: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter of the alphabet.
  • The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
  • The words ‘racecar,’ ‘kayak’ and ‘level’ are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).
  • There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
  • There are more chickens than people in the world.
  • There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
  • There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: “abstemious” and “facetious.”
  • There’s no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.
  • Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
  • TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
  • Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.
  • Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
  • Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

Now you know everything.

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Spotlight on Japan

Japan—The People

Japan is a highly structured and traditional society. Great importance is placed on loyalty, politeness, personal responsibility and on everyone working together for the good of the larger group. Education, ambition, hard work, patience and determination are held in the highest regard. The crime rate is one of the lowest in the world.

Meeting and Greeting

  • A handshake is appropriate upon meeting. The Japanese handshake is limp and with little or no eye contact.

  • Some Japanese bow and shake hands. The bow is a highly regarded greeting to show respect and is appreciated by the Japanese. A slight bow to show courtesy is acceptable.

Body Language

  • Nodding is very important. When listening to Japanese speak, especially in English, you should nod to show you are listening and understanding the speaker.

  • Silence is a natural and expected form of non-verbal communication. Do not feel a need to chatter.

  • Do not stand close to a Japanese person. Avoid touching.

  • Prolonged eye contact (staring) is considered rude.

  • Don’t show affection, such as hugging or shoulder slapping, in public.

  • Never beckon with your forefinger. The Japanese extend their right arm out in front, bending the wrist down, waving fingers. Do not beckon older people.

  • Sit erect with both feet on the floor. Never sit with ankle over knee.

  • Waving a hand back and forth with palm forward in front of face means “no” or “I don't know.” This is a polite response to a compliment.

  • Never point at someone with four fingers spread out and thumb folded in.

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    Corporate Culture

  • Punctuality is a must in all business and social meetings.

  • Any degree of knowledge of Japanese culture is greatly appreciated.

  • Japanese may exchange business cards even before they shake hands or bow. Be certain your business card clearly states your rank. This will determine who your negotiating counterpart should be.

  • Bear in mind that initial negotiations begin with middle managers. Do not attempt to go over their heads to senior management.

  • It is acceptable to use a Japanese company interpreter in the first meeting. Once negotiations begin, hire your own interpreter.

  • Both business and personal relationships are hierarchical. Older people have higher status than younger, men higher than women and senior executives higher than junior executives.

  • It is very important to send a manager of the same rank to meet with a Japanese colleague. Title is very important.

  • Work is always undertaken as a group. The workgroup is strongly united with no competition; all succeed or all fail. Decision-making is by consensus. Everyone on the work team must be consulted before making decisions. This is a very slow process.

  • The first meeting may focus on establishing an atmosphere of friendliness, harmony and trust. Business meetings are conducted formally, so leave your humor behind. Always allow ten minutes of polite conversation before beginning business meetings.

  • It takes several meetings to develop a contract. When the time comes, be content to close a deal with a handshake. Leave the signing of the written contract to later meetings.

  • Etiquette and harmony are very important. “Saving face” is a key concept. Japanese are anxious to avoid unpleasantness and confrontation. Try to avoid saying “no.” Instead, say, “This could be very difficult,” allowing colleagues to save face.

  • Proper introduction to business contacts is a must. The introducer becomes a guarantor for the person being introduced.

  • Do not bring a lawyer. It is important to build business relationships based on trust. The Japanese do not like complicated legal documents. Write contracts that cover essential points.

    Dining and Entertainment

  • Restaurant entertaining is crucial to business. A person is judged by his/her behavior during and after business hours. Seldom is a business deal completed without dinner in a restaurant.

  • Drinking is a group activity. Do not say “no” when offered a drink.

  • An empty glass is the equivalent of asking for another drink. Keep your glass at least half full if you do not want more. If a Japanese person attempts to pour more and you do not want it, put your hand over your glass, or fill it with water if necessary.

  • An empty plate signals a desire for more food. Leave a little food on your plate when you are finished eating.

  • When drinking with a Japanese person, fill his glass or cup after he has filled yours. While he is pouring, hold your cup or glass up so he can fill it easily. Never pour your own drink and always pour your companion's.

  • Toasting is very important in Japan and many toasts are offered during the course of an evening. At dinner, wait for the toast before you drink. Respond to each toast with a toast.

  • Wait for the most important person (honored guest) to begin eating. If you are the honored guest, wait until all the food is on the table and everyone is ready before you eat.

  • When offered food, it is polite to hesitate before accepting. You do not have to eat much, but it is rude not to sample each dish.

  • It is acceptable to slurp noodles. Some Japanese believe that it makes them taste better.

  • Do not finish your soup before eating other foods. It should accompany your meal. Replace the lid of the soup bowl when finished eating.

    Dress

  • Dress is modern and conservative. The Japanese dress well at all times. Dress smartly for parties, even if an invitation says “Casual” or “Come as you are.”

  • For business, men should wear dark suits and ties (subtle colors).

  • Women should wear dresses, suits and shoes with heels. Subtle colors and conservative styles are best for business.

    Gifts

  • The ritual of gift giving is more important than the value of the gift.

  • Allow your Japanese counterpart to initiate the gift giving. Present a gift in a modest fashion, saying, “This is just a small token,” or “This is an insignificant gift.”

  • It is very important to receive a gift properly. Give a gift and receive a gift with both hands and a slight bow. The Japanese may refuse a gift once or twice before accepting it.

  • Do not give anyone a gift unless you have one for everyone present.

  • Correct wrapping is very important. Appearance counts for as much or more than the contents.

  • Be prepared to give and receive a gift at a first business meeting. Gifts are frequently given at the end of a first meeting. Not giving a proper gift could ruin a business relationship.

    Helpful Hints

  • Avoid using the number “four” if possible. It has connotations of death to the Japanese.

  • The Japanese may ask personal questions. This is not intended to be rude, but rather a polite way to show interest. You may give vague or general answers if you feel a question is too personal.

  • The Japanese do not express opinions and desires openly. What they say and what they mean may be very different.

  • Do not expect a Japanese person to say “no.” “Maybe” generally means “no.”

    Especially for Women

  • Non-Japanese women are treated very politely in business and it is understood that Western women hold high-level positions in business. Western women must establish credibility and a position of authority immediately.

  • A non-Japanese woman is viewed first as a foreigner and then as a woman and is treated accordingly.

  • Businesswomen can invite a Japanese businessman to lunch or dinner. Allow your Japanese colleague to pick the restaurant.

-- Excerpted from the “Put Your Best Foot Forward” series by Mary Murray Bosrock. These publications are available for the U.S., Asia, Mexico/Canada, Russia, Europe and South America.

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SERVICE UPGRADE - AUTOMATED INSTANT STATUS CHECKS

Behind the scenes, McElroy Translation staff keep Information Technology specialist Robert K busy with ongoing upgrades to its proprietary workflow system ELJOTS®. Staff members continually envision ways in which task automation can enhance service and productivity. Our latest upgrade will launch soon directly to our clients. With each order we will provide an automatic notification to the requester which lists the details of the order including an estimated delivery date. A link will be provided in the notification message that can be accessed by the client to check status throughout the process.

This is a secure system. The links that we provide for each job are “pushed” to a separate server site from our main database, so that our internal network is not accessible. The links to the jobs are encrypted so that the only way to view a job’s status is via the individual link that we send to our client.

Thank you to the McElroy clients who beta tested this system and provided valuable feedback. As a result of feedback, we will offer the option for individual requesters within an account to decline the service if the additional inbound emails do not add value for them. Most clients that beta tested this service loved the comfort of knowing when their jobs were logged in for processing and valued the convenience of being able to instantly check status via the link. Of course, our customer service representative Sherri Yarbrough will continue to welcome calls and emails from those who choose to bypass the new service.

Shelly Orr Priebe, General Manager, Ralph McElroy Translation Company

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Transform Your Website into a Marketing Powerhouse

By Mike Mahoney

Now that nearly all companies have websites, the real competitive advantage lies in making sure your website is functional from a marketing perspective – not just providing a series of product brochures in cyberspace. It can be a powerful tool to interact with readers and gather marketing intelligence information about:

  • where your potential customers are located,
  • how interested they are in your offering,
  • how ready they are to buy,
  • which styles or models or product grades are most attractive,
  • how they heard about your brand, and
  • how receptive they may be to pricing and promotional offers.

But harnessing the power of the Web is easier said than done. Simply posting a website will not generate vast numbers of new customers. Many business people don’t understand that “if you build it, they will come” is not the way a one-to-one medium like the Web works. Traditional methods (advertising, direct mail, trade shows, public relations) still must be used to drive people to the Web to find out more about your company and its offering. Searching on the Web is akin to picking up the phone – it is an action that is the result of previous brand awareness investment.

The Marketing Funnel

Marketers often speak in terms of a ‘funnel’: the universe is first broken down into a pool of potential customers, then further into those who are aware of your brand, those who have interest in it, those who have developed a preference for it, those who are buyers of your product/service, those who are satisfied and become loyal, repeat buyers, and finally those few who become evangelists or advocates on your behalf. The focus of marketing is to increase the diameter of the funnel at each stage to increase the percentage of potential customers converted to buyers.

Advertising is the primary tool to build brand awareness among potential customers. Your website comes into play for those who are already at the awareness or interest phases. A functional marketing website is designed to provide incentives for moving people down the funnel to the next phase nearer to buyers. The sales process and post-sale phases have the job of turning buyers into repeat buyers and, if you’re lucky, evangelists.

Different content sections of your website work on audiences at different stages. “About Our Company” should be aimed at turning aware readers into interested readers or turning interested readers into those with a preference for your company as they learn about your scope, reliability, geographic coverage and culture. Product information or on-line catalogs take readers from interest or preference a step down the funnel if they are successful in matching their needs for products and services with your offerings, pricing and availability. Warranty information and return policies reassure them that they’re making the right choice. Feedback forms, bulletin boards and customer support content increase the likelihood of customers returning in the future. And customer testimonials strengthen relationships with featured customers (making them evangelists) as well as building empathy with prospects poised to become buyers.

Tactical Content Tips

Good design is always appropriate — navigation must be presented consistently on every page (and organized so there are no more than three clicks to any key page), pages must load quickly, text must be easy to read (use headings, sub-headings, bullet lists, etc. liberally) and the layout must be clean and straightforward. But there are many tactics you can use to make your website a driver for converting prospects to buyers.

Make Your Site Findable

Design your site for search engine optimization so it can easily be found by readers at the awareness stage. Use HTML text wherever possible; GIFs, JPEGs and JavaScript mouseovers for headings and navigation menus give designers control over fonts and look stylish but they reduce the word count on which search engines index. The same goes for Flash animations. Make liberal use of ALT IMG tags to give search engines a handle on your content.

Clearly articulate your company’s offering and marketing position, especially on the home page. “Company XYZ, based in Pittsburgh, PA, is the leading manufacturer of telekinetic control devices in the Eastern U.S.” is much better than “Welcome to the Company XYZ home page” as lead-in text. Pay careful attention to META tag keywords and descriptions to assist search engine indexing robots. Register your site with key search engines. Considering buying sponsored placements for search engine key words.

When you advertise, don’t overlook the Web. Banner ads, sponsored key words and mutual links with business partners like suppliers, distributors and dealers can boost your visibility on search engines and drive traffic to your site.

Try to reuse advertising materials developed for other media on your website. Place Adobe Acrobat PDF copies of your print ads on the website, for example. Digitize and post clips of any TV spots (but check with your agency for re-use fees first). You may even choose to make separate web entry pages for specific ads. That allows you to track the number of page views on the web address for each ad separately and helps you gauge the effectiveness of different media.

A lack of consistency in message across different media gives your prospects the impression that your right hand doesn’t know what your left hand is doing! All your product packaging, warranty registration cards, TV/print advertising, trade show booths, vehicle signage and press releases should prominently feature your web address. Simple things can be very effective – you depend upon these tools to encourage potential customers to take the next steps and become aware and interested in your offering.

Keep Your Site Up-To-Date

Once readers find your site, nothing promotes a stronger image of an active, growing market leader than a bevy of recent listings on “What’s New” and “Press Releases” web pages. If prospects see you have done nothing of interest since last March, they will not have a good impression of your firm.

Promote appearances at trade shows, industry events or charity affiliations. Demonstrate that your company is interested in the community to which your customers belong. Trade show invitations and post-show press releases draw attention to your active participation in the industry and can showcase your new product introductions. “Cause marketing” is huge topic worthy of separate study, but if your company participates in good causes make sure your readers get the opportunity to learn about it. A good example is Hyundai’s support for the Jimmy Fund of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (see helping.hyundaiusa.com).

Similarly, highlight any “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” activities if your marketing strategy includes a focus on “green” or environmental concerns (see www.hp.com or www.dupont.com).

Update your website content whenever you update your print literature. Inconsistency between print and web product information will result in customer dissatisfaction and costly calls to your customer service operators: “Your website didn’t say you offer the Model 351 in Chartreuse but I stopped at Home Depot and saw it on the shelf! Get your act together!”

Trade Information with Prospective Customers

Potential buyers may be very willing to trade personal information for information about your offering, the industry or product applications. Offer a white paper or booklet on “How to Select the Right Widget” if you’re in the widget industry and set up a form so interested readers must register or at least give you their ZIP code before downloading the booklet. You will collect data on the location of your prospects and determine whether or not you have dealers nearby to meet demand. If the offer is sufficiently attractive to prospects you may get them to register and request a sales call or appointment. A campaign I recently designed and implemented won 100,000+ requests for a kitchen-design magazine. Roughly 35% of the requesters qualified as leads – and follow-up surveys showed 22% of them purchased the product within 12-14 weeks.

If it’s important to your business, consider using a website as an alternative to warranty cards for registering a purchase. This can also be a valuable resource for quality surveys or to target for repeat customers.

Of course any kind of registration must be backed up by clear communication to the reader about your intended use of the information. Let him/her know what to expect — a print brochure mailed to the registration address, a coupon redeemable at the local retailer, an e-mail newsletter subscription for three monthly issues, a call from a salesman — be explicit. The reader must give his/her permission if the data is to be used for future e-mail or newsletter mailings or anything beyond the immediate transaction. Your website must have a “privacy policy” and “terms and conditions of use” statement. You will need help from a legal consultant with this type of work, especially in light of recent concern over spam and the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (see www.privacy.org, www.epic.org, www.sarbanes-oxley.com).

Appropriate reader permissions allow you to build e-mail or direct mail target lists that help build customer loyalty and interest in future product or service offerings. List maintenance is worthy of a separate article; readers tend to create and dispose of e-mail addresses from HotMail, Juno or AOL far more frequently than they change physical addresses. And keeping up with COA (Change Of Address) notifications for physical mail is an administrative nightmare.

Coupons can be a good idea. The hard part in making downloadable or printable coupons pay off lies in the redemption process. A 10%-off coupon might be worthwhile if your retailers or distributors can be relied on to return the redeemed coupons to your marketing team. Such a tactic can help you gauge the effectiveness of your web advertising versus other advertising media.

Be wary of contests or sweepstakes – they can also be effective but they require professional legal assistance to ensure compliance with local, state or national laws governing commercial use of tactics depending upon chance. Remember, the Web is global – English language content may have readers throughout the world. Instructions must be very carefully worded and eligibility rules must be explicit.

Integrate Your Message Across Multiple Media

Take care to ensure consistency between what you tell customers on the website and what you tell them at your trade shows, on your TV ads, in your print literature and wherever else your messaging appears. When updates are made in one place they must be made everywhere else. This is especially true for time-sensitive promotional information like effective dates or expiration dates.

Use your website address as a call to action – “find out more at” www.whatever.com – and interpret website traffic as evidence of success in your messaging elsewhere. You can afford to present more detailed information on the website than potential customers can parse in a glance at a print ad or can take in from a 30-second TV commercial. Remember, you are trying to move potential customers to the next stage.

Set up separate entry pages for each media or for each advertisement. For example, refer TV viewers to http://www.mycompany.com/tv1 or http://tv1.mycompany.com and magazine readers to http://www.mycompany.com/
magad1 or http://magad1.mycompany.com Those pages may be identical to your company’s home page or may be tailored to address readers coming from those different sources. Regardless, your web statistics tracking will give you insight into the effectiveness of the different media and allow you to calculate the cost per visitor. This will help you manage your advertising spending effectively.

Regional and Translation Issues

Marketing functionality on websites must be especially sensitive to the needs of regional audiences. The success of specific programs may vary widely. Like content, tactics must be customized to be successful – and help from business partners in each region/country is critical.

Trade Shows or Trade Fairs

For example, trade shows or trade fairs may be more important to your business in different regions. In my last assignment, trade fairs were a more effective marketing vehicle for the client’s products in Europe and in the Asia Pacific region than in the United States. We ran pop-ups or cookie-driven redirects for readers entering the site from those regions to press releases announcing upcoming trade shows. When the trade shows occurred, we added photos and news about the shows. The information was retained for several months after each show to highlight the client’s participation and to place the client in context as an industry leader. For some of the trade fairs in Europe, separate “sub-sites” were maintained for long afterwards, highlighting the displays used as a means of promoting artisans championing this particular product. The U.S. marketing team felt far less strongly motivated to use such tools.

Promotions

Promotions occurring in non-U.S. regions in the English language were similarly set up for this particular client. Since English was widely used as the language of commerce in Asia Pacific for this particular industry, great care was taken to clearly articulate which particular promotion was under way in which particular countries. The time-sensitive nature of promotions dictated that each promo page was loaded when the promotion began and was removed once the promotional offer had expired. Coordination with all participating value chain partners was carried out by marketing communications professionals in the region. The promotion in India specifically listed the participating distributors.

English Is a Double-Edged Sword

On one hand, English is so widely used throughout the world that you may expect global readership from an English-only site. But product specifications and availability may vary quite widely from region to region. Ranking high in a search engine like Google may successfully drive readers the world over to your site, but they may not always enter it in the way you desire. It can be quite frustrating to your customer service staff if 30% of U.S. readers are viewing the product catalog intended for Europe. They receive incorrect information about products and support and you will incur costs to sort out the misdirected readers. You may wish to deliberately restrict search engine indexing robots so readers will enter your site only through the appropriate portal pages for their regions.

Regional preferences for units of measure (metric), differences in date representations (“26 August, 2004” vs. “8/26/04”) and lack of Anglicized terminology (“color” vs. “colour”) may alienate readers and make them uncomfortable. Metric units of measure may actually be legally mandated in some areas.

You may find it necessary to post region-specific versions of your English-language site or even find it helpful to have specific sub-sites for individual countries. Obviously, this makes site maintenance much more complicated and expensive.

Other Issues

Professional assistance in each region may be required for help in submitting your site to search engines. South Korea has a very high national penetration for broadband Internet connections and a skilled computer-using society. It was critical to enlist regional aid to boost a client’s site visibility in Korea – but traffic multiplied within a matter of months.

Be particularly sensitive to industry jargon in each region. For one client, a specific product was installed by certified fabricator/installers. The Spanish term in Europe for this particular player in the value chain was quite different than the term used in Latin America.

Use the right languages and character sets for key audiences. Traditional Chinese may be widely used in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, but we received feedback that Simplified Chinese was more appropriate for use in the mainland. Listen to your local contacts.

New products may be introduced on different schedules depending upon region. Press releases and “What’s New” portions of your site may require regional maintenance.

Be prepared to carry through the implied promise to your readers – if you have a Korean-language version of your site, you must have processes and resources in place to answer e-mails and phone calls in Korean. This sounds obvious but business managers don’t always see the forest for the trees. One client I worked with ultimately removed both their French-Canadian and North American Spanish-language site segments several months after launching them because they did not have the resources to respond to customer queries in those languages!

Transformation Requires Continuing Effort

Once you have analyzed your particular challenges and redesigned your site you must budget to continue the effort. Many marketing communications organizations still do not treat websites as continuous rather than batch productions. They are accustomed to engaging an agency to produce a new piece of print literature or to execute an advertising campaign using traditional media. They ramp up, produce and publish the work and then close the book on it. More effective organizations perform an after-action review to judge a campaign’s effectiveness and capture key learnings.

But websites are more like 24-hour automated radio stations than print literature. Once set up, the thing keeps on running. Obsolete information must be pruned. New information must be added. It can require continuous attention between major revision efforts.

As communications professionals in a society becoming increasingly global in scope we must remind our business partners of the unique nature of this medium. We can never completely rest. Somewhere, a competitor is paying close attention to their website, making it easier to find in Google or Yahoo! or making their content more closely-attuned to readers who may be your customers. We must play a key and vigilant role to make the Web a truly successful marketing tool.

Bio

Mike Mahoney is an e-Marketing Specialist with expertise in building brand visibility and driving profitable, sustained sales growth. Most recently, Mike was the steward for on-line brand management as webmaster for DuPont™ Corian® and DuPont™ Zodiaq® kitchen countertop materials, steadily shepherding the Corian® site since go-live in 1997 and building it up to attain consistent traffic of over one million page views per month. Mike is currently searching for new employment. You can learn more and reach him through contact information on his personal website, mike.dbannex.net.

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September
Promotion

Fire and Ice Grill 2 Go

Self-described as “The Ultimate Tailgating Outfitter,” we think we’ve found the winning website to get all those extras that will make your tailgate party the envy of the parking lot. The American Tailgater www.americantailgater.com has everything from canopies with your favorite team logos to grills and even a gas-powered blender (Yes, way!).

McElroy will award the winner of this drawing with a $200 gift certificate that will buy a one-minute beverage cooler, snack helmets, team flags, awning or a host of other tailgating extras. Even if you aren’t a tailgater, we bet you know someone who is! Giving away a great prize each month is just our way of saying “Thanks!” to our E-Buzz readers—enter for your chance to win!

Click here to enter our September raffle.

This month’s winner will be selected and notified on Monday, September 27. Good luck! Results will also be posted to the web site. A random number generator will be used to select the winner from an ordered list of entries.

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Got Game?

September 9 and 10, 2004, McElroy Translation participated and exhibited at the Austin Game Conference. The Austin Game Conference is produced annually by the Austin Game Initiative (AGI). The AGI is chartered with the growth of the computer and video game industry in Austin, Texas, thereby increasing its overall contribution to the economic development of the region.

Austin is the # 3 location in the U.S. for game development with more than 50 companies making major contributions to the game industry, including game development, publishing, tools and middleware and chips and hardware. Industry leaders in the area include more than 35 game studios producing both top hit franchises and original titles. Nintendo, Microsoft, Motorola, Dell, Electronic Arts, Criterion Software, Sony Online Entertainment and dozens of others maintain offices in the region. The AGI is dedicated to serving the needs of companies involved in producing interactive entertainment software and hardware for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers and the Internet.

McElroy Translation met new clients whose business plan includes international sales. Market research firm DFC Intelligence released a 190-page report on the video game industry in March 2004. In what they view as a conservative forecast, the worldwide market for video games and interactive entertainment grows 44% from $23.2 billion in 2003 to $33.4 billion in 2008. For software and game clients our translators use a tool which is Unicode compliant and works seamlessly with code resource files and flat txt files. It locks all data except for the translatable strings and the translator is only able to manipulate the translatable text.

McElroy had some fun surprises in store for event attendees….

???????? ?? ????? ??????!

Say what? The party’s at our table!

Attendees met our Russian intern and learned to say something in Russian! We even transcribed it for them so they could remember it later.

Visitors also tested their cultural knowledge with our own little trivia game we call Lagniappe. (Lagniappe is Cajun for a little something extra!)

Call to request your free translation and localization kit! We have answers to your questions about the process, a checklist to get you started and information about our company and services.

For more information about this conference visit www.gameconference.com.

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THE GLOBAL MARKET – WILL YOUR WEBSITE REACH IT?

This month Mike Mahoney’s feature article highlights the importance that an effective website plays as a part of the marketing package. It is a critical part of the branding process that should be used purposefully to move contacts down the sales funnel to create clients. The potential audience for a website is truly global. When a client’s business plan includes international sales McElroy Translation can help design sites localized to maximize effectiveness in each target market.

PREPARING YOUR WEBSITE FOR LOCALIZATION

Following are some tips we’ve prepared to help clients prepare for website localization.

1. Don’t ask vendors to provide an estimate based on just looking at your website online. There is too much missing information that impacts the accuracy of your estimate. This is especially true if there is dynamically generated content or if everything is not to be translated. Vendors will have to guess at what is to be translated and no two vendors will guess the same. Also, there is no way to tell if editable graphics files are available or how much time should be allocated for preparation. Send us all source files. Have your designers/developers provide us with any instructions that will help us facilitate the translation process.

2. Clearly communicate who is recreating the graphic and multimedia files. This will affect the production portion of the translation estimate. If your highly skilled in-house team is going to recreate graphics, you may elect to send and receive only the text extracted from graphics such as buttons and alt image text. However, if you would like your vendor to handle recreating the localized graphics, you can save a significant amount of time and money by sending a complete set of editable files, organized and with only the one version that you want used. Have your website developer list the specific graphic and multimedia software tools used to create the original files. This really is a case of an ounce of prevention equaling a pound of cure.

3. Similar rules apply for translation of FrameMaker and Ventura-based PDFs. PDFs are commonly found in websites and your vendor should know in what application they were originally created. Clients with large amounts of help documentation and technical product information will often have these kind of PDFs on their website. Also, clients with marketing-related PDFs will have used QuarkExpress, PageMaker, InDesign, PowerPoint, etc. to create them. For the purpose of a rough word count estimate, we can extract the text from PDFs, however, it is essential to know what tool was originally used to create them, especially in languages like Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Croatian, etc. as these languages often require versions of the software running on special operating systems.

4. Who is your target audience? How do you write for them, how do we translate for them? Idiomatic expressions or slang terms are more challenging to translate and sometimes there is no equivalent in the target language. Remember also that certain metaphors or references may have little or a different meaning to your target audience. This is especially common in advertising or marketing material. Conversely, when content is intended to convey a more informal tone, translators are sometimes able to recommend common terms in the target language that don’t exist in English, making your translation sound more natural!

McElroy takes special care to select a translator who is familiar with your target audience, whether they are young people browsing for clothes or engineers in search of advanced technical information about your product.

5. Localize graphics as appropriate. If you like, McElroy will incorporate your new photos or graphics into your Spanish website and return a finished product to you. Use photos, colors, etc. for the appropriate audience. To what extent is it advantageous for your website to be localized? Does it have an appropriate approach to your target market? In this case, might photos of Hispanics replace photos of non-Hispanics or values considerations drive aesthetics? As a component of translation for the U.S. Hispanic market, our translation teams are able to provide advice about cultural aesthetics.

6. Keep file and link names the same. Depending upon the structure of your website, renaming may be unnecessary. This can be a real time saver! For a standard business website, structure the directory so that you have a folder for each language website. This allows pages to be relatively linked, eliminating the need to rename files and links. Our web developer has written a great article on this topic showing examples, and we will be happy to send it to you or your developers.

These tips will facilitate a smoother localization process. Although website localization can be a large and complex project, it is not always the case. The following illustrate some common steps in a website localization project:

LOCALIZATION PROJECT STEPS

1. File Analysis and Preparation

This may include text extraction for a variety of graphic, shockwave, and PDF files, as well as certain client- and server-side scripts.

2. Terminology Glossaries

Translation memory can be built and client glossaries imported to ensure consistency in terminology. Translation memory tools enable translators to work directly in most file types, including ASP, JSP, PHP, XML, CFM, SHTML, as well as good, old-fashioned HTML.

3. Tag, Script, and Format Protection

Working within a translation memory tool, tags and script code are recognized and protected during content translation, thus preserving web page formatting.

4. Localized Content Review

After the initial localization step, an editor reviews and polishes the content. Graphics are re-created with translated text, or new graphics are created where appropriate.

5. Functionality Testing

The localized website is independently reviewed and tested once again before delivery, thereby ensuring language accuracy, cultural sensitivity, and complete functionality.

Research shows that translating your website has key benefits such as:

• Significantly greater market exposure

• Improved product/service awareness and recognition

• Customer retention

And how does that translate? “Increased revenues and profits.”

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Reach McElroy Translation at

910 West Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
800 531 9977
512 472 6753
512 472 4591 fax
sales@mcelroytranslation.com