Best Practices

Advantages of Glocalization for Medium to Large Businesses

Glocalization is a technical term encompassing globalization and localization—two processes that work in tandem to grow your business abroad.
Gabriel Fairman
2 min
Table of Contents

Glocalization is a technical term encompassing globalization and localization—two processes that work in tandem to grow your business abroad.

Glocalization is required to construct a plan to enter a new market, implement that plan, and anticipate any hindrances to the market launch. While glocalization is a catchy buzzword used by businesses seeking to expand authentically to a new market, it can be somewhat unrealistic. Understanding the process in depth will help companies grow without wasting resources and realize the advantages of glocalization.

What Is Glocalization?

Glocalization is a term created for the concept of making a product a global success while maintaining local cultural authenticity. A healthy approach to glocalization is to begin by using a platform to localize content for each market, making it culturally appropriate while maintaining the original content’s integrity. The product’s integration will happen gradually as the business grows and matures in each country.

A growing consumer base will allow more freedom and capital to further adapt content to a specific region without disrupting the integrity of the global operation. On the other hand, initial hyper-localization of content is an unreasonable goal for businesses entering new markets. It can create a deviation from the initial product and prevent your business from performing with cohesion.

For example, it would be like building a global chain of “mom and pop” restaurants unique to each country instead of a global chain of restaurants that consumers know belong to your brand but still resonate with their culture.

Globalization, Internationalization, and Localization

The overall method of expanding a product globally and efficiently aligns three separate processes to create, adapt, and implement a strategy for launching the product into new markets. These processes are known as globalization, internationalization, and localization.

Globalization

Globalization refers to the comprehensive business strategy that assesses the financial benefits of entering a specific market. This process includes strategizing measures such as:

  • Reviewing which countries need the product
  • Creating marketing strategies for each country
  • Developing a target audience
  • Evaluating the expected return on investment for each country
  • Deciding on the pricing for products in each country

Globalization, at its core, is a process for assessing the likelihood of gaining capital in a new market and strategizing the most economical way for that capital to increase.

Internationalization

Internationalization is the process of developing a more in-depth strategy for navigating how to adapt a product to new markets. It approaches the more logistic components needed to launch a product in a new country. Some of the standard strategy components included in internationalization are:

  • Deciding assigned roles for each person in the localization process
  • Evaluating the cultural appropriateness of each product aspect
  • Assessing the effect translation will have on specific variables to aid with character conversion to different languages

Internationalization aids the overall process by determining what steps will ensure the estimated capital in the globalization strategy.

Localization

Localization is the actual execution of all the strategies. It implements the globalization and internationalization strategies in each specific market and uses a tactical approach to materialize the ideas for product adaptation. Localization includes factors such as:

  • Deciding which translation management tools to include in the localization process
  • Finding ways to translate content and preserve brand messages and slogans
  • Prioritizing content translation to adapt the product more efficiently
  • Choosing various vendors in the specific country to aid the market release

Localization is the final piece of the process, putting everything in motion. Globalization, internationalization, and localization are not organized in a pyramid but rather as a systemic approach where all processes align to get the job done. For instance, a globalization strategy can be reworked after the logistics from the internationalization strategy are assessed. Placing the three components side by side increases the chances of successfully adapting a product to various markets.

Advantages of Glocalization

Using all three strategies for launching a product in a new country and gradually adapting towards a more local product in each market will result in a product’s successful glocalization.

The advantages of glocalization involve realizing a considerable increase in revenue across markets and a significantly broadened consumer base. It is also helpful for flexible product scaling to test different products on the market and adjust rollout methods for new products to enhance your ROI. Having the overall strategy work in tandem gives you the best method of adapting your product to new markets while preserving your original concept, progressively maturing to meet local tastes in each country.

Working with a localization management platform that prioritizes your business strategy needs and quality translation and adaptation can provide a more seamless route to implementing your product plans and elevating your brand in new countries.

Bureau Works is an innovative platform that can help you create an efficient strategy workflow to make your product a global success. Contact our team today to find out how we can help you take advantage of glocalization best practices to get your product to market more efficiently.

Gabriel Fairman
Founder and CEO of Bureau Works, Gabriel Fairman is the father of three and a technologist at heart. Raised in a family that spoke three languages and having picked up another three over the course of his life, he's fascinated by the role of language in shaping identity. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Gabriel was honored with the 2023 Innovator of the Year Award at LocWorld Silicon Valley. He enjoys cooking, playing the guitar, and leading teams toward innovation.
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