managers interact-are quite fluent in English. The flaw in this argument is that yes, your overseas counterparts-the managers and company owners around the world with whom most U.S. But after 20 years of quoting Brandt and consulting on international marketing communications with manufacturers, the first objection I get from managers in these companies is, "Well, all of our customers speak English." But if I’m buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen (… then you must speak German)."įor anyone who lives and works across borders or in multilingual marketplaces, this is self-evident. In the language services industry, there is a well-worn trope from former German Chancellor Willy Brandt: "If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. Equally amazing is how few companies treat well-produced product documentation as a competitive advantage-both in their home and overseas markets. No, translated product documentation does not sound very sexy, but it does make your product more appealing when you’re trying to sell abroad. While it’s easy to learn to use an iPad within five minutes, it may take five months to learn a complex piece of industrial equipment without product documentation.įor far too long, many manufacturers have treated product documentation in other languages as an afterthought, a luxury they could not afford.
For manufacturers of industrial machines, however, excellent product documentation is not optional. When device design is as good as Apple’s, users don’t need documentation. As consumers, either we have learned to take product documentation for granted or our expectations have gotten so low that we don’t even look at it and hope the product just works out of the box.įor consumer products, minimal or no documentation may be an option-especially if you are Apple.
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