Back to the problem of marketing or distinguishing oneself as an "out of this world" language/localization service provider (LSP). Why are YOU the agency I should pick to meet my translation and localization needs?
In the Buyer's Guide of the most recent issue of MultiLingual Magazine, I counted no fewer than 19 advertisers who refer to themselves as a leading company, provider, tool, etc.
OK, let's think about this for a minute. What does it mean to be a leading company? Doesn't that imply that other companies are following in your footsteps, trying desperately to keep up with your innovation? Or at least they are following your lead as you pioneer into the future. Or maybe it means that you lead the market in your given area. Maybe you have more business than other LSPs and thus you lead the market in sales numbers.
Again, the issue here is NOT whether LSPs are good at what they do. Obviously, some are better than others, but there are a lot of people out there doing a lot of good work. This post is about image. Marketing. Presenting yourself. Particularly to people who don't know much about language services.
Whatever your competitive advantage, you know you are in trouble if 18 other companies in the same advertising space are using the same language to describe themselves. Reading the ads in this issue reinforces the idea that all LSPs are the same. That's not an idea you want bouncing around the brains of your potential customers. Because if all LSPs are the same, what's the only thing that matters? Price. Who can sell their services the cheapest. And we all know that as a seller, you lose when you compete on price.
And let's face it, in a $33 billion industry where no one company has more than 4% market share,* are there any companies who are truly leading?
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*This is not a verifiable number, but was overheard at Localization World 2011. If anyone knows where to get market information, PLEASE let us know! Here is an interesting article by Adam Wooten about difficulties that arise when estimating the language market size and distribution.