Recruiting Korean Students: Larson’s Law on Localization
Over the past decade or more, I have had countless conversations with U.S. university, college or boarding school administrators responsible for student enrollment and recruitment. Yesterday, for example, Dr. Stephen Allen, Executive Director of Enrollment Management at Southern Utah University, visited our offices and we had a valuable conversation about his university and their use of our promotional services. In every one of these conversations with representatives of U.S. schools, the topic of localization arises. This leads me to propound “Larson’s Law on Localization,” as follows.
Larson’s Law on Localization: To effectively promote a school or other educational products and services in Korea, all key promotional information should be translated into Korean and adapted to local media patterns.
This basic law or principle of consumer behavior and the Korean education market may seem obvious to you, but it is not universally understood or accepted. We regularly hear the argument that “Korean students are planning to study in the U.S. Therefore, they need to have a command of English in order to apply to and consider our school, or attend a study fair.” This argument ignores the fact that Koreans normally think, listen, speak and write in their native language. It also ignores the crucial reality that a student’s parents, who frequently will foot the bill for education in the U.S., are also interested in the information. They may or may not have a strong command of English.
This is only an initial post on this issue, but I think it deserves the status of a “law,” akin to the well-known Moore’s law, stated many years ago by the founder of Intel. After all, Korea has a culture that is thousands of years old, strong respect for education and an alphabet that ranks as its top cultural asset. It stands to reason that Koreans will expect some important points to be delivered, through whatever medium, in their own language. In marketing communications terms, this country probably represents the ideal case of a nation where “localization” rather than “globalization” of the promotional message is required.
Fulbright Korea, as an established bi-national organization here in South Korea, has unique credibility and also excellent resources to assist U.S.-based schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. Localization is one of our core competencies. I encourage your questions and reactions, and we will be happy to answer any questions you might have.