Sponsor Impact report Breaking down the barriers Understanding cultural nuances and couching survey questions in a clear, jargon-free manner are essential to the success of global research campaigns. Rob Gray helps navigate the minefield that is international communication in the MRX space M ind your language! This is not a warning about rudeness, although rudeness might be an unintended consequence; rather, its a pointer to the problems that arise from using sloppy, hard-to-understand or unengaging language when conducting research. Language that fails to resonate with panellists, or is wide of the mark in terms of research objectives, may equate to opportunities missed, spiralling costs and data of dubious quality. It may prove an insurmountable barrier to accessibility. There are two major aspects to language-related problems that risk undermining research: clarity of communication and cultural adaptation. In the case of the latter, this is most obviously an issue for international/global research, although it is equally applicable when conducting research among minority groups in the UK who do not speak English as a first language. More on that later, but first lets address the huge area that is international research. International projects with data collection in one or more overseas country, but controlled and invoiced from the UK, have long been a particular strength of UK suppliers. In 2016, The Market Research Society (MRS) found projects of this kind represented 36% of UK research revenues, and the picture seems little changed since then. As noted in the ResearchLive Industry Report 2021: The UK retains its long-term status as a hub for management of international projects. Given that around one third of projects emanating from the UK are international in nature, cultural adaptation is certainly far from a minor consideration. Yet many researchers believe there is still a long way to go in getting the language aspects of such projects right even in English-speaking, or supposedly English-speaking, markets. In a global research context, people tend not to think about English-speaking markets, says Ruth Partington, chief executive of Empower Translate, a specialist in market research localisation. We do a lot of English adaptation adapting UK English for markets such as the US, Australia, Singapore and India. We do global adaptation for accessibility. If you go into China and you speak UK English, its much less recognisable to the Chinese than American English, because theyve all grown up watching Friends, or whatever American TV series it might be. So, there are the nuances and contextualisation. A good example of how layers of meaning may easily be missed by an English speaker from outside the UK is provided by the so-called pork pie plot against Boris Johnson, in which Conservative backbenchers with concerns about partygate met in Melton Mowbray. How likely is it that someone who has never lived in the UK would grasp that Melton is the home of the pork pie, or the fact that porky pie is also rhyming slang for a lie? Clearly, one would not necessarily be dealing with such layers of complexity when doing market research. Nevertheless, it is important to understand and, where necessary, explain cultural context, so that people can really engage with what you ask them. Mustard Research strategy director Andrew Wiseman says that, on balance, he would argue that local language is preferable for international research, but that the debate is complex. For some audiences, especially in the B2B space, using English internationally is the norm, on the premise that decision-makers in global organisations typically speak English as a secondary language. However, for many consumer audiences, the fluency of English is unlikely to be native, although admittedly at a higher level of fluency than our own foreign language skills may be. Of course, its helpful to have access to language skills in the immediate research team, but this mustnt 20 Impact ISSUE 37 2022_pp20-29_Report.indd 20 30/03/2022 12:29