Verbio® assists with international expansion for aerospace and manufacturing suppliers by providing support with contracts, marketing, and business connections.
Considering expanding your business on a global scale? There are many facets to study, but there is help. Verbio Group of Beaverton, Oregon, provides multilingual communications for worldwide businesses. This service is mission critical for commercial aerospace businesses that wish to grow in a worldwide economy.
Virginia Joplin studied languages and European studies in college. By her senior year, she knew she wanted to work as a translator. She founded Verbio in 1996. Like many entrepreneurs, she started picking up contract work as she was learning about marketplace needs.
She worked for various companies in the roles of corporate training, project management, software localization, and technical manual translation. She developed diverse skills by acquiring multiple career experiences, plus living in France and Costa Rica for a time.
Today, the company has 10 employees and around 4000 worldwide contractors. Verbio offers full-service marketing and communications services, including translation, interpreting, audio-video media, subtitling, eLearning modules, ASL translation interpreting and cultural and export consulting. They translate a multitude of languages.
Verbio helped SightLine Applications in Portland, Oregon in a recent case study. “SightLine Applications provides onboard video processors for advanced camera systems and applications. By integrating key video functions at the camera, we provide low latency, fully digital video critical to multiple applications.”
Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) are a big part of their business. These applications can be used in inspections, fire, border patrol, law enforcement, and search and rescue.
Mark Zanmiller, now retired, joined Sightline in 2012 in business development. At the time, the company made a few hundred thousand dollars in revenue and had a handful of employees. Zanmiller and the team were tasked with global expansion through international markets. He said it was a layered process that included working with local trade groups like the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition (PNDC), Washington State and U.S. Departments of Commerce, and securing agency partners in foreign countries. They coordinated these efforts and determined they wanted to enter the Chinese market. They realized they would need an interpreter to travel with them. “We were weeks away from going, and the Embassy said we should have an interpreter with us,” he said.
Working with Verbio, he stated, “We found someone in a ridiculous amount of time.” Once arriving in China, they aimed to meet with a curated list of agency representatives who could serve as a local sales presence in the country.
Since that initial trip, Sightline expanded revenue to about $15 million, with sales to over 250 companies across 34 countries. They also now have partner representatives in 23 countries.
“Verbio’s involvement significantly improved the quality and success of our meetings during the trade mission.”
During early meetings, “Verbio’s interpreter quietly pulled SightLine’s executive aside to raise a concern that the customer’s interpreter was struggling to describe the customer’s message accurately. Verbio’s interpreter delivered a more technical rendition of the subject matter to the benefit of all participants.”
Translation services are much more than connecting two or more languages. According to Joplin, it can involve cultural applications that impact marketing. Their website, www.verbiogroup.com, further defines the business.
“(Verbio) executes multicultural marketing, multilingual communications, and international trade consulting to help you succeed in reaching your customers across 250 languages, across media, and diverse, global audiences.”
Ken Kaprielian joined Verbio Group in 2022 as the U.S. Sales Executive. He is focused on providing great customer service and building awareness for their services. He said he talks to between 50-80 customers weekly – “emailing and touching base” – and attends trade shows. He observed that when companies approach them about expansion into another country, Verbio first helps them identify their priorities.
He asks, are they seeking a translator or interpreter for meetings, help with documents and manual translation, or introductions to key players in the country?
Verbio offers subscription services for interpreting that can be available through a company’s phone system or via an app on your mobile device. He said they also provide many translations for apparel/textiles and legal industries.
For those who have seen bad memes of language translation gone wrong, Kaprielian said they offer “transcreation of advertisements – which means we are ensuring they don’t use offensive terms or representation of colors; [they ensure the use of] the right individuals within images of people, and font styles” that are culturally relevant.
Joplin said Verbio now has five locations in four countries. Oregon is the headquarters. She noted that their business in international trade helps companies with “the core of communications.”
She said that every company needs something different, “We are a bridge to facilitate communication in all its shapes. Sometimes customers need help facilitating a conversation.” Verbio asks, “Do they need someone to accompany them to meetings in another country? Do they need technical publications produced in a different language?”
Joplin mentioned that many partners are involved in the international expansion process. She said, “There are 60 District Export Councils, and the U.S. Commercial Service helps deal specifically with international trade and works with embassies overseas. The Washington Department of Commerce and Business Oregon start by working with smaller businesses interested in expanding and “who want to grow globally.” The U.S. Secretary of Commerce appointed Joplin in 2018 as an Export Advisor on the District Export Council for Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Joplin’s business has filled a market need and continues to grow, participating in regional trade organizations for their industry. For example, Carola Ibáñez, marketing and interpreter manager, joined Verbio in early 2020. She’s a native Spanish-speaker from Chile, fluent in English, and a passionate Francophile. She intermittently attends PNAA, PNDC, and other networking events and tradeshows. Other staff members attend international conferences, especially within the aerospace industry, like those in Aerospace Valley (www.aerospace-valley.com – Occitanie/Pyrénées-Méditerranée and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions), Seattle European American Aerospace Forum (SEAFF), and FACC’s French Aerospace Business Reception. Joplin and Kaprielian have also been involved in the Northwest’s “Leading Ladies Of”… events.
In summary
International expansion for regional aerospace companies can be intimidating. Understanding where to begin regarding laws and regulations, market readiness, and the ability to find local sales representatives can be challenging. With Verbio, much of the marketing communication material and initial introductions can be made.
Sightline said, “We have found Verbio to be easy to work with, professional in every way, and timely with their deliverables and advice. The interpreter they provided was excellent and of great value during our meetings on that trip. Though SightLine does have immediate plans for identifying our next agents, we know that partner companies like Verbio will be important for us to be effective in our international outreach.”
Translated in any language, a great customer testimonial tells the best story.
Contact information.
VERBIO GROUP – U.S. Headquarters
Beaverton, Oregon
Phone: +1-503-914-1119
Toll-Free: 1-855-678-7267
Email: hello@verbiogroup.com
issue
Services provided by Verbio Group
- Translation
- Multicultural marketing
- Multilingual audio video
- Interpreting
- eLearning
- International trade consulting
- Cultural consulting
- Localization for web and apps
Primary Languages
Note: this is not an exhaustive list. For a full list, visit www.verbiogroup.com/languages/
- Spanish translation
- French translation
- Chinese translation
- Japanese translation
- Russian
- Vietnamese
- Arabic
German
