The primary variables of interest (e.g. diabetes type, social class, how diabetes is managed, challenges consumers face) have been identified, and the next step is to operationalise them across cultures. At the most basic level, this requires linguistic translation of texts (Baack, Harris, and Baack 2012; Czinkota, Ronkainen, and Zvobgo 2011). That said, translation alone is not enough. Work must be done to ensure that there is conceptual equivalence of concepts across cultures, and across data forms in the case of secondary data (e.g. assessment of materials must be done to ensure that ‘social class’ is measured similarly across national health care systems; in cases where data is not comparable, standardization may have to be performed) (see de Mooij 2013 for more). Ultimately, however, since data will be used primarily to inform national strategies, rather than for comparison between nations, minor issues with comparability of data are not so much a concern. So long as data collection is representative of diabetes sufferers within each nation, it should be appropriate for our work.