It has been well documented recently that the language service industry is flourishing in today’s global market; assisting businesses, individuals and corporations to communicate with their customers, interact with new markets and connecting businesses around the globe.
This boom is expected to generate US $46.52 billion globally, in 2018, according to GALA, the Globalization and Localization Association (a global, non-profit trade association for the language industry).
While there are some fairly obvious sectors that can benefit from language service providers, such as, travel and tourism, there are others, for instance manufacturing, which rely on the services offered by translation companies in order to distribute their products around the world, secure patents in new countries, and target new markets.
Here are five sectors that rely on the services offered by language specialists, translators, and localisation experts:
1. Ecommerce and Retail
The internet has forever changed the way we buy, sell and shop. There are millions of websites trying to market their products online, so making sure your website stands out from the rest is crucial to a successful ecommerce site.
However, if your website is only available in one language you may find your business is limited in its potential growth.
The key to a successful, global, online business is translation and localisation of your online presence. This should ideally include social media, your main website, advertising, customer support, and so on.
It is widely accepted that the majority of consumers prefer to purchase products from sites in their native language, and while English may be the lingua franca online, it doesn’t mean that consumers will purchase from a site that only has an English version.
Navigating a website, comparing and purchasing products, and accessing customer support networks are all easier to navigate if you can do so in your native tongue.
2. Financial Services Industries
The financial services sector (banking, insurance, investments, stock-brokers, credit card companies, and so on) is generally dominated by large, multinational brands which use b2b market knowledge to maintain their competitive edge.
Translation, localisation, and language play a huge part in their ability to successfully lead such massive global infrastructures.
The financial services sector plays a vital role in enabling a global trading arena.
To obtain new customers in overseas markets, every business must be able to trade in various currencies, move money from one country to another, and ensure financial security for their customers. The financial services industry facilitates these transactions.
Translation and localisation, provided through the language sector, enable various financial services to operate on a global scale, thus supporting ecommerce and worldwide trading. The translation of financial documents, forms, official papers, and transactions assist financial companies in their day-to-day operations, ensuring they can meet the needs of their customers.
3. Travel and Tourism
Here we have another sector that has witnessed massive growth in the last few decades, and in order to enable this growth, the travel and tourism sector needed to communicate in many languages, in every part of the world.
Accurate, reliable, and concise translations are essential for maintaining good relationships with global partners, clients, and colleagues. Brand loyalty in the tourism trade is vital to success.
Incorrectly translated marketing, poorly localised websites, or misrepresented information can cause customers to cancel a trip, terminate deals, and will ruin brand image.
4. Medical and Pharmaceutical
Medical and pharmaceutical industries are giants in the global business world. Translation is an essential part of operations, and ensures everything from dosage rates, to instructions for defibrillators, are correct and understandable in whichever country they are marketed.
By law, medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries must translate certain information on their products to ensure correct usage – it can literally mean the difference between life and death.
Another factor to consider in this sector is the use of interpreters. In locations such as, the UK, or Dubai, that have a high proportion of non-native speaking people, or a large expat community, interpreters are vital in ensuring that patients understand what is happening in hospitals, when they have to take their medication, and so on. Without this language assistance individuals could be at risk of significant harm due to misunderstanding information they have been given. This role should always be filled by a highly qualified and experienced language specialist as mistranslated information could be fatal.
5. Marketing
Marketing is all about communication, and if you can’t communicate your message clearly customers are likely to be hard to come by.
Where global campaigns are concerned, there are specific dangers associated with creative licence and its ability to transcend cultural difference. Idioms, humour, phrases, and colloquialisms are often only relevant to one language, or a specific region. For instance, in the UK you might find a shampoo commercial that shows a woman in the shower, however, this same advert in the Middle East would be considered vastly inappropriate.
Localisation is the key to successful global marketing, and should always be undertaken by native speaking language experts who can identify with the target audience. Cultural knowledge is vital in selecting suitable material for campaigns.
