Getting business ready for a global market is a trend that is unlikely to stop in the future. The world demand for translators and translation services is increasing at quite a reasonable rate at 5.5% per year. By 2018 this is supposed to increase to around 7.5%. This hike in demand for translations is mainly due to brands that are being marketed abroad. eCommerce is also responsible for the increases as consumers are prepared to buy products online from another country provided they can understand the product descriptions in their own language.
Business globalisation is when different brands are being marketed and sold overseas to a new line of customers. This takes the product outside of its normal home range. As it starts to become successful, other companies want to follow the trend and get their product materials translated too.
It’s not just translations that are becoming a boom industry, but transcreation services are facing an increase in demand as well.
Transcreation brings value to the range of translation services as it helps to ensure a brand’s message is got across in the right cultural context. It serves to adapt the tone, style and context of a product’s marketing materials so the consumer targeted gets a better feel for the product and is enticed to buy it.
Adapting translations to attract a particular culture is being emphasised on websites, on mobile apps, on digital games and even in video translations. There are many new types of translation projects emerging such as video gaming which if produced in English needs both a translation and a transcreation so that the roles played in the video games match what the creator intended when the game was first produced.
As brands attain a more and more international appearance it’s vital that markets are not missed by the translation industry. Translators need to look carefully at what is being demanded so if necessary they can upskill to match the demands of the changing nature of the translation industry.
There’s a lot of competition in the mobile gaming and mobile apps market and companies need to provide the information in the languages of the potential markets. Consumers won’t tolerate a bad translation. If they hear a particular game or app is difficult to understand because of a poor translation they will turn away from it and select a more appropriate one.