Let us complete our brief analysis on how to use professional translations as a tool for expanding corporate clients to international markets by studying in greater detail a fundamental and often overlooked aspect: that of the choice of languages into which to translate a company’s promotional, legal and commercial materials.
A legacy still exists of a situation that has no longer corresponded to reality for decades now, but which was consolidated in the collective imagination when the long road leading to globalization began - much slower than today, and with many more limitations to those who really had access to it. Such legacy holds that English is "the international language" sufficient for any communication with foreign countries.
It must be admitted that, when this idea spread, it was essentially true: international communications between companies were not so frequent, and those who dedicated themselves to it needed a lingua franca that they could always use, as it woul be unfeasible to use dozens of them for sporadic, or perhaps unique, communications with a specific country. However, it is precisely globalization that has made contacts and sales between companies in different countries so frequent that it has, paradoxically, dictated the end of this situation: while English still is a very important language, which is understood almost everywhere, at the same time an enormously enlarged international audience has begun to increasingly expect to hear their own language spoken by those who approach it to propose products or services.
For a long time, as a result, the translation choices of companies were oriented towards European languages, the most widespread, and those that best matched the most interesting markets: German, French, sometimes Spanish for some commercial sectors. The increase in contacts with the Balkan countries and with Russia has then added other languages to the repertoire, but always to a lesser extent: the idea of a "complete website" has consolidated around three foreign languages (English, French, German) and for brochures bilingualism with English is still though of as ideal.
These were not random choices: as we have mentioned, these were the languages hat allowed us to communicate with companies in the most interesting markets. But is this situation still true today, or is it that the classic triptych of languages is perhaps no longer a sacred monster, and different choices are possible?
The truth is that, nowadays, every company has a potentially different international market, according to many variables, related to its field of operations, its level of service, its price policy. And this means that every company needs to speak different languages, and that the only possible criterion for choosing which ones to focus their translation efforts on (and therefore the related budgets) - is that of the market. Where are the most important markets for your products located? Which countries have a smaller market for now, but with very strong potential developments for your reference sector? In which countries having a strong demand for your service or products has your competition not yet arrived?
Orienting your choices according to these rules means spending your translation budget in the smartest possible way, and therefore not only reducing costs compared to an often impossible attempt to do "everything at once", but above all having the maximum return on investment, so as to be able to finance subsequent operations and gradually work to expand the translation from a few materials of immediate interest to the entire documentary base of the Company.
Among the factors that make it more convenient to collaborate with a professional translator and proceed with the translation work gradually, one of the key elements is certainly related to translation memories (https://www.bantelmann-translate.de/en/terminology-management). Corporate texts, by their nature, have a strong repetition of technical terminologies and concepts, which must indeed always be presented by the use of the same words to offer the reader maximum clarity and allow him a thorough understanding of the text. This becomes of paramount importance when, as we have seen, translation work is begun on a subset of commercial documentation to be later continued by translating other materials.
A professional translator, in fact, employs systems that allow him to keep track of those concepts and those identifying technical terminologies we were talking about a little while ago, and even when reapproaching an older project the availability of such technical memories ensures that those terms are translated with the same words and effective expressions which were earlier approved. In addition to ensuring the best understanding by foreign customers, this also allows to partially contain costs, optimizing company budgets.
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