This weekend I was invited to a family dinner in an Italian restaurant. I was reunited with some friends who came back to the US after being in Argentina during the Winter- Spring season. They have been sharing their experiences in Argentina and the room was filled with joy and laughter. Then, it was time to order food and guess what I came across within the menu? A list of Argentinean wines. Yummy! I was overjoyed to know I could drink a good Malbec here, with my friends, and at the same time, felt as if I were drinking the bright, ripe and juicy flavor of life. And along with this spicy flavor, I brought you a poem to make you feel the way I felt:
“Wine
stirs the spring, happiness
bursts through the earth like a plant,
walls crumble,
and rocky cliffs,
chasms close,
as song is born.
A jug of wine, and thou beside me
in the wilderness,
sang the ancient poet.
Let the wine pitcher
add to the kiss of love its own […]”
And along with this cup of wine I was grateful to have the opportunity to get products 5,000 miles away and it was all thanks to globalization and translation.
New Market Opportunities
In Neruda`s Ode, the wine flourishes like international market. Nowadays, due to the interconnected global market, some developing and developed countries are only producing goods with comparative advantage.
In Argentina, for example, the industry of Malbec wine has exponentially rocketed in the last decade. A report from the National Wine Institute (INV) explains that there has been an increase in exports of 486% in 2013 over the same period in 2004. In the international market, globalization has forced some countries market to specialize and, as a result of their comparative advantage, most of them have bloomed. This growth is accompanied by the translation industry.
Translation and Marketing
It is not a casualty that employment of translators and interpreters is proliferating together with the international marketing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of translators and interpreters in the country is expected to increase by 46 percent between 2012 and 2022. Why? Because accurate translations play an important role in marketing and selling specialized products, whether exporting Argentinean Malbec, or Italian Nutella.
By means of a professional specialized translator, websites, advertisement and pamphlets can effectively reach potential customers in any part of the world. Thanks to translators, customers have access to specific information regarding contents, warnings and the way a product works.
Make a Difference
A good translation could be a good marketing or a bad one. If you really want to impact on your potential international consumers, not only do you need to effectively communicate the message, but also to present it in a neat way. A professional translator will employ all his linguistic and cultural skills to help your product stand out in the international market. As a result, you could effectively place the advertisement in a specific market.
IN BETWEEN CULTURES translation blog 
Agostina,
i never thought about translation in that way. I used to think that translators were only needed to translate literature, news happening around the world. It is interesting to see how translators are needed for all aspects of life. I remember once when i went to a hospital to do some volunteer work and someone asked me if i spoke french because a patient needed aid with medical help who did not speak english. I also once wrote a blog for my company over the summer, and they wanted this text to be sent to Puerto but they had to pay a company to translate it into spanish. It was funny that you mentioned nutella as an international product– i didnt know this. It will make me more aware of which products are international, it will also make me think about how a translator has worked very hard to communicate to many different people! its quite fascinating !
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I really enjoyed reading this post, Agostina. I never really thought about the connection between translation and marketing, but in today’s consumer-driven, globalized world, I definitely see how more translators will be crucial in the near future. I absolutely loved the way you introduced this post with an anecdote and the Pablo Neruda poem. (He’s one of my favorites!) I’m also glad you got a chance to drink some Argentinean wine; I’m not usually a big wine drinker, but you’ve made it sound so delicious that I might have to try a Malbec myself! 🙂
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