Is Hispanic Purchasing Power Showing You the Money?

Is  Hispanic Purchasing Power Showing You the Money?

If you aren’t already marketing your business to the Hispanic people in the United States, you might be missing a huge opportunity for a powerful source of new revenue. Everyone knows that the Hispanic population in the U.S. is growing, and rapidly, but do you know the stats?

In the 2000 Census, there were 35,300,000 Spanish-speaking people living in the U.S. That number was estimated in 2007 to be around 45,000,000. Though the numbers from the 2010 Census just taken are not in yet, it is a fact that the exploding Hispanic population is the fastest growing minority in the U.S., expected to surpass 50,000,000 by the year 2025.  I have to stop myself sometimes and think ‘Wait, was that 50 million?’

It is. And that’s a lot of people, people who want what you have to sell. Hispanic buying power is, in fact,  growing faster than non-Hispanics. The estimated purchasing power of this ethnic group is $600,000,000,000. Yes, that number is in the billions. Wow! You don’t want to miss this growing niche; translating your marketing tools into Spanish just makes sound business sense.

We at Galindo Publicidad specialize in translating your marketing materials into… well, any language you wish, but here we are talking about Spanish and the amazing marketing opportunity that smart companies are starting to tap. Consumer behavior/spending studies tell us that in terms of discretionary income, 17% of the Hispanic population are young, probably under the age of 20. Another 5% of that population are older than 50, which means that the remaining percentage are those working for a living, striving to support their families, carve out a career, and make a good life. In other words:  consumers  tend to be loyal.

As you know, all Spanish-speaking U.S. residents do not hail from Mexico. Many come from other Central and South American countries, as well as Puerto Rico and Cuba, naming just a few. And let’s face it: no matter where our citizens come from, we are all part of the consumer-driven society that is America. And, since the bilingual skills and preferences differ in most households, addressing the group in both, Spanish and English, may always get you covered. Yes, the economic fortunes of the estimated 47 million U.S. Hispanics are growing and businesses are paying attention. Are you?

·  data source www.america.gov

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Translating or Interpreting? What is the difference?

People have asked me so often about the difference between “Translation” and “Interpretation” that I thought I would dedicate my first blog of the new year to practically briefly explaining how they differ for you, my lovely readers.

A dictionary definition of “Translating” is: an act, process, or instance of translating, (a rendering from one language into another in writing).

Anu Garg’s definition of translation, in part, as “Internationalization” – making a product suitable for use around the globe is a practical definition that fits Galindo Publicidad to a T. We take the words you use to market your product or service and translate them in perfect tempo for consumption in almost any language(s) you choose.

“Interpreting,” refers to the act of orally transmitting the message from one language to another.  So, you have consecutive or simultaneous interpreters in court, depositions, business meetings, conferences, etc.

To really translate or interpret, the professional must be fluent not only in the language in which the work is written or being spoken, but must also possess an understanding of the culture from which that body of work came. Interpreting allows for a more subjective perspective which gives a creative license and a challenge on the spot. Yes, less time to check terminology, more room for errors.  We have all heard many stories of advertising catastrophes also where just one wrong word changes the entire meaning of an ad, making it offensive or just plain insensitive, and the campaign becomes a disaster.

You know we are very proud of our work at Galindo. Your marketing campaigns and  international documentation pieces are safe in the hands of our experienced, native, multi-linguist translators. Keep in mind that  teams for translation and interpreting are not the same. Each has a level of expertise and a set of skills. A few can function in both niches well. Once we know and understand the markets you want to reach, we guarantee our work to be “disaster proof!”

As an aside, I have always been fascinated with how much our internal radar relies on visual language, or symbols used in place of words, to navigate our way through life. A culture of symbols predating or aiding the spoken language from so many social and cultural perspectives can be found in every part of the world. From colors to textures to flavors, accents and tones… Oh, a topic for another time!

Until then,

Martha

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Captioning: Are You Reading This?

 

 

For some time you, our clients, friends, and supporters, have read our blogs about translation, and how much the simple practice of translating your marketing materials into other languages can help grow your business. But there is yet another way to add value to your marketing dollars, both in your native language and the niche language of your potential new customers. And that is Captioning.

Every now and then, a fresh and exciting way to do the business of selling our business comes up, and  captioning fits that description for me. Businesses are already learning that captioning opens a whole new arena of ways to reach audiences of any economic strata. Using captioning is the vanguard of marketing to come; marketing that is inclusive of everyone.  And that, in any language, spells out success!

Imagine the added numbers of consumers you could reach simply by close captioning your native-tongue and already-translated pieces. Many people are unaware of just how significant the market, and the current push for, closed captioning has become. There are people all over the world, who speak too many languages to list, that are advocating for more extensive and expansive closed captioning. It is a very interesting, on trend topic.

How can captioning in any language  be used to help your marketing efforts? Do you use commercials? Infomercials, webinars, Youtube?

A few examples include: captioning on all TV shows; even if there are no hearing impaired in a household, captioning can offer the option for one person to watch a program without disturbing another. And of course if there are hearing-impaired in the household, and you advertise on TV, then your message, through closed captioning, is reaching so much further!

Closed captioned TV commercials also help the hearing public learn more about products and services on the market by allowing those words absorption through sight in addition to sound.

Here is an article for further reading that gives some very persuasive reasons for why closed captioning is so in vogue on Youtube: http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-closed-captions-seo/

As I write this, the FCC is receiving more requests every day, advocating for broader legislation requiring captioning on more venues. Soon captioning may just be the law. Why not jump over your competition now? Reach out. Contact us for more information about how easy it is to caption or subtitle  your infomercials and commercials, webinars and Youtubes, in any and many languages!

Happy Holidays to You All,

Martha

Tell us, have you had an experience when closed captioning where you didn’t expect to find it made your experience a richer one? We love hearing your thoughts, comments, and experiences.

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“Happy Holidays” is Easy to Translate

 

Here comes the holiday season again, and it seems to me I just put away my straw hat and beach towels. Is time moving faster and faster? Or does it only seem that way because, in our ever-more connected world, messages from our loved ones, friends, acquaintances, even the messages we find every day in the media, are zipping around the world faster and faster.

This makes me wonder: how do we prepare for a world that moves faster than we can say “multilingual translation?”

When I first started Galindo Publicidad, Inc., this is the question that drove us and became the core of our mission: help our clients create business communication that pushes the limits, bursts through old paradigms, and joins the exciting multilingual domestic communities and the international business world.

Global trade, international business—they depend on communication. Communication depends on effective and accurate TRANSLATION. The business that cannot successfully market its goods and services globally will soon be the business that falls behind. Companies that forge ahead use effective translation to connect with their customers in the modern business milieu across the globe.

Galindo Publicidad, Inc. offers translation services to help our clients carefully script commercials and infomercials, webinars, you-tube, and more. We target the niche you want to reach with advertisements, collateral, manuscripts, directions, and instructions that stay true to your content,  so the father in Brazil can piece together a tricycle from the U.S. on Christmas Eve, or a wife in Hungary can unveil an import motorcycle for her husband during Hanukah!

Translation is the edge that international business rides as our world interacts. As the holidays approach, the happy faces around us can say “Happy Holidays” without any words. We are thankful to promise our clients that through the holidays and beyond, we celebrate your successes. All through the year, at Galindo Publicidad, Inc. we can share our expertise and offer this most vital business tool: multilingual translations for a more connected world.

Happy Holidays to You!

Martha

We love to hear from you! Please tell us how translation has helped grow your business, or share with us your thoughts about our interconnected world; we always respond, and we encourage all our readers to comment, too!

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The Buffet of Words

In the middle of recent developments and opportunities,  I came across something I wrote a while ago regarding the great impact a trip to Hanover, Germany had on me.

A visit to the world’s largest exhibit of new technology awaited me. In my eyes, it seemed a museum of the future, full of interesting gadgets and instruments, all designed by top scientists who gave us the endless possibilities and potential to communicate and work together. For a brief moment, I felt like an information-starved child, given a grand buffet of words, experiences, and seemingly impossible devices of knowledge, for no apparent reason; it seemed that this knowledge banquet was a playground, full of toys designed, assembled, and brought together from places throughout the world, to specifically ‘feed’ the famished stomachs of all the ‘information-starved professionals’ such as you and me.

The overwhelming truth is that the event almost made me want to yell for the entire world to hear, “What an inspiration! What an invitation to open our eyes with awe and perceive the globe and the new process of trust building in this century!”

 

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Is your company open and ready to fuel its growth under this new set of principles?

Are you ready to navigate in this new multilingual era of social media options, Tryvertising and globally-assembled products and knowledge?

This is not meant to sound  like a broken record, but the synergies of this flattening world start with language. The road to form a partnership with a nation other than our own is not without its fair share of bumps and curves. To communicate or not to communicate? That is NOT the question. The question is, “Are you ready for the overwhelming amounts of doors opening in your favor once you step over the thin border that divides humankind’s diverse language and culture?”  

More and more it becomes obvious the need of communicating and understanding foreign languages for the success of many organizations. of today.

Did you know that 2005 was declared by Congress, the Year of Languages www.yearoflanguages.org?

So, the faster we fasten our seatbelts, the better off we will be in this journey of this International Super Highway through the flattened world, with an open 24-hour buffet of delicacies, which fills us  with enlightenment and that is available  around every twist and turn. Ohhh, and do not forget to caption your videos, your commercials, your web seminars, in the language of your choice… without captioning, you are not translating for the hard of hearing and hearing impaired. Learn about the need for such type of translation by visiting www.ccacaptioning.org and www.coataccess.org

From Egypt to Germany, from Mexico to Ohio, from India to Italy, our flexibility and expertise allows us to jump on this bullet train, compelling us with its self-service dining room, throughout the ride.

Sit back and relax, as your conductor, Galindo Publicidad Inc, guides you through the intricate weavings of civilization’s languages.

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TGIF? Or Is It TGIW?

At the end of a stressful work week people in the U.S. often say, “TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday).” In other countries the phrase probably is something equivalent to: “TGIW (Thank God It’s Wednesday)”. That’s because the work week ends on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, for example, not Friday.

The concept of a work week is fairly recent in human history. In many countries a six or seven day work week was standard up until the 20th century. The two-day weekend — comprising Saturday and Sunday — became U.S. law in 1940.

Customs are different in other countries. Did you know that in Muslim countries, for example, the day of rest is usually Friday? If you want to do business internationally it’s important to know what the boundaries of the working week are, because you don’t want to plan work related events  on a day that your international partner, supplier, or client considers a day of rest.

Here are some general guidelines about the working week in various countries.

. Indonesia — the largest Muslim country in the world, considers the work week to be Monday through Friday.

. Saudi Arabia, Oman — Saturday through Wednesday.

. Iran — Saturday through Thursday.

. Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Algeria  — Sunday through Thursday.

 . Israel — Sunday through Thursday, or sometimes till Friday at noon.

. Lebanon — Monday through Friday, but government offices are open till noon on Friday.

In the European Union the standard work week is from Monday through Friday. Retail shops are usually open on Saturdays but closed on Sundays and evenings. Laws vary in specific countries: in France, only a very small number of shops are allowed to open on Sundays, such as bars, cafes, restaurants and bakeries, and some are only allowed to be open Sunday morning. There is a trend in many EU countries for more shops to be open on Sundays.

In Asia, the Monday through Friday work week has been adopted by most countries, although in India, the standard week for many private companies includes a half day on Saturday.

Being aware of the laws and customs about the work week in foreign countries is important for your success in business. It’s just as important as knowing customs such as when to shake hands, or how to address someone in a business setting. It’s all part of the research you need to do if you want to have a successful business relationship with people in other countries.

At Galindo Publicidad, we care about your overall international experience and success. As language issues experts we have a deep understanding of idiomatic and cultural expressions, local customs, regional history, norms, ethnic groups, and hundreds of nuanced factors that will help you achieve your goals in your international business relationships.

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U.S. Announces Major Export Initiative — Translations Are Key To Effort

We all know that the U.S. economy has had a rough time in the last 18 months, with the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.

One strategy President Obama is using to bring the economy back is to increase U.S. exports. On March 11, 2010, he issued an executive order creating the National Export Initiative (NEI), which has a goal of doubling U.S. exports during the next five years. This will create an estimated two million jobs in the US during that time. You can learn about this and other initiatives to promote international market penetration at Export.gov  

 Although it takes time to develop a successful exporting program, exporting is a good long term strategy because it opens up new markets for companies.

Along with good and competitive products and services, there’s a key ingredient that every successful exporting program has. Good translations.

Exporting by definition means selling a company’s goods overseas. This involves breaking into markets where English may not be the primary language. The language barrier is surmountable, though, if you think of your translation company as more than just a machine for changing your words from English into another tongue.

A good translation company is a partner, a trusted resource that can help you shape your message, and translate those labels, specifications, instruction booklets, brochures, etc. 

A good translation company will give you its professional expertise about:

•  Idioms. Professional translators can advise you on aspects of your writing that need to be changed in order to communicate your message persuasively and accurately.
•  Choosing the right words. There are subtleties about language that a good translator can help you with. Just because a sentence makes sense doesn’t mean that it makes the best sense. A good translator can help you with the nuances of language, the subtleties that deliver the meaning beyond the words on the page.
•  Industry jargon. Every industry has its own internal language, and a good translation company has access to consultations with specialized staff in your target  language. .
•  Cultural factors. You can have all the words right but still not get the message across because of cultural differences. The right words will get the maximum impact for your message.

It’s in your best interest to look into the NEI program. If and when you do, make sure you enlist the services of a trusted partner, a professional translation company to help you.

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Keep It Conversational

David Ogilvy was one of the most successful advertising executives of all time. He made millions in the advertising business during his lifetime, and won numerous awards for his work. One of his first rules was to use simple, direct language. “I don’t know the rules of grammar,” he said. “If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular”

It’s easier said than done.

We all know the twenty dollar words, and too many of us use them every chance we get. How many times have you read business writing that sounds like the writer was trying to cram as many big words in as possible? To communicate well, however, it’s important to use simple, direct language.

That goes double for when you’re trying to market a product or service. People respond to language that sounds the way they talk. Simple. Direct. Conversational. It’s how all the best advertising is written.

If you’re trying to market a product or service to an audience that speaks a different language, you still need to make it conversational and meaningful in that language.

That’s where a good translation company comes in. They know the language and understand the culture so well they can take your material and put it in words that sing. They don’t do a mere word for word translation. They can take dry business writing and make it come alive.

As mentioned in a previous post, the Hispanic market is booming, even in these down economic times. Statistics show that Hispanic media is a great buy for companies, because it reaches an affluent, educated audience at a reasonable cost. If you want to find new buyers for your products and services, it’s worth considering a foray into the Hispanic market.

If you want to reach those buyers, make sure you use a translation company that knows the expressions, the idioms, the conversational rhythm of the language, and the time and place for formal vs. informal writing, so that your message hits home with the largest number of your target group.

There are many opportunities available for companies that decide to expand into foreign language markets. The key is to find and grow with a translation company that knows how to keep things conversational in the language of your target audience.

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Can Translations Help To Shorten Your Sales Cycle?

 

The answer is YES.

You just came back from a great trade show in Brazil. You’re pumped up, because you made tons of contacts, gave lots of sales pitches, and distributed a boatload of literature. This is great news, and you’re sure it’s going to mean more business for your company. Most of the people you dealt with spoke perfect English, and you have no doubt that your message got through to them.

But what about other people in their company? What about other decision makers, or even people further down the line who have input on the decision about whether to do business with you or not? Can you count on their English being as good?

And that sales literature you distributed — it was in English, right? What if it gets back to the office in Brasilia and the people who read it have a less than perfect grasp of English? What if there are misunderstandings that create problems after the sale, or even kill the sale outright simply because you didn’t have the foresight to get your literature translated before the trade show?

This happens a lot in international business transactions. English is a widely used language, and many businesspeople around the world can speak and understand it. However, that doesn’t mean that they understand it as well as their native language, or that they don’t have colleagues back in the home office who are much less proficient in English. Colleagues who have input on decisions involving your products or services.

The next time you schedule a trade show where there will be a lot of potential customers from non-English speaking countries, do this:

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• Plan in advance to get materials such as your presentation, collaterals, technical specifications, and business profile properly translated. This makes good business sense, because you won’t have any translation problems that could get in the way of making a sale.

When you do this, you shorten the sales cycle. Having your important documents (including a partial profile or sections of your Web site) already translated allows you to hit the ground running when you’re on a sales trip.

Here are some more points to remember about translations:

• Don’t allow the customer’s interest to cool down. If you have to come home from that trade show and then wait weeks to get important documents translated, the customer could lose interest.
• A good business translation takes time. Translators can work fast in an emergency, but if you give them a deadline that is too shortyou add risk factors and may not get the  quality translation you are expecting.
• The next time you plan a trade show or sales presentation trip, get quotes for translation services of your important literature.
• Budget the cost and time of translation services as part of your sales expenses.

It’s a decision that will help you shorten the sales cycle, and convert those prospects into customers.

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Six Rules For Effective Foreign Language Press Releases

Most companies know the value of press releases, and are used to sending them out every time they have a newsworthy event to promote. Press releases are a great way to get some coverage from media outlets, and, unlike advertising, you don’t have to pay for them.

They’re also a great way to break into new markets, especially foreign language ones.

That’s a strategy more companies are starting to adopt. There are thousands of non-English language media outlets, and they offer a great opportunity for companies to get their message in front of a new audience.

The non-English U.S. market can be substantial. According to recent reports there are 2,453 unique U.S. Hispanic media outlets, including more than 1,200 print publications, and more than 1,000 TV and radio outlets and shows. There are also twenty AP-style wire services and news syndicates. In some cases these are the only media serving a particular Hispanic community. Any company with a product that fits this market would do well to send press releases to these key outlets.

Here are 6 rules for success in sending press releases to foreign language media outlets.

1. Make sure it is well-written. This is paramount, no matter what language you’re using. The press release should be written in a newsy style — crisp, factual, with a quote or two from a spokesperson to spice it up. It should not have awkward phrases, misspelled words, or bad grammar.

2. Follow the standard press release format. This means you use the third person, and an inverted pyramid style (the most important information and quotes come at the top). Always give dates, locations, and times in the beginning of the release. The final paragraph should summarize the release, and at the bottom you should have the information (name, phone number and email address) of the person you want the press to contact.

3. Allow for word expansion. Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian, for example, need about 20% more words than English to say the same thing. Plan for your press release to be longer in these languages, and be considerate with the space available.

4. Make sure it is translated appropriately. This is also very important. If you send a press release that is poorly translated it will mean the media outlet has to edit it, and not too many editors these days have the time to rewrite press releases. If there are clumsy expressions or phrases that the audience won’t understand, the press release will probably get thrown in the wastebasket. You should also avoid translations that are specific to one region or dialect, because they may not apply to a broader audience.

5. Make it newsworthy. The goal of a press release is to get publicity for your company. You have a better chance of achieving this if you can link the release to something that is important to the community you’re trying to reach. If you have a promotion that is planned, you may get more mileage out of it if you time it to coincide with a national festival or holiday for the ethnic group you’re targeting. This is something that a good translation company can help you with.

6. Tap into the translator’s expertise, and allow them to go beyond foreign words on the page. Let them know how creative you want them to be. They are communication bridges, and their knowledge about the culture you’re communicating with is very valuable to help you transcreate your ads, adapt your releases and tweak your message.

Don’t forget that the audience for foreign language media is in the millions. Press releases are a great way to reach any audience and test the waters — if you do them the right way.

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