If you have a great product or service, you are sure to want to market it to a larger audience. But how do you know where and when you should launch it, and whether the market is ready to accept your product. The answer could well lie in market research.

What is Market Research?

Market research is the process of systematically gathering, recording and analyzing data about customers, competitors and the market. Multilingual market research is conducting market research in more than one language.

Why Multilingual Market Research?

Multilingual market research can help your business:

• Develop an accurate business plan before the launch
• Accurately understand the competition an already existent product may have
• Expand into newer market segments

What does Multilingual Market Research involve?

Like all other market research, multilingual market research includes:

• On-line data collection
• Audience /communication research
• Qualitative research
• Face to face surveys
• Telephonic surveys
• Advertisement research etc

When a company is planning to enter a new country, multilingual market research can prove to be a big hurdle, not just because of the language barrier, but because of the need for understanding local cultural aspects as well. Thankfully in the age of outsourcing, numerous companies actually offer services in multilingual market research.

These companies have teams of qualified linguists and researchers. This team of researchers will translate the questionnaires and other documents into the local language and conduct the research in the language of the populace being researched. This allows the outsourcing company to focus on its core area, namely refining the business strategy and sales.

It is not uncommon to find people referring to translation and interpretation in the same breath, often confusing one with the other. While some translators may indeed be interpreters and vice versa, those who know the difference between translation and interpretation would agree, that they are both radically different activities. But what really is the difference?

Back to Basics

For starters “Translation” refers to the process of converting communication from one language into another language. The translation is usually of frozen texts or events, say a book or a recorded TV program or even an audio file of a person’s speech.

“Interpretation” on the other hand is a real-time activity. It has everything to do with the spoken word. An interpreter often facilitates communication between two people, by converting the language spoken by Mr A to that understood by Mr B and the reverse.

Some differences between Translation and Interpretation

Agreeably, both translators and interpreters have an in-depth linguistic and cultural knowledge of the languages they work with. They also have a well honed skill of communicating precisely. But there are a few things that differentiate them, for example:

• Translators often work from their home, their job being a desk one. While interpreters work real time and are found at conferences, seminars and other live events where foreign delegates may be present.
• Translators have good writing skills, while interpreters have a good verbal command over the language, a good memory and a clear speaking voice.

With cheap and rapid means of communication like the internet, there is a huge potential for the exchange of information and it is here that translation displays its real potential.

Information in regional and lesser known languages can be easily translated and disseminated to large audiences. The good thing about translations is that it can be easily outsourced.