Challenges When Localising Content for the Medicine and Pharma Industry
The healthcare industry is one of the oldest sectors in the world and a top employer in the US. Humans and animals alike are prone to thousands of diseases, and players in the medicine and pharma sectors have the solution to such ailments.
Communication has always been a big barrier between those who have the solutions and those looking for solutions. Localising content, which is simply composing messages in a manner that the end consumers can comprehend, has been one of the best approaches for players in this industry to pass their message.
Localisation puts the content in the cultural context of the target market and uses phrases and words that they are familiar with. Localising content may appear a simple thing, as a lot of people think that it is just translation. However, the following are some of the challenges you are likely to face when localising medicine and pharma content:
There are numerous stakeholders
The medicine and pharma sector has many stakeholders involved in different stages of the decision making process. The first stakeholders are the medical and pharmaceutical companies. These have the technical knowhow for preparing the products and understanding how they work. They also have marketing teams that target distributors who understand the technicality of the products.
The next stakeholder is the Language Service Provider. It is this provider that will assemble linguist teams with appropriate experience and education. The linguists will then be tested and allocated based on their output.
The SMEs are the last stakeholders in localising medical content. They are the subject matter experts who will proofread and edit the translated and localised content. Their professional feedback is essential just before the product launch.
The process is long
Localising content for industries such as food and beverages is a short process. However, when it comes to medicine and pharmaceuticals, the Language Service Provider must be in touch with every stakeholder during the entire process. There can be variances in stages depending on the product being developed. All the stakeholders should cooperate in developing content that will reach the intended market, engage them, and support growth.
The Language Service Providers must also evaluate the capability of the SMEs. How good are they at proofreading and is their advice reliable? The LSP will then formulate the timelines and deadlines based on the information they collect on the ground.
Make the content readable and understandable
Translating the content is not straightforward. You may find that the target language does not have some words used in the medical field. It can be difficult to decide which words should be translated and which should maintain their original form.
Content in this field can be very technical which makes it hard for the layman to understand. However, it is this layman who is the end consumer, which makes extremely technical marketing material useless. The linguist is still tasked with presenting the content in a readable manner. Such linguists, may at times, shift away from the source and adapt the meaning. However, these experts need to ensure that the content does not lose the original meaning.
Going digital is a challenge
Players in the medical and pharmaceutical space used to rely on posters, billboards and media space to reach out to potential customers. Times have changed and we now live in a digital world where more 3.6 billion people use social media and other digital platforms. Adapting localised content on the digital platforms can be a challenge especially for platforms that censor content published. It also calls for localisation of all forms of content you share across different platforms which can get expensive.