How exciting – You’re launching a new product for customers in India! You need Indian language translation services in Hindi, Bengali and Urdu for your website. You also need product packaging in Telugu and Tamil for audiences in the southern part of the country. And you don’t want to forget about that Marathi voice over you need for a radio ad.
Our Indian Language Voice Overs & Subtitles
If your company is doing business in India, you certainly have a lot to think about. You also have the opportunity to reach a billion internet consumers! In fact, in 2027 India is set to become the world’s third-largest economy with the largest middle class anywhere on the planet. By 2030, 77% of Indians will be made up of millennial and Gen Z consumers, who are savvy internet users.
While this sounds exciting, the truth is that it takes a great deal of knowledge, experience and planning to succeed. For example, doing business in India is, in many ways, different than doing business in the West. Indian customers often expect you to build relationships with them before they consider buying your product. So marketing tactics like sales emails may not be as effective as sharing video content recorded in their native languages.
We understand that there’s so much to learn when it comes to expanding to a new continent, so we wrote this blog as a cheat sheet for expanding to Indian markets. Here are the basics of what you should know:
India Has…
States
Official Languages
Dialects
Written Scripts
Don’t count on marketing in English. Instead, focus on Indian language translation & localization.
Because there’s not one single language that’s spoken by the majority of Indians, a common misconception is that English is the language of business. However, only about 10% of India’s 1.3 billion people speak English fluently as a second language. To complicate things further, India is made up of 29 states, 22 official languages, 1,599 dialects, and 13 different written scripts!
The official language of India’s government is Hindi, but each of the 29 states are allowed to choose their own official languages. Hindi, which has roots in Sanskrit and Persian, is spoken by about 44% of the population that resides in the northern part of the country. Residents of south Indian and northeastern states do not speak Hindi, and mainly speak languages of Dravidian origin in addition to English as a second language.
If you’re expanding your company to India, you should be aware that the country has had what many refer to as “language wars” since India’s founding fathers gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Mahatma Gandhi, who is known as Father of the Nation, once told south Indian people that they would “remain totally separate from the rest of India” if they didn’t learn Hindi. Today, the debate over language is still a very serious national issue, with a recent letter from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, MK Stalin, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing the celebration of Hindi-oriented events in states where Hindi isn’t widely spoken.
Due to this emotional component, companies expanding to India need to be very careful that they speak to their target customers in their native languages. But with so many languages, dialects and scripts, how can you successfully reach such diverse markets?
Listen To Hindi Voice Overs:
The 22 Official Languages Of India
You’ll need to develop a multicultural marketing strategy.
Brands commonly use multicultural marketing to target specific cultural or ethnic groups. But multicultural marketing in India doesn’t mean focusing only on Indian language translation. It’s about connecting with audiences on a much deeper level – understanding their motivations, addressing their needs, and celebrating what makes them unique.
Not only can multicultural marketing help increase sales, but it will build your reputation and trust within the communities you’re trying to reach. India is a perfect place to use multicultural marketing, because so many different audiences live in the same country but speak different languages. Each group needs to feel included and realize that they’re valued.
The best way to put together a multicultural marketing strategy is to narrow down exactly who your target audience is. Do a deep dive into the regions they reside in. Learn about each region’s historical background and cultural nuances.
You’ll also want to create focus groups and conduct Q&A sessions with your target audiences. If one target audience speaks multiple languages, make sure to have a large enough focus group to test out your product and marketing strategy. Remember: Just because something works in one region, doesn’t mean it will work in another. You really need to become an expert on each audience you’re trying to reach.
Once you have marketing content created, be sure to have it precisely translated and localized. We can’t stress enough how important Indian language translation and localization is. Just read what can happen if your content isn’t localized!
Choose the right words and voices to connect with your audiences.
The same can be said for choosing the right words. Indian language subtitles and captions can help you build trust with your audiences, and they’re inclusive for deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals. But if you don’t translate and localize these words precisely, you can experience long-term negative impacts to your company.
Indian language voice overs, dubbing, and narration are vital when it comes to reaching your international goals. The voice actors you choose for your multilingual content creation (such as internet, TV and radio ads) will be the voices of your brand, representing your company and its values to the public. The right voices won’t just allow you to connect with audiences in India, but they’ll also help expose your product to Indian language speakers around the world. If you choose the wrong voices, though, you risk alienating or upsetting your audiences. This can lead to a lasting negative impact on your brand.
Listen To Tamil Voice Overs:
Avoid costly mistakes, and partner with a team of Indian language experts.
It goes without saying that putting a multicultural marketing plan together can be quite challenging. You might not have time to focus on every aspect of it, but you can count us to be your trusted Indian language translation, localization, voice over, and subtitling partner.
With more than 20 years of experience with Indian languages, bi-lingual content and cross-cultural marketing are among our specialties. From Indian language translation and localization to voice overs and subtitling in all 22 Indian languages, our foreign language production company consists of a large roster of qualified voice talents and an in-house team of language experts, sound engineers who are specifically trained in foreign languages, and project managers. Our team excels at working with multiple languages, and has skillsets that help them handle language and sound nuances.
We’d love to hear about your Indian language project. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us today for a free custom quote!