The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2018 - 13

is no differentiation. Commodities are
absolutely identical. Thus, from an
economic standpoint, it's pretty clear that
language services are not commodities.
Why? Because they can be differentiated.
And differentiation, it turns out, is a
freelancer's best friend.

DIFFERENTIATION
Differentiation is one of the key aspects of a
competitive market with seemingly similar
products or services, which must meet
minimum requirements. But translations,
as we all know, are all different. And
when these differences add value for the
consumer, they provide an avenue for
language professionals to affect their price.
As language professionals, we need to ask
ourselves what makes our services different.
I have proposed a pyramid of differentiation
to help us understand this concept better.
(See Figure 1 at right.) At the bottom of
the pyramid are the basic requirements
to work in our field: knowledge of two or
more languages. Everybody needs this skill
to work as a translator. Moving up higher,
in terms of differentiation, one may have
a degree in a language or a specialization
in certain fields, such as legal, medical,
technical, or finance. Differentiating even
further, we move up a step higher to adding
specific skills, like desktop publishing or
expertise in computer-assisted translation
tools, or experience in another country or
another field. And finally, at the top, is a
question mark, regarding what ultimately
differentiates one qualified language
professional from one another. Only that
individual can make that determination.

SO, WHAT CAN ONE DO?
Having introduced the economics
concepts above, we can now take a stab at
answering our initial question: Why can't
I raise my rates?
The answer comes in multiple parts.
First, language services are offered on
relatively competitive markets, where
individuals have limited economic power.
Our services are difficult to differentiate.
Consumers may not be capable of valuing
a good translation over a bad one.
Scarcity of qualified translators varies
considerably among language pairs.
The cost of "alternative services," like
machine translation, is low and attractive,
www.atanet.org

Figure 1: Language Professional Differentiation Pyramid

even if quality isn't commensurate. And
technology, in general, is constantly
changing expectations and cost structures.
While this analysis may sound
disheartening, it should not be misconstrued
as hopeless. We do have a range of possible
prices in every commercial language
pair, which tends to vary with quality,
experience, skills, reliability, etc.
So, what, specifically, can an individual
freelancer do? The short answer is:
differentiate, differentiate, differentiate.
By definition, differentiation is going to
be different for everyone. The important
thing for individual freelancers is to
determine how their services add value
to their customers. By differentiating
from the competition, they create the
opportunity to charge more.
A few of the ways differentiation can
succeed is through improved quality,
expertise, consistency, productivity,
business development, and unity. Unity,
in this case, refers to individuals joining
forces through professional associations,
such as ATA. Since each of us, on our
own, has relatively limited power to help
the industry understand quality and

differentiate one translation from another,
a professional association is one way in
which, together, we can educate the public
and ensure that our consumers value us
more like diamonds and less like water.
John M. Milan is the treasurer of
ATA. An ATA-certified translator
(Portuguese>English),
economist, writer, and
lecturer, he has over 20 years
of experience in language
services. He has an MS in microeconomics from
Ohio State University, where he was a Foreign
Language and Area Studies fellow, concomitantly
specializing in Portuguese translation during
his graduate studies. He also has degrees in
international political economy and Spanish from
Indiana University and studied abroad in Madrid,
Spain, as an undergraduate. He has been involved
in the Carolina Association of Translators and
Interpreters, an ATA chapter, for over 10 years,
serving on its board of directors for eight years
and as president from 2013-2016. From 1996 to
2005, he was based in São Paulo, Brazil, lecturing
as an adjunct professor of economics at a local
university, while also working as a freelance
translator and consultant. Contact:
john@milanlanguageservices.com.
American Translators Association

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2018
