In recent years, HYPNOTEYES from Fendi, Barcelona from Loewe, PETITE MALLE from LV are all IT Bags that enjoy much spotlight. Though the three bags in completely different styles are all LVMH assets, but personally I am fonder of PETITE MALLE, for its exquisite and delicate look. And compared with Fendi and Loewe, LV impressed me more deeply.
I am an account executive at TalkingChina, which is in partnership with marketing and communication departments of many companies, and the long-term partnership with LVMH group started in 2007. We have been providing language services for Louis Vuitton, Dior, Loewe, Givenchy, Fendi, Fresh, Guerlain, etc.
TalkingChina is distinctive in selecting and training translators. The translators for marketing communications materials are all experienced stylists and copywriters, who have been helping us maintain our expertise in the field. We believe a good translator knows well the clients’ market and product positioning. And we are conscientious about drafting style guidelines for clients, and the regular communications between translators and clients, making our translator the expert of clients ‘products and culture.
I manage the translation (websites, news release, internal documents) and interpretation (press conference, cosmetics conference release, in-house training) service for LVMH group. As an AE working for LV., I also need to handle the urgent marketing communications documents and guarantee the quality and the efficiency. As one of the brands used by the French Royal family, LV has a demanding standard for language and styles. My daily challenge is to give fluid, elegant, graceful and tasteful translations which are effective in communication and abiding by Advertisement Laws within very limited time.
I still remember an episode of June, 2017 when LV was staging the 2017 Spring Summer fashion show in Africa. Due to time difference, the official English news release will be sent to me by 14:00 (Beijing Time), and the Chinese version need to be released before 22:00. As the time was very limited, I planned early and booked the time of a translator who was a preferred translator of LV.
But on that very day, various reasons pressed the deadline to 18:00, which meant we had to translate and edit the 1500-word news release, and deliver a Chinese version of high quality in 4 hours. This is a great challenge for both the project manager and the translator. The translator I contacted beforehand thought it’s an impossible mission because of the suddenly shortened time and only 1000 words were within his ability. I had to search through our talent pool to find a second eligible translator to undertake the remaining 500 words. To guarantee the quality, we sent the first half of the translation halfway to client for style review, and I took notes of client’s feedbacks and provided them to translators who will edit the whole release accordingly……
Through concerted efforts, we have successfully accomplished the urgent task. Seeing the well-timed news releases on LV official website is a relief for all our team members, which makes our fast paced work rewarding. There are other times when we were under pressure and anxiety-ridden, but when we saw our translations on news release and advertisement complementing the products, all our hard work are rewarded.
