As a language service provider, we know some translation needs are distinctive in nature: with an integrated marketing and communications concept, documents related to a company’s brand, image, markets information and products are normally under the charge of its communication or marketing department. The document types ranges from news releases, brand and product copywriting, portraits, multimedia releases, naming of brands, companies or products, advertising slogans, etc.
The differences between marketing communications translation and general translations:
|
items |
General Translation |
marketing communicationS translation |
|
Document Use |
Understanding the original text |
Branding, marketing, promotion, news release of the brand or product |
|
Target Audience |
Readers who want to get general ideas of the original text |
Target client, potentials, and senior professionals in the industry. |
|
Language Style |
Straightforward |
Elegant and idiomatic, fluid, marketing effective |
|
Translation Requirements |
Faithfulness; Accuracy |
With good understanding of the function of the original document and the culture of the targeted market, we adopt an approach of liberal translation to meet the cultural expectation of the targeted markets and to maintain the public image of the company, while delivering good communication effects.
For transcreation or copywriting needs, we use the original document as reference, communicate seamlessly with the client, posh the to-be-delivered document and make it perfectly presentable. |
|
Translator Qualifications |
Language graduates with a Master’s degree or professionals with experience related to the document to be translated; minimum 2 years of experience in translation |
Language major graduate or graduate majoring in the relevant domains; Master’s degree or above is a must; Minimum 5 years of experience in translation or copywriting; Native translators or overseas Chinese translators and copywriters with good Chinese skills. |
|
Details of Service |
Complete translation on time; no/little direct communication between translators and clients. |
High responsiveness; Tighter schedule and more frequent communications with the client; More fixed translators/copywriters team for each client; Detailed style guidelines; Advertising Law compliance service, etc. |
Pain Points of Marketing Communications Translation Needs:
1、Timeliness: What should I do if the release deadline is tomorrow?
2、Styles: What if your style deviates from our corporate culture and you are unfamiliar with our products?
3、Effectiveness of communications: What if literal translation is not as effective as the communication requires?
Solution to the Pain Points:
1. Three value-added service: terminology database, corpus and style guideline made by TalkingChina, including the language style, format, considerations and constraints;
2. The fourth value-added service: regular communications such as trainings, teleconference and learning materials to make translators, copywriters and team members to learn the culture and products of the client company;
3. Advertising Law compliance: screening of prohibited words manually or by customized development tools
4. Response time: Within 20 minutes with emails, calls, WeChat messages, QQ messages and other communication tools;
5. Translator/copywriter team: a fixed translators/copywriters team for a specific client; they are expert at target languages and styles, with a professional advertising and copywriting background;
6. Production and delivery: adopt liberal translation, transcreation or copy writing approaches based on the aims of the marketing communication materials.
Three Service Products and Their Workflows:
|
Services
|
1. Translation of marketing communications articles |
2. Transcreation or copy writing of marketing communications articles |
3. Transcreation of brand names, company name s or advising slogans |
|
Workflow |
Translation +Editing +Proofreading +DTP (with necessary communications) |
Ø Transcreation: understanding original text+ creative translation after communications+ editing+ DTP (with plenty of communications) Ø Copy writing： Understanding the marketing intentions + direct writing in target languages+ editing + DTP (with plenty of communications) |
creative translation proposals + proposal illustrations (with plenty of communications) |
|
Delivery Standard |
Complete, fluent, accurate, stylish and effective in communication; meet deadlines. |
||
Case study:
In practice, we have many cases of all the above mentioned three products in marketing communications translation service, which is of great significance in identifying and meeting the differentiated needs. Below is a case study about a Chinese to English company name transcreation project.
The project workflow:
1. Learn about the positioning, the communication strategy of the product and the public image of the company;
2. Deep communications with clients to outline the creative translation;
3. Base on the outline to do transcreations, provide creative packages and give detailed illustrations;
Package 1: 5 proposals with explanations provided by senior local copywriters;
Package 2: 4 proposals with explanations provided by native English copywriters (bilingual);
4. Finalize the chosen proposal after meticulous communications with the client.
Conclusion:
In practice, language service providers need to be highly sensitive about clients’ needs. We have to identify them, and to upgrade or develop service product to meet them. But actually in many cases, clients’ needs are left unmet by some LSPs, and the service experience is horrible. The mistake does not lie in the quality of our product but in the types of products and services provided. You will never reach the destination if you set on the wrong path.
Client needs are the guiding star and axis of product development. Take marketing communications translation need for example, to which language service providers normally choose the literal translation approach. Lacking effective communication, they can hardly understand the product or the clients’ preferred language styles, company cultures and marketing schemes.
This is the background of Talkingchina’s developing marketing communications translation product. It is a critical task for us to analyze client needs, innovate the translator resource development, do effective and in-depth communications with clients and implement the right workflows to satisfy those needs, to help our clients communicate more effectively with their market.
