translation

Last week, a potential customer told me they prefer to translate their marketing texts themselves. They’re not interested in ordering translations from a translation agency. They had once ordered a professional translation from an agency and, as a result of the experiment, their relaxed marketing style had been turned into what the customer felt was something more like a scientific research report.

We discussed what might have caused the failure in the translation service. This customer, like many others, seemed to have a somewhat incomplete understanding of what a translation agency does and doesn’t do. The biggest surprise for customers is usually how technical translation services are today.

So, I will try to summarise below what we as a translation agency do to make life easier for our customers.

1. We offer translation services in different languages

Naturally, a translation agency can provide you with translations into different languages. The language selections of agencies vary. As a rule, the larger the translation agency, the wider the range of languages. Customers contact a translation agency especially when they need translations into languages that they don’t master themselves.

If the customer maintains several language versions of their documentation, software or website, ordering translations from one place is absolutely the reasonable approach.

2. Efficient translation service process

Ordering translations is not just about individual translations. Translation agencies sell a service that covers the entire process, from workflow to project management and advanced technology. We maintain tools that handle different file formats, optimise the order process and speed up translation work.

At the translation agency, the customer relationship is supervised by an account manager, who knows how to propose solutions and smart practices that benefit the customer. Individual translation projects are coordinated by a project manager, who can keep several balls up in the air in even the most complex assignments consisting of numerous files. They don’t know your needs and style requirements in advance but, as professionals, once they hear about them, they can suggest a solution.

3. Cooperation between people and technology speeds up the translation process

Ordering translations from a translation agency and the translation work itself become faster when the translation is done by a professional translator with the aid of language technology. Language technology refers, first and foremost, to translation tools that speed up the translator’s work and help them maintain the correct style and terminological consistency in the translation.

If the customer company doesn’t have a dedicated translation department, it will rarely have any translation tools either. Without such tools, translation can be painfully slow and, in the worst case, the same text could be translated from scratch several times, wasting valuable time and resources.

4. The translator learns your style and terminology

Although many translators specialise in a certain field, few automatically know the style and terminology of all customers. It’s not reasonable for you to send your text to be translated without giving any other information and expect the result to be perfect. Of course, you could but why would you? You wouldn’t order a new visual corporate image from a graphic designer or a new advertisement from a communications agency without telling them about your target audience and style preferences.

A translation agency uses translation memory and terminology tools, reference materials and style guides as an aid in translation work. The more effort you put into the terminology and reference materials used, the smoother the ordering of translations from the translation agency becomes.

5. Easy to reach, with reliable deliveries

Customers who have their texts translated by one of their own employees or a single familiar translator usually start to sweat if this person is suddenly unavailable to do an urgent translation assignment. Where on earth could they now get the translation done within the given timeframe?

One of the strengths of translation agencies is they are easy to reach. If the translator reserved for the customer’s translations happens to fall ill, the project manager can arrange for a replacement or an entire team of translators to complete the translation. We’re not dependent on a single translator, and we don’t throw the towel in, even in challenging situations. For many, trustworthiness and delivery reliability are the most important factors when ordering urgent translations.

6. Save time through system integration

To an increasing extent, a customer’s translatable materials come in formats other than traditional Word files. Often, translations are required for materials in the customer’s own content or product information management systems (CMS and PIM systems).

In such cases, the smartest approach is not to copy texts to and from Word files but to integrate the systems so that the files move smoothly from the customer’s system to the translation agency’s translation management system and then back to the customer’s system after translation.

7. All language services under one roof

In addition to translations, translation agencies usually provide other language services, too. In addition to review by a native speaker and interpretation services, there is an increasing demand for subtitling and transcription of videos since the Accessibility Directive entered into force, for example. A translation agency can also provide customers with search engine optimisation of foreign-language texts, software localisation or secure machine translation of large volumes of text, among other services.

A good translation agency is a strategic partner for the company in all language-related issues. A partner who is easy to turn to and who knows how to suggest just the right language service solution.

The purpose of a translation agency is to make your life easier. This happens when your time is freed up to do things other than waste time on random searches for translators or monotonous copying and pasting. You don’t need to translate yourself if that’s not part of your core competence. Instead, a professional can perform the task quickly and cost-efficiently, provided they get all the information they need for the job.

If you feel your translation service provider just creates additional stress for you and the service doesn’t meet your expectations, it’s time to change the agency.

A brand is a widely recognised product, trademark, company or person. Its recognition, usually positive, has been built through marketing. A brand lives in our minds: it encapsulates its target, can create added value for a product or a service and have an impact on its user’s identity.

Iconic brands have become solidly established in our minds as a result of decades of goal-oriented work. Who wouldn’t believe that they will be refreshed when drinking a cold, genuine Coca-Cola (even though we know that the black liquid packed with sugar or artificial sweeteners is far from beneficial for us) or that they are almost like Marilyn Monroe when using Chanel 5 (even if people cannot smell the fragrance from under your windbreaker when you stand in the queue at the local supermarket) or that they become the king of the road when driving their BMW (although being stuck in a traffic jam in November with slush splashing all around isn’t much like being a king). A brand empowers us and turns people’s heads. It’s desirable and even its name sells.

A brand can be global (like the ones mentioned above), local or something in between. Every marketing specialist wants to increase the recognition of the brand they represent by choosing a mix of measures. In practice, this mix always includes some linguistic elements, such as text or speech. When the brand’s target audience consists of speakers of more than one language, you need someone to ensure multilingualism. Usually, multilingualism refers to translations, but content creation in the target language is, of course, also an option.

Brand and language

Perceptions associated with a brand are created in a person’s mind in the language shared by them and the brand. Ideally, this is the person’s native language. Language is a sensitive issue. Poor or somehow unsuitable language often makes people think that the brand is also poor or at least less valuable. The general public perhaps does not pay much attention to minor linguistic errors, but communications and marketing professionals will certainly see them. Blatant failures will definitely be noticed. A case in point is Amazon’s recent launch of their Swedish website in late 2020. Amazon had localised their entire offering targeted at the Swedish market into Swedish, most probably using a poor machine translation tool and human review had been either skipped entirely or done too selectively. People saw translations that meant something completely different to what was shown in product pictures – some amusing and some naughty.

How does a bad translation affect a brand?

A brand failure refers to an incident that damages a brand. A bad translation is a typical brand failure. In the best-case scenario, bad translations may cause amusement and some rolling of eyes, and may even provide the brand with additional, unplanned visibility through news and social media commotion. Probably none of the Swedish customers who ordered products from Amazon suffered any consequences worse than mild amusement or exasperation when browsing the site and noticing that Easter chicks had been translated as penises; however, without a doubt, the situation was very embarrassing for Amazon.

In the worst-case scenario, bad translations undermine a brand’s value significantly or cause damage that must be compensated with money. The more valuable and recognised the brand, the higher the bar. It’s easier to accept poor language in an advertisement or packaging texts for a cheap run-of-the-mill product than, for instance, typos or stylistic or terminological mistakes in a glossy lifestyle publication. A valuable brand always entails the image of overall quality, down to the finest detail.

Also, bad translations are always a sign of not recognising the value of translations to the brand’s customers and stakeholders. Not enough money is allocated to translations in marketing budgets or there is not a sufficient number of people to coordinate them. An inadequate translation budget is an indication that the importance of translations is not recognised in the company – or the company does not care about it. Or that there simply is no money and the decision has been made to simply do what can be done.

How to avoid bad translations

If the decision to publish content in multiple languages is made (and why wouldn’t it be made?), appropriate preparations are needed. Multilingualism and translations are not an obligatory burden that comes at the end of a project but are at the core of a brand and marketing. You have to find the optimal translation partner or at least ensure there is sufficient competence and resources within your own organisation. It costs money to get translations done: the source language content didn’t create itself and it wasn’t cheap either. Similarly, the translated content doesn’t magically appear out of thin air for next to nothing. In fact, translations that are intended for public distribution with the aim of helping the brand conquer the world shouldn’t even be cheap as they inevitably require a considerable amount of human input.

A competent translation partner can help you plan the budget, schedule, phases and project responsibilities for brand-related translations, the correct balance of translation technology and human input as well as the tone of voice and impact that you hope the different language versions will have. Together with the translation partner, you can also look at what you can actually get with the budget you’ve set aside for translations and ensure that the value of your brand does not decrease.

In conclusion, you can avoid bad translations by facing the facts: the importance of translations, an appropriate budget and a good partner. Maybe it’s time you made a New Year’s resolution about translations.

What a translation agency does (and doesn’t do)

How a bad translation affects a brand – and how to avoid brand failures