Why It's Important to Translate Marketing Collateral

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As the world becomes more connected, communicating your global message to local markets is more important than ever.  Your marketing collateral in the US is most likely not going to be on point for a campaign in China. 

Marketing Collateral

In sales and marketing jargon, marketing collateral is a collection of media used to support the sales of a product or service.

The quality of your translated marketing content is a direct representation of the care and commitment your company has for the local market and culture. The public face of your company must respond to linguistic differences. While it is true that many other countries have a very good grasp of English, don't assume that just because someone speaks English, they prefer to live and shop in that language, as well. 

A business’ marketing collateral should be one of its greatest strengths. Its brochures, advertising, webpage and product catalogs should be tailored to the language and cultural norms that the target audience follows. All of us have seen marketing copy that, although grammatically correct, does doesn't sound quite "right". This is a perfect example of marketing collateral that hasn't been adapted.

As a couple brief examples, Americans take the elevator, while Britons take the lift. Americans go horseback riding, while their cousins across the pond go horse riding. If there is so much difference between two countries that speak the same language, imagine the differences when translating into a new language entirely!

Transcreation and Localization

Unlike more technical translations, absolute precision is secondary to the flow and feeling of a marketing translation. With some kinds of documentation, generally of a more technical nature, accuracy to the original is essential. To the contrary, with marketing collateral, however, the real focus to produce a text which reads as if it were written by a native speaker. This is what is called "transcreation" or "localization". Idiomatic USA takes an original text and translates not only the words, but the meanings behind them to make the most impact for their target audience.

Do you need help with transcreation of your marketing materials? If so, please get in touch with Idiomatic here for a free quote.

Read next article here: Apostille for Translation