Food Processing

HSBC Bank spent millions to unwind its 5-year-old tagline, “Assume Nothing,” when some of the translations turned out to mean “do nothing.” Coors found itself unintentionally memorable in Spain when its “Turn It Loose” campaign was translated as “suffer from diarrhea.”

Here are five things you need to know about how to find a partner who can translate your advertising and marketing materials with no surprises:

  1. Ask early if the project will need translation. An 11th hour scramble can result in inaccuracy and higher costs.
  2. Don’t rely on a machine. Machine translations are inexpensive, but often poor quality. Computer assisted (CAT) tools are a beneficial resource used by leading agencies, but should be guided by human expertise.
  3. Translation memory can save you money. As we translate, we build a database of your translation. We can work faster and save you money on subsequent projects.
  4. Have it localized. With localization, you know your translation will carry the same weight and meaning from one language to another.
  5. Look for a partner. A true comrade-in-arms will help you with rush jobs, step you through complexities (like working within your design files so you don’t have to rework layouts) and match your needs with the perfect linguistics expert.

At Affordable Language Services, we’ll help you avoid translation pitfalls, and with our deep bench strength in linguistics and project management, we’ll ensure your words are accurately translated for the audience that needs to hear them.