NTIS New Zealand Marketing, Advertising, Promotional translations

Marketing Translations

NTIS New Zealand Translations Promotional Material Translations - Well written and culturally correct translations.

Translation, Localisation, copyediting, Transcreation, copywriting,

NTIS New Zealand Translations staff are highly trained and experienced professionals that understand the importance of correct marketing in the target language. Often direct translations of marketing material can be misleading or uninteresting or in the worst case have disastrous consequences. It is therefore important to discuss your requirements with us in great detail. You may have spent considerable time and expense putting together your material or 'copy' in the 'source' language' It may however not be appropriate in the language of your intended audience.

Whenever a document is aimed at users whose language is different to that in which it was originally written, the translation must not be limited to a simple transposition of text from one language to the other, but must be the subject of a process of adaptation known as localisation, in order to render it consistent with all the conditions and customs specific to the country of use. In the event of texts whose sole purpose is communication, it is important that the message reach its target audience, perceptively, effectively and without losing or altering the original meaning. No matter how many languages the message is translated into, there must be a single overruling meaning. This result may only be achieved through editing reviews. In other words, the translated text must be reviewed by a local reviewer capable of transforming the translation into a fully-fledged example of copy editing.

The term commonly used in the translation industry is Transcreation. It refers to a group of services offered aimed at those operating in the advertising sector. It consists of the complete set of translation, localisation and copy editing services. The aim is to render communication effective on all foreign markets, and to support sector operators in order to provide each brand, product or service with a strong and consistent international image.

NTIS New Zealand Translations offer the full range of services within this area.

Organising, managing and checking all activities linked with the project;
Verifying and checking that all our Quality procedures have been correctly interpreted and executed;
Selecting and authorising our translators and related service providers and monitoring their quality;
Applying and maintaining our Quality System procedures, and verifying the correct execution of these.

A service focussed on international marketing

Technical translators: selected for their specific skills in a particular industrial branch, these experts are familiar with the correct sector terminology, thus ensuring an accurate translation from a technical point of view. Technical translators must also localise texts correctly (units of measurement, time/date formats, etc.)

Creative translators: (copy-editors): mother-tongue professionals selected on the basis of their experience in specific areas of communication, such as above- and below-the-line marketing, consumption, business to business, finance, industry, specific market sectors (IT, tourism, the motor trade, cosmetics, luxury goods, etc.).

Before commencing the work, we will seek to acquire a general picture of the company and to obtain as much information as possible on its products and target audience.

Our aim is to create the background of information required to launch the project, selecting the most suitable resources and providing them with appropriate information and instruments. When tackling a particularly technical text, for example, a glossary must be generated and used, which will be submitted for the customer's approval or correction.

NTIS New Zealand Translations may also establish direct contact with the customer's distributors or branches, with a twofold purpose: firstly to check any technical terminology adopted, and secondly to involve local management, thus promoting a positive approach towards the document they will subsequently have to use. In the event of the customer not availing of the resources to implement these checks, the technical terms will be confirmed by a specialised on site reviewer. The technical translator, therefore, will handle the "basic" translation and localisation, while the reviewer will subsequently handle the editing review of the text. In certain cases, the project quality may further be checked by a copywriter. Fields of application Any international advertising and marketing copywriting project:

corporate communications
direct marketing
brochures and catalogues
packaging
press releases
corporate websites

It is not possible to compare the cost of a simple translation and the transcreation services offered by NTIS New Zealand Translations. Translators translate, whereas Transcreation is an entirely different ballgame, involving the creativity and discipline of professionals specialised in adaptation. In this way, instead of offering simple translations, translated messages are as fresh and effective as the original, language is alive, campaigns benefit from a targeted impact, and the customer gains in credibility on foreign markets.

These results involve a number of different work stages and the help of specialists at various levels. Research and controls form part of the process. Given the above, the cost of adaptation becomes a marginal part of the total budget, and, much more importantly, the overall expense is lower than what it would have been if each phase had been entrusted to a different supplier.

A Note on Translation, Localisation, Copy editing, Transcreation and copywriting in Asian Languages.

With brands or slogans it is important to understand the 'visual' nature of some Asian languages such as Chinese. (Imagine using pictures to explain something). The Chinese character set will sometimes need to be altered very subtly to go from a very bad word to a very good word.

The most famous example is the one of Coca-Cola in China which was first rendered as "Ke-kou-ke-la" meaning, "bite the wax tadpole" . Coca-Cola later found the right Chinese characters that were phonetically close to the brand, "ko-kou-ko-le" which can be translated as, happiness in the mouth".

Personally, we translated a local New Zealand wine label for the Chinese market where the transliteration and characters which matched this sound rendered the meaning of this potentially award winning wine as 'stinky eggs'. A very subtle change enabled us to keep the brand name phonetically close and gave the characters meaning ' sweet bouquet'.