“First thing first”. If you follow our blog or you are interested in linguistics and translation, you are used to the idea that translation can be a difficult matter. It’s not replacing words, as many may think, but understanding the different meanings and layers of a message. If you are into marketing, and you do professional translations for foreign markets, you know that the most crucial thing is identifying your audience. This is what pre-translation cultural assessment is, in a few words: evaluating the audience you are talking to, the tone (f.i. formal or informal) you want to give to your message, and the best way to achieve the attention of a certain public, with its cultural specificities.
As stated in linked article, that we suggest to read to have further ideas about translation, “marketing messages are carefully crafted to appeal to an audience at an emotional level, deploying familiar words and symbols to excite, intrigue, or comfort the potential customer according to the personality of the brand”. Job of the translator is to maintain or at least re-create an appropriate context for the message, in its various nuances.
Matteo Poles
Social Media Specialist
Communication Trainee at TermCoord