Brand in translation: the value of values

Here’s a scenario. You’ve written great copy with a clear message. In the right brand voice, too. In good faith, you send it off to get professionally translated. But the translation you get is boring. Unseasoned. Sure, they’ve properly translated the message. But that’s about it. The brand’s personality? Completely lost in translation. What. A. Waste.

Such a waste, in fact, I’m dedicating a three-part blog series on how to best translate branded copy. In this first part, I explain how a brand voice and values will help you nail those translations.

You gotta use that voice.

Copy is like curry

Copy is like curry. And curry fills you up. That’s its core function. Like curry, each bit of copy has a function. A really good curry, though, is deliciously spiced and seasoned. It makes you feel good when you eat it. The same goes for really good copy.

Really good copy isn’t just functional, but also seasoned. Spiced. Peppered with personality. You can sense the brand’s vibe when you read it. What I’m saying is: really good copy makes a reader feel something. A feeling that corresponds with what the brand wants to exude. That’s why we have brand voices — it’s where the seasoning comes from. And a brand voice won’t just help you write original copy. It’ll help you as you translate, too.

Prevent translation fails with a brand voice

So ideally the brand you’re translating for has a brand voice. Or they have something akin to a writing style guide which includes brand values. Basically, you’ve got a voice to work with. That voice won’t just help you write original branded copy, but it’ll also help you translate. Because you use a brand voice to add seasoning; evoke the right feeling in your reader. And to express the brand’s personality. Even when you translate. So use that brand voice and avoid translation fails like Nintendo’s here.

You only need a few characters to express your personality.

And you only need a few characters to express your lack of personality.

In this English tweet’s Dutch translation, the Nintendo spirit is completely missing. The language feels stiff and even a little formal. What went wrong? First of all: ICYMI, In Case You Missed It. This acronym is well-known and -used among Nintendo’s extremely online Dutch Twitter audience. No need to translate it. But they did — literally: ‘Mocht je het hebben gemist’. They went from snappy to stuffy in one sentence.

Secondly: the original tweet starts its final sentence with a cheerful ‘And hey’. Which is completely omitted in the Dutch version. There goes your Nintendo magic. Sad.

Here’s how we would’ve done it:

ICYMI: Als #NintendoSwitchOnline-lid kan je #StarFox 2 nu spelen! Dit vervolg van StarFox is nooit uitgebracht op de #SuperNES. En kijk, we hebben 2 gratis telefoonachtergronden voor je. Kom je alvast in de stemming. You’re welcome!

Bottom line: know the brand, know the audience, and know the culture you’re translating for. In Nintendo’s case, you can safely bet their Twitter audience is familiar with certain English idioms and expressions like ‘ICYMI’ and ‘You’re welcome’.

Translate before you translate

Let’s take a step back for a minute. Before you start translating, it’s good to translate the brand voice values for yourself. Doing so will put you in the right headspace — in the right language. Besides: checking your translated Spanish text to see if it matches a Danish brand voice kind of feels like judging apples according to quality standards for oranges. Better to review your translation based on a brand voice in the same language. Apples and apples.

So translate those values! You could do so literally, but it’s better to come up with some additional synonyms. Because hey, there might be an alternative that sounds better. That way, you’ll end up with the best-matching brand voice values. Allowing you to properly season your translation. And hit that emotive sweet spot.

An example: the English brand voice we developed for the Brussels restaurant concept SERRA.

SERRA’s sweet digs.

In English, SERRA sounds sunny, straightforward and uplifting. In Dutch, those values could translate to ‘opgewekt’ (‘cheerful’ or ‘sunny’), ‘rechtdoorzee’ (literally: straight-through-sea, meaning ‘straightforward’) and hartverwarmend (‘heartwarming’; there isn’t really a direct translation for ‘uplifting’). Values to lean on if you’d translate something into Dutch for SERRA.

Here’s SERRA in English:

Sunny, straightforward and uplifting.

And here they are in Dutch:

Opgewekt, rechtdoorzee and hartverwarmend.

The biggest difference? OK, yeah, the language, but also: the sentence flow. We translated ‘an indoor garden party’ to ‘een tuinfeestje. Maar dan binnen’, for example. Literally: ‘a little garden party. But indoors’. Chopping this part of the sentence in half makes it sound bubblier. In Dutch, adding the suffix -je to the word ‘tuinfeest’ (garden party’) makes it sound smaller, cuter and sunnier. So ‘tuinfeestje’ would translate back to ‘little garden party’ here. Same same, but a little different.

What these tricks do is make the translation sound just as nice ’n sunny as the original. It goes to show that a brand voice isn’t limited to the actual words. It’s in the rhythm and flow of your sentences. And the added cultural flourishes really make the translation come alive and feel authentic. So when play around and have fun with your translation!

But does it feel right?

When you’re done, thoroughly read your translation. Not just to make sure your message is on point, but also to determine the brand voice is. And whether the feeling it evokes matches the brand. So does it feel right? Do your sentences flow nicely? Did you add the right seasoning? If your answers are ‘yes’, ‘yes’, and ‘yes’: congratulations! You nailed it.

In the next part of this blog series: how to feel free to translate freely.

Need a brand voice in English? Or in Dutch? We got you. Send Jocelyn or Matteo, our native English copywriters, a message. They’d love to help you.