Most of the time our customers want us to use the “most correct” or “best” translated words that we can when localizing their product. It’s a perfectly understandable and fair approach to take.
In order to do this, terms and concepts have to be carefully and individually researched, while relevant trends and demographics are considered so we can find the very best way to recreate the underlying message in multiple languages.
This case study focuses on the world’s largest pharma and healthtech provider. They reached out to us as they were struggling to find a localization partner who could help them communicate with a very specific layer of their target audience in very unusual way.
The company needed translation and related desktop publishing (DTP) services in nine languages. Pretty straightforward, you might think. The primary component was not even particularly complex in terms of medical translation. What’s so difficult about that?
And that’s the mistake other localization companies might make. Once we’d dug a little deeper we found that much of our client’s material was targeted at immigrants living in the United States who had a very low level of literacy. To ensure their wellbeing, it was safety-critical that target users could effectively read and truly understand the information provided to them.
In this case, detailed medical information needed to be translated accurately, retaining the crucial facts of the original material whilst presenting it in simple and accessible terms. To quote our client directly, they needed us to speak to their audience as if they were “eight years old”.
It takes Iota’s highly personalized approach to matching a project with the appropriate linguists and translators to meet a challenge like this. It’s about selecting locally-based linguists with the right ability and insight to strike the correct balance between phraseology and accuracy.
It’s about trust. It’s about relationships.
The key take-away from this story is that there can be more to an apparently straightforward localization project than it seems. To achieve your objectives – whether they be financial, commercial, or humanitarian, it pays to choose a localization partner who understands the importance of matching the appropriate resources with your desired outcomes.
