Chapter 10, Additional Case 4: Preparing Product Descriptions for the Global Marketplace
Chapter 10, Additional Case 4: Preparing Product Descriptions for the Global Marketplace
Background
MetraPark Fitness Solutions (MFS) is known in the U.S. commercial and corporate fitness industries for producing durable fitness machines based on highly regarded research in biomechanics, physiology, and anatomy. Now the company has decided to market its fitness equipment to commercial gyms in Europe. You were hired two weeks ago to take charge of the company's documentation needs. Up to that time, the design engineers had been responsible for writing the product descriptions.
"Fifteen thousand dollars?" asks Rex Bookwalter, your new boss. You have just shown Rex a translation company's bid to translate your product descriptions into German, Spanish, French, and Italian.
"Yes, that quote is for translating 31 product descriptions into four different languages," you answer.
"Why can't we just use our existing English-language descriptions?
"The first step toward breaking into the European market is translating our promotional literature. Recent e-commerce research suggests that consumers are three times more likely to buy online on a website written in their native language.
"What about translating our products into just one other language—say, German?
"That would certainly save us money in the short term," you explain. "However, we could reach nearly 90 percent of Europe's online population if we went with German, Spanish, French, and Italian. In the long run, reaching a broader customer base might be a better business strategy.
"Okay, but why is it so expensive to translate these product descriptions? They're not that long or complicated.
"Depending on the language, we're paying the translation company 20 to 30 cents per word—
"Per word? Let me take a look at one of those product descriptions.
You hand Rex the product description for the MFS Leg Extension machine (Document 10.1). A few minutes later, he hands the description back to you and says, "We can do better. Rewrite this description so it's not so long and boring.
Your Assignment
- Using the techniques explained in Chapter 10, revise Document 10.1 to make the description more concise and easier to translate.
- Use the Internet to research strategies for preparing text for translation. Write a memo to company employees in which you provide guidelines for writing documents that will be easy to translate.
DOCUMENTS
Document 10.1
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