Manufacturers: Why Using Distributors to Translate Your Materials Could Backfire

Translating and localizing product manuals, packaging labels, marketing materials and other documents and collateral is often a necessity for a manufacturer when they sell their products in a foreign market. Some manufacturers, especially those who are new to the localization process, lean on their local distributors to translate various documents. It seems like a logical solution – the distributor is already responsible for selling the products, they typically live in the foreign market and it will save the manufacturer time and money. However, what may seem like a simple solution is typically not the best option.

Before handing off your foreign language translation and localization services to a distributor, consider this:

Quality Standards: A distributor is responsible for selling multiple products from multiple manufacturers. Translation is not their business or their top priority. Can you count on quality results? Who is doing the translating? Are they a good writer with excellent grammar even in their own language? Who is proofing their work?

Legal Liability: If the distributor makes a mistake or incorrect translation, what will the manufacturer’s liability be?

Consistency and Branding Standards: Most manufacturers invest time, money and effort to create and maintain their brand identity and product positioning. Maintaining the integrity and consistency of a brand requires a central translation and localization effort. With multiple distributors and multiple markets, relying on distributors for translation efforts makes it virtually impossible to ensure and maintain a consistent brand identity in each market.

Reputation: First impressions count. If your first impression in a new market is clouded with mistakes or, worse yet, a big translation blooper, it will most certainly slow or halt your sales and growth opportunities there.

Rework and Reprinting Costs: If there is a problem, how much will it cost you to do the rework and reprint your materials?

Message Control: We have seen and heard of cases where distributors have edited materials as they translated them, changing the original message in a way that made the product easier for them to sell by exaggerating benefits, changing the wording on warranties, etc.

When you are expanding to foreign markets and need foreign language translation and localization help, we urge you to consider the long-term picture and work with professional translators who can help ensure quality, consistency and that the message delivered to your marketplace is exactly what you intended.

To learn more about how AAA Translation can help manufacturers in foreign markets, give us a call toll-free at 844.293.3519 or learn more at www.aaatranslation.com.