Your brand’s backstage crew.
On call, on point.
Always.

Challenge/Task

Our client is a High Perfumery House celebrated for creating some of the most exquisite scents in the world. With close ties to an Arabian Gulf dynasty, their perfumes are regal and opulent.

The challenge in transcreating the client’s content was two-fold. Arabic, in which the original copy was written, is an ornamental language that—much like perfume—lends itself to fragrant expressions. Moreover, Gulf-originated storytelling and (brand) world building does not easily mesh with German sensibilities. We needed to both honor the client’s rich source material and make it sound natural in German.

Approach/Solution

To get this right, we knew we needed a special linguist to take the lead. Expert knowledge of German language and cultural preferences were an obvious must, but we needed more.

A linguist who would approach the source text with curiosity and respect. A linguist who would utilize their German expertise not force the source into an expected mold but allow themselves to be changed by it instead. A linguist who could walk the fine line, knowing when to push the boundary and when to reign it in.

Lucky for us, and for our client, such linguists are part of the Rheinschrift DNA. So, whilst we may have made some German readers blush—they were definitely blushing in German.

Benefit for the client

Through carefully crafted German translations, our client maintained their unique voice and positioning. Standing out, just the right amount, on the German market—like a great perfume always memorable, never overpowering.

Challenge/Task

As the (industry) adage goes, nobody notices a good translation, but everyone notices a bad one! Our client—a Palo Alto-based SaaS company—was suffering from a case of bad German localization and the impact on their business was palpable.

German customers were frustrated with poor translations that were hindering their use of the client’s products. Internally, DACH Sales teams were feeling disempowered with copy and documentation that read (at best) as careless to their target audience.

The client was not ready to switch their localization provider, but they needed to troubleshoot and course correct, and they needed to do so quickly. Their localization vendor did not fit the brief for this mission, not only due to their immense size—a boutique approach was needed.

Approach/Solution

We facilitated meetings with three of our internal Lead Linguists (whom we saw as capable of taking on the sizeable challenge) and the client. This was going to be a close collaboration entailing change management, so we knew that beyond the steep linguistic and technical profile requirements, we needed a snug cultural fit. After a series of interviews, we had our champion.

Our Language Lead was integrated into our client’s globalization operations and got to work:

Fixing legacy content and laying the groundwork for future success:

• Reviewing and fixing already translated content and providing feedback to the client’s localization provider
• Testing localized products (web, android, iOS), reporting issues, and re-testing once the client’s developers have implemented recommended changes
• Creating references and effective guides for translators written from a linguist’s POV
• Expanding on the style guide

Preemptive and proactive Language Quality Management:

• Creating project-specific instructions
• Analyzing content to identify challenging aspects and advising translators on how to overcome potential hurdles before project kick off
• Refining automated QA checks (for grammatical variations and glossary adherence)

Quality at source; integration into the development phase:

• In the testing environment, reviewing localized versions (for quality and layout) and providing feedback before new features go live
• Answering all manner of German linguistic questions from the client’s Localization Program Manager and Developer teams

Benefit for the client

The client gained a dedicated linguistic advisor, who profoundly understands their tech stack and always has their back. On their own terms, they got measurable results without having to make fundamental changes to their linguistic supply chain.

Through actioning feedback, the client proved to their historic German customers that their experience matters and they run no risk of alienating future German business.

A single Rheinschrift superhero plugged in, impact: massive.