This article is in partnership with Day Translations.

The Linguist Magazine has an article about advertising and how it is used to drive customer engagement.

Advertising: love it or hate it, adverts are everywhere, from your social media feeds to news outlets and streets.

There is so much science behind every advert and the golden rule is to make an emotional connection with the audience.

If you feel something positive towards a product you may be more likely to buy it, but when you feel manipulated into making a purchasing decision you may reject the idea altogether.

The Relationship Between Brands and Consumers

If the ultimate goal for a brand is to build loyalty then a key element in an advertising strategy is to build a connection with the consumer and gain their trust.

One of the most powerful ways to build trust is to make consumers feel seen: an excellent example is how superstar Rihanna has created a cult following for her skincare and make up brand Fenty over the years. The secret? Offering solutions for groups of people who hadn’t been served properly by traditional brands. Inclusivity is at the forefront of Fenty’s advertising and social media campaigns, but does not just do lip service (pun intended). A large part of the brand’s social media and advertising presence is the sharing of user-generated content or, in other words, videos that customers had created themselves showing how they are applying the products on their own skin.

Basically the products speak for themselves as people who may not yet be familiar with the brand can see how they flatter different types of skin tones.

The result? You don’t feel like you are being sold to and you are likely to think “I want to buy it” after seeing a product and its effectiveness.

Once a product meets the “what’s in it for me?” requirements then the journey to the “buy now” button is easy.

Creating Rapport With Customers in Another Language

While it’s somewhat easier to create a link with customers when a product is highly visual, things can get more challenging with something more ephemeral like a perfume.

Perfume manufacturers have been partnering with celebrities to build an instant connection with the public, but how do they convey what a perfume smells like, especially when they need to communicate it with international audiences?

Take Lancôme’s fragrance Idôle, which featured the famous actress Zendaya to represent the brand.

Lancôme is a French legacy brand founded in 1935 and innovation has been instrumental for its longevity and appeal over time.

The 2019 campaign focused on Zendaya to represent what young audiences want from a fragrance and what they aspire to be wearing it. The advert showed Zendaya as a modern goddess on a horse gliding in the early morning hours in a Los Angeles location that has been used in many films and commercials. In the short cinematic video Zendaya embodies freedom, fearlessness and independence, strong in her belief that possibilities are endless. “I can. We will.” is the strapline. Zendaya speaks to her contemporaries inspiring them to create the life they want to live. In interviews she smartly described how perfume is strongly linked to emotions and memories, a link that brands deploy to communicate with audiences.

That’s when having a team of translators with a solid grasp of local cultures becomes an asset. Using descriptive words in a different language that have the same impact as the original language requires a high level of sophistication and years of experience.

The same word translated in a different language may not sound as evocative or it may cause confusion, even embarrassment.

For example, when the Lancôme Idôle campaign was translated in Italian for the local audiences in Italy, the key message was to represent a woman’s strength and self determination (“inno alla forza e all’autodeterminazione”. The message had the same impact as the English version talking directly to young women and inspire them to build their own future with courage, while also for women to further inspire others through their own success.

(picture: Fenty lip gloss. credits: Paola Bassanese)