Case study: Popken Fashion
Reaching international target audiences with localisation and transcreation
Services provided by Kolibri for Popken Fashion
- Translations and localisations for English, Dutch, French, Sweden, Polish, Italian and Czech
- International website screening (foreign-language reviews of online shops)
- Transcreating campaign claims into six languages
- Assembling a fixed translation team
- Creating a glossary
- Project management
- Quality management
The company: Popken Fashion Group
The company’s online shops are the main sales channel in its cross-channel strategy, both in Germany and in many other markets. These include the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Austria, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden and Poland.
The task: Quality and language perfectly tailored to the target audience
The solution: Localisation and transcreation performed by native speakers
Website screening: Foreign-language reviews for online shops
- an established team of translators and
- transparent processing of the screening results in the form of tables, bilingual files and annotated screenshots
to meet the client’s requirements in full. In addition to a foreign-language review of the French online shop, Kolibri Online also conducted linguistic screenings for Popken’s online shops for the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. There are plans to conduct screenings for further languages.
Slogans that work internationally
Kolibri therefore followed the principle of transcreation to translate claims for Popken’s campaigns and products. Transcreation focuses less on translating individual words and instead attempts to replicate the emotional effect of the original text. Native speakers of the target language craft several alternative versions of a claim and provide back translations to illustrate the literal meaning of the transcreated claim.
French
German original: Wichtig ist, was du wagst. Nicht, was du wiegst (literally: What you dare [to wear] is what matters. Not what you weigh)
- Alternative 1: Pèse tes mots. Pas tes kilos.
- Back translation: Weigh your words. Not your kilos.
- Alternative 2: Laisse ton corps déborder de joie!
- Back translation: Let your body overflow with joy!
Dutch
German original: Wichtig ist, was du wagst. Nicht, was du wiegst (literally: What you dare [to wear] is what matters. Not what you weigh)
- Alternative 1: Wat je waagt is belangrijker dan wat je weegt.
- Back translation: What you dare (to wear) is more important than what you weigh
- Alternative 2:Wat je weegt is niet interessant, wat je waagt wel!
- Back translation: What you weigh isn’t interesting, but what you dare (to wear) is!
“Our collaboration with Kolibri is just so enjoyable. No matter what project we put in their hands, you can be sure they will deliver the utmost expertise and quality. There have never been issues, including with multi-faceted topics and complex source texts, even when time was short. Thanks to Kolibri, we have not only been able to launch our online shops for the Czech Republic and Italy on schedule and with great success, but also increased interest and conversion rates for our existing shops thanks to the linguistic reviews.”
Popken Fashion Group
The result: Addressing local target audiences to boost conversions
Thanks to professional foreign-language reviews of its online shops and additional marketing measures, the Popken Fashion Group successfully increased its websites’ traffic, conversion and interest internationally. For instance, visits to Popken’s French shop increased by 28% within two months, with the conversion rate rising by 0.3%.
In addition, high-quality localisation and transcreation of marketing materials ensured that content is now tailored to target groups and target countries around the world, with marketing messages and claims that work and can be understood in other languages.
About the author
Project Manager and Editor
Content Marketing
+49 40 5247774-22
j.finklenburg@kolibri.online
Bernstorffstrasse 128
D-22767 Hamburg