Case Study
WH Smith
About the project
My long-standing client WH Smith contacted me for help with another project, this time involving its own-brand InMotion products.
Specifically, WH Smith was planning to launch its InMotion products in French Canadian airports and needed professional translations of all packaging and instructions for the 90 or so product lines concerned, all delivered in PDF format.
There was an enormous amount of project management to be done to handle such a high number of files.
For this project, I worked with my colleague Lucie, who has expertise in French technical translation.
Conscious of the importance of getting things right, the client was generous with the turnaround time, which was a big relief given the volume of work!
Methodically, we worked through the files, raising queries with the client, pointing out any mistakes we’d found in the English texts and delivering the translations in a two-column English and French format so that the WHS marketing team could easily recreate the packaging in a bilingual format.
It was important to maintain consistency across the products as much of the wording was similar from product line to product line. We were also aware of the localisation issues: removing references to feet and inches and following local conventions for numbers, measurements, etc.
Outcome
We delivered all the translations to WH Smith and were delighted to see prototypes of the bilingual artwork shortly afterwards. Look out for the products in store any time now!.
Here’s what the client said:
“It was so important for us to ensure linguistic precision with our French speaking audiences to foster customer trust, enhance brand image and broaden market reach. Andrew and the team have been exemplary in their approach to this project and it’s been a real pleasure working with them.”
Domenico Pascarella – WH Smith
Here’s my perspective:
“This was a hugely complicated project that needed a high degree of organisation to ensure quality translations across all 90 product lines. It was very satisfying to focus attention on localisation issues that would be important for the French Canadian market. A real team effort!”
Client: WH Smith
Source language: English
Source language: French
Document: InMotion product packaging and instructions
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