Website of a world-famous manufacturer of fitness equipment (April to June 2017)

The company website features technical data on barbells, Olympic barbells, training frames, barbell racks, discuses and other sporting equipment. Those product descriptions have been incorporated into promotional texts. It consequently serves a dual purpose: on the one hand to sell and, on the other, to boost the brand image.

My contribution was thus not just limited to producing technically flawless translations. Rather, appealing content had to be readied for German visitors to the website. My copywriting skills were also called upon.

I concentrated on two key aspects here: firstly, rewriting the original texts containing frequent references to American culture to be able to reach the German audience and achieve the same effect. Readers had to be convinced that the products offered were among the very best on the fitness equipment market. Without any adaptation of the emotions and experiences for European customers, the intended messages might not have had the desired outcome.
Secondly, German, Austrian and Swiss readers may even have been confused by certain references and this would in turn have had a negative impact on the brand image. I had to tone down and reword both these and the military references, for instance, to ensure that they conjured up positive emotions and connotations.

This project brought to mind a maxim from my translation training: a good constructive translator conveys images and emotions, not words. The same principle applies in particular for marketing texts that require both translation and copywriting skills.

For confidentiality reasons, I can only name B2B projects completed for direct clients. On request, I am happy to provide details of further relevant projects in the field of fitness equipment.