September 29, 2024 / by Adam Jones Estimated read time: 4 minutes
Translation Memory Has Been Destroying Marketing Translations for 30 Years
Translation memory (TM) has been butchering your marketing content since the first widely used tool was launched in the mid-1990s, soon after I started working at SimulTrans. While we all know that translation memory helps with consistency and cost savings, the reality is that it’s also been forcing rigid, robotic translations down your throat. If your global campaigns sound like they’ve been run through a free machine translation tool although they were translated by well-qualified human linguists, you can thank TM for that.
The problem? Translation memory tools break your marketing content into tiny chunks. Headings here, sentences there—sometimes even shorter phrases. They’re nice little segments, which work if you're translating technical manuals or legal disclaimers, but an absolute disaster when you need your brand’s voice to shine.
If you’re fed up with global content that feels stiff, out of touch, and out of sync with readers’ expectations, it’s time to take a long, hard look at TM and ask yourself why you’re still stuck with it.
The Curse of Segmentation
Translators are locked into TM’s segmented structure. They’re generally forced to follow the source text, no matter how much it doesn’t work in the target language. While some minor segmentation tweaks are possible, wholesale rewrites are impossible. Rearranging sentences to make them flow better? Forget it. Combining sections or shifting around paragraphs for better impact? Not happening. Adding local flavor or cutting irrelevant content? Dream on.
And before you know it, you’ve got a Frankenstein of a translation that sounds more like a list of unrelated statements than a cohesive marketing message due to syntax differences between languages. Not exactly the impression you want to make when you’re trying to sell to a global audience, is it?
Real marketing doesn’t live in tiny chunks. It lives in the rhythm, tone, and emotional appeal that spans entire paragraphs, pages, and campaigns.
The AI Translation Trap
Although machine translation and AI translation systems are providing more power and supposedly making the process more efficient and economical, they still rely on the same tired segmentation rules that have been breaking your content all along. They continue the TM legacy of destroying your brand’s voice in new and even more painful ways. Large language models are notorious for seldom looking beyond the next word when generating content.
Both TM and AI tools treat your content like a bunch of interchangeable puzzle pieces, when what you really need is a complete picture that resonates with your audience. This obsession with piecing things together from small segments—it’s outdated, it’s lazy, and it’s time for something better.
Break Free from Segmentation
The future of marketing translation isn’t just about replacing one tool with another. It’s about rethinking how you approach global content altogether. The days of chopping up your brand’s voice into tiny segments are over. Say goodbye to robotic, literal translations and start thinking about what you actually want to say to your international audience.
What if you could finally stop treating your content like a collection of soundbites and start thinking about it as a whole? What if you could take a step back, look at the big picture, and create messaging that actually works in the target language?
Aileen from SimulTrans
SimulTrans developed Aileen to make sure your global campaigns finally sound human again. You can stop translating content and start rewriting it for each target language. Finally, technology and process advances have enabled us to achieve our years-long dream of being able to cost-effectively write highly customized international content.
See for yourself—request a sample.
Written by Adam Jones
As President and COO of SimulTrans, Adam manages and supports the company worldwide. He has spent over 30 years helping customers launch products and content internationally. Adam graduated from Stanford University, where he studied Public Policy with an emphasis on Education.