While Zomato’s previous ad campaign, “Zomaito vs Zomato” left the country debating about the pronunciation of the food delivery brand, their latest campaign ‘Match Ho Toh Zomato’ has been released amidst the excitement of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.
Notice how the brand has leveraged transliteration in its campaign. Imagine saying this tagline in English, “If there’s a match, there’s Zomato” or translating it into Hindi. “खेल हो तो जोमाटो”. Instead, Zomato has used transliteration of Hindi to English, “Match Ho Toh Zomato” to resonate and engage with the audiences of India. This is a classic example of leveraging transliteration for marketing campaigns. And why not? The brand seems more relatable and credible to the target audience and eases customer interaction.
In the same way, to localize your brand in areas with a high concentration of Hindi-speaking customers, English to Hindi transliteration is crucial. After all, the first impression and connection with your target audience matters when expanding to newer markets. In India, the target customers are usually those whose primary written language doesn’t use the English alphabet.
Out of all the Indian languages, Hindi leads the way with a majority of internet users at 38% followed by rest of the Indian languages. Let’s understand how we can use English to Hindi transliteration by studying some use cases.
Use Cases Of English To Hindi Transliteration
Brand Names & E-commerce Product Listings
The first milestone of creating and building a brand presence is helping your customers read your brand name. For example, if your brand name is Amazon, the Hindi transliteration of the brand name would be अमेज़न. This helps the Hindi-speaking customers to pronounce the name by avoiding any miscommunication enhancing your brand recognition. The E-commerce industry is loaded with products and English to Hindi transliteration is ideal to showcase them to Hindi-speaking customers. A staple home product such as a washing machine can be transliterated to Hindi as वाशिंग मशीन to increase sales and customer engagement. Moreover, your business can further transliterate product descriptions to improve customer satisfaction.
Mobile Applications
Once a Hindi-speaking customer installs an application, there are many app interfaces that he or she goes through such as screens ranging from home, login, catalog, to checkout. It is difficult for the customer to adapt to such interfaces if the information is available in English. English to Hindi transliteration changes the language that suits the customers by transliterating the interface. For example, in the checkout section, the details of the customers can be transliterated from address and phone number to एड्रेस and फ़ोन नंबर to increase the checkout rate for the business. In the same way, the other elements of applications such as menus and notifications can also be transliterated to increase customer engagement.
Travel and Hospitality
Suppose you run a restaurant and your menus are just in English and your target is to acquire and engage Hindi-speaking tourists, a menu written in English won’t work. Your target audience will not understand the types of food and beverages available in your hotel. The same can be said if you run a hotel and your information such as lodging and check-in and checkout times are in English and your target audience speaks Hindi.
When it comes to language, the travel and hospitality industry must have an in-depth understanding of its target market and implement a strategy that aims to increase customer engagement. For example, English to Hindi transliteration of critical information such as menus, services offered, reservations, lodging, check-in, and checkout time will be a huge selling point to enhance the experience of Hindi-speaking customers.
Education and e-learning
Imagine a Hindi-speaking learner eager to learn the English language, with its unique alphabet and pronunciation. The English script, with its phonics, can present a challenge for those unfamiliar with its intricacies. In this scenario, transliteration becomes an invaluable tool. Consider the English greeting Hello. Transliterated into the Devanagari script, it becomes हेलो, providing Hindi-speaking learners with a familiar representation and aiding in pronunciation. This learning by using English to Hindi transliteration can be implemented in books, videos, and presentations in e-learning courses, and tracking assessments and the progress of the students.
Media & Entertainment
In the context of a music application such as Savann, English to Hindi transliteration proves invaluable for enhancing user experience and engagement. Consider a scenario where the app features a diverse range of songs, including those with English titles. Efficient transliteration enables the seamless conversion of these titles into Hindi script, making it more accessible and relatable for a broader audience in India. For example, “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran can be transliterated to “शेप ऑफ यू“. This not only caters to users more comfortable with Hindi but also aids in content discovery, as users can search and explore music using titles in their preferred language. The transliteration feature thus promotes inclusivity and user satisfaction within the music application.
Government Compliance
In the industry of government compliance, the precision of transliteration helps maintain accuracy in the pronunciation of compliance terminology in different languages, reducing the likelihood of misunderstandings or errors. For example, consider a scenario where a business across different states in India needs to submit its financial permits where compliance terminologies such as audit (ऑडिट) and attestation (अटेस्टेशन) need to be put out for regulatory approval. Here English to Hindi transliteration plays a crucial role in accurately converting these documents ensuring compliance with the official language requirements.
Social Media and Marketing Campaigns
Continuing from Zomato’s campaign for ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 that we discussed earlier. Let’s give another example where Zomato, this time leveraged English to Hindi transliteration. Their campaign फ़ूड डिलीवर करे और कमाई हर हफ्ते (Deliver food and earn every week) is aimed at employees who want to earn every week by delivering food. Zomato successfully marketed this campaign across social media and offline platforms such as hoardings to attract people to join the company and leverage the opportunity to earn every week. Maybe the next time someone from Zomato delivers your food, he or she must have joined the company through this campaign.
Not just campaign slogans, English to Hindi transliteration of social media posts, comments, stories, and taglines resonates and engages with Hindi-speaking audiences.
Also read: Translation vs Transliteration: Know Your Facts
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