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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

activer et animer les clients

English translation:

stimulate interest & boost sales—motivate & enthuse

Added to glossary by Wolf Draeger
    The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2019-10-05 11:54:07 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
Oct 1, 2019 17:56
4 yrs ago
8 viewers *
French term

activer et animer les clients

French to English Marketing General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters customer loyalty programs
Hi everyone,

I'm having trouble translating "animer" in this context: "générer de la revisite en développant la connaissance de nos clients pour mieux les activer et les animer"

The context is a presentation for staff to build customer loyalty

here's my attempt at translating the sentence: "to drive repeat business by developing customer knowledge toward efficiently activating and ??? them"

for "animer", I've thought of "enliven", but it sounds odd...

any ideas?

Thanks :)
Proposed translations (English)
3 +6 stimulate (their) interest and boost sales
4 +2 engage customers (and drive sales)
4 +1 enthuse
2 +2 motivate
4 Entice
3 Generating "mileage" from customers
Change log

Oct 5, 2019 13:28: Wolf Draeger Created KOG entry

Discussion

Wolf Draeger Oct 5, 2019:
Glossary entry I edited the gloss to reflect Oliver's suggestion because personally I really like "enthuse", on which stylistic opinion is divided. Hope no one minds.
suzanneb111 (asker) Oct 2, 2019:
Thanks all for your precious help, I'll go with Wolf Draeger's proposal
suzanneb111 (asker) Oct 2, 2019:
it's a customer loyalty program, they want to get clients to subscribe to it
Lara Barnett Oct 1, 2019:
@ Suzanne Could you give more context regarding the product or service that is being marketed?

Proposed translations

+6
39 mins
Selected

stimulate (their) interest and boost sales

*Animer* is one of those Swiss army knife words that don't always translate easily—and are often used carelessly in French copy. Here I take it to mean something like "get customers excited about our brand/product" (and *activer* to mean "get customers to buy our product").
Example sentence:

[...] generate repeat business by getting to know our customers so as to stimulate (their) interest and boost sales.

Note from asker:
Thank you that is most helpful
Peer comment(s):
agree B D Finch : Agree that it needs rewriting so that it reads like idiomatic English.
17 mins
Thanks, Barbara!
agree Tony M
1 hr
Thanks, Tony!
agree Sandra & Kenneth Grossman
11 hrs
Thanks, S&K!
agree Josephine Cassar : very nicely put and succint
18 hrs
Thanks, Josephine!
agree Nikki Scott-Despaigne : Yes, the depersonalised solution works well here.
19 hrs
Thanks, Nikki!
agree AllegroTrans : yes, definitely not "activate and animate"
21 hrs
Ta!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+2
12 mins

motivate

Hard to tell. "Animer" can have a myriad of meanings.
For an example of ways to "motivate" customers, see https://sendpulse.com/blog/how-to-create-value-for-customers
Peer comment(s):
agree philgoddard
1 hr
agree Tony M
1 hr
Something went wrong...
15 mins

Generating "mileage" from customers

This is one of many candidate answers, having the virtue of being imaged and idiomatic.
Something went wrong...
+1
16 mins

enthuse

' to push for repeat business by developing customer knowledge towards better educating, motivating, and enthusing them';

(I would use ' motivating' for 'activer' here;)
Peer comment(s):
agree Wolf Draeger : Thumbs up for "enthuse".
9 mins
You're so kind!
neutral Tony M : This sounds very odd to my ears: 'to enthuse' is most usually used intransitively, typically with the preposition 'about'; this transitive use seems to me awkward and likely to cause a saut de lecture which would probably be undesirable here.
1 hr
Something went wrong...
52 mins

Entice

Entice
"to lead on by exciting hope or desire; allure; inveigle:
They were enticed westward by dreams of gold."
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/entice?s=t

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 56 mins (2019-10-01 18:52:51 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"Having a great logo will ENTICE YOUR CLIENTS into choosing you above their competitors and with various corporate branding techniques you can make sure that your brand becomes synonymous with high-quality and professionalism."
http://www.zeroscale.co.uk/graphic-design-company-branding/

Peer comment(s):
neutral Tony M : I think that's a different kind of action you do with customers... but I don't think it's really the meaning 'animer' is intended to have here.
1 hr
Something went wrong...
+2
2 hrs

engage customers (and drive sales)

"Engage" comes to mind and is ubiquitous in corporate speak.

It may well cover both "activer" and "animer", but you could also add "to boost/drive sales" (based on Wolf's suggestion) to place an emphasis on the results.

Peer comment(s):
agree James A. Walsh
10 hrs
agree Cyril Tollari
2 days 3 hrs
Something went wrong...
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