English translation: Department of Purchasing Recommendations
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Spanish to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - Business/Commerce (general)
Spanish term or phrase:departamento de prescripción
What would the "departamento de prescripción" be at a large supermarket chain. I think this is the department that establishes all of the technical specifications for the suppliers, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?
Spanish (Spain) > UK English
... redefinir la misión de departamentos fundamentales para el desarrollo del negocio como son compras o prescripción
From what I can see from the info about Spanish "prescription departments" (my translation, don't use it), one group of people decide what purchases are necessary and then the purchasing department deals with acquiring the goods.
I'd say all of the answer suggested so far could be correct. Companies tend to either use the same nomenclature as everyone else, or else try to reword their job/dept. titles etc to try to stand out from the competition. If it walks like a duck...
"Prescripción" is not used only by one company nor is it confined to recommending s.t. to any person in particular. It's used generally in marketing to refer to those persons who "trigger" purchases of a particular product.
It refers to "recommendation" in the broadest sense. A common question in marketing surveys is "¿Quiénes son los prescriptores?" i.e. which group is responsible for the most sales:- Celeb endorsements, neighbours, family members, etc.....
Explanation: An odd use of "prescripción", but this is apparently what they mean by it, according to the following (I've discreetly blocked out the name of the chain):
"En 2010 fue nombrada directora general de Prescripción Secos, a las órdenes directas de Juan Roig dentro del comité de dirección. Prescripción es como llaman en la empresa a la labor de mercadotecnia en los supermercados, una tarea en la que participan todos los empleados de las tiendas y a la que xxxxxxxxx da cada vez más importancia, como prueba el hecho de que ha desdoblado la antigua dirección general de Prescripción en productos secos, la asignada a Amorós, y perecederos, dirigida por José Jordá." http://www.eleconomista.es/blogs/naranjazos/?p=2018
All the references I've seen are from this same company; it seems to be their own usage.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2012-02-06 14:00:21 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
If this does not, after all, refer to the "departamento de prescripción" of this supermarket chain, I would guess that it means something like specifications department. From the question as originally put it seemed that it must refer to this.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2012-02-06 14:04:52 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Or perhaps customer liaison department, on the basis of the following:
"El departamento de prescripción gestiona la relación con las personas que influyen en la decisión de compra de sus productos, como arquitectos o ingenieros, que son los que hacen los proyectos." http://www.eoi.es/savia/pubman/item/eoi:45646:18/component/e...
This bears out Andy's discussion comment, by the way.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2012-02-06 14:17:16 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Not quite "customer liaison", on reflection; it's more to do with key potential customers, apparently. Might it be something like Consumer Trends Department?
Charles Davis Local time: 07:13 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 117
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