French translation case study: KOBA Skincare

Introduction:

As a value-led translation company, we love nothing more than partnering with ethical brands to help them expand into new international markets.

KOBA – an ethical skincare brand selling innovative products – is one such company. Just like LEaF Translations, KOBA skincare are passionate about sustainability, making them the ideal company for us to work with.

Koba (nkóbá) means turtle in Lingala (a Congolese language) and is a nod to their founder’s heritage. For KOBA, turtles symbolise longevity and protection, shielding your skin against external aggressors – a perfect fit for the skincare brand.

Founder and CEO of the company, Therese M’Boungoubaya, has over ten years of experience in the beauty industry and has worked with some of the biggest names in the business. After finding a gap in the market for an all-encompassing foot cream, Therese went on to develop a range of other sensational skincare products using naturally active ingredients.

After launching their UK website, the company were keen to share their fantastic products with a wider market. The first focus is on France and they chose LEaF Translations as their expert French translation partner.

Type of project:

Website translations // Marketing translations // French translations

The client:

KOBA skincare ethical translation

KOBA Skincare – an independent beauty company producing high-performance products that work for your skin and the planet.

Project size & duration:

We began working with KOBA skincare back in May 2022. The initial project was to translate a postcard from English to French, which was to be included with all shipments of KOBA’s products to France. KOBA were so pleased with the translation, that we have continued to work with them on several other projects since, including translating pages for their French website, translating PR materials and translating a slide deck for marketing purposes.

Whilst working on these projects, it has been incredibly important to us to match KOBA’s clear brand voice by mirroring the original tone of the documents and using the correct terminology. As with all our translations, we have ensured that the French content is of a very high standard by having each document proofread by a second highly experienced, native-speaker translator.

We thoroughly enjoy working with KOBA – it gives us great pleasure to help other value-led businesses grow in new international markets – and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership in the future.

Feedback:

“I have used LEaF Translations for various pieces of work for my client KOBA skincare. LEaF has translated all the website copy for our French eCommerce site, while maintaining our brand voice, plus many additional POS documents. They have an in-depth knowledge of SEO and have delivered SEO rich copy for our site. The team are lovely to work with, respond quickly and work incredibly fast to deliver results, accommodating to our needs for quick turnarounds on multiple occasions. I would highly recommend their services. My client has been incredibly happy and we will be continuing to use LEaF for all upcoming product launches and POS. They are fairly priced and a reliable company. A special thank you to Lucy and Kate for being so understanding, helpful and patient.”

— Kaajal Mahbubani, Marketing Executive

Check out our other website translation projects, including for ethical German chocolate brand Vivani, read more case studies, or get in touch for more details on how we can help you create great French content for your business.

Are you looking for a translation partner to provide expert translations crafted with your target audience in mind?


Kate LEaF blog 2021

About the Author

Kate

Kate Osborn is the office manager at LEaF Translations. She joined the LEaF team at the beginning of 2022 and has enjoyed taking on this new role. Kate loves meeting new clients and promoting the LEaF brand. Outside of work, Kate enjoys spending time with her family and friends, especially in the great outdoors. She is an enthusiastic runner, keen reader and novice gardener.