L’axe 2 positionne également le dîner du soir sur le repas de midi

05:44 May 14, 2020 

Agreed. So delete all references to dictionaries from my previous messages. Just read them as a comment from an educated native speaker who turned to reliable sources to confirm his first impression : se positionner sur (assuming that’s French to start with) can only refer to a market, not to another good/product (see above note about par rapport à). Which, added to that gem about dinners and lunches, turns the whole sentence into pure, unadulterated garbage ("poor translators" indeed!). But I’m glad to report that the client’s alternative (les menus du soir conviennent également aux repas du midi) makes my cross much lighter to bear 😊 Have a good weekend !

15:19 May 12, 2020 

Haha! Your cross is weighing heavily today it seems...:-)
But I think it's an interesting question: if a certain type of language is spoken by everyone in a certain world, however small, and thus understood by all those people, doesn't that mean it becomes a language in its own right, and therefore not poorly-written? Tho' of course that doesn't take into account the burden of the poor translator! ;-)
I also feel that, although I truly love dictionaries and think they are wonderful things, they can't always give us the answer, and can't necessarily keep up with ever-shifting language.

15:09 May 12, 2020 

"It's 'marketing-speak'... " It may well be, but it is no excuse for poorly written French and general rubbish. This dîner du soir/repas de midi is fast becoming a classic around here, not to mention that dictionaries that do reluctantly define se positionner sur as a marketing verb, say it's used by reference to a market (sur un marché), not to another product (une tablette de chocolat ne se positionne pas sur une autre tablette de chocolat). At a push, things might be slightly different with se positionner par rapport à. Err... no, still yucky. Anyway, I hope those unsuspecting babies will enjoy their dinner at lunch. Or is that the other way round? Sorry, I seem to have lost my positionnement. Never mind… Just as you and Philippa have sinned, I'll bear my cross 😊

13:33 May 12, 2020 

" for my sins, I hear this sort of jargon all the time!", I must have committed the same sins! ;-)

09:17 May 12, 2020 

It's "marketing-speak" — it didn't shock me at all: for my sins, I hear this sort of jargon all the time!

08:57 May 12, 2020 

is supposed to mean les menus du soir conviennent également aux repas du midi ? Fancy that! And why didn't they simply say that to start with? Thank you for letting us know: at least we know now we won't be killing babies... in whatever position.

08:42 May 12, 2020 

Please note, that is pretty much exactly what I said from the outset (and had instinctively understood!) — except that we didn't have the context to know that this was about 'menus' rather than specific dishes.

08:30 May 12, 2020 

Thanks everyone for your input, I finally received clarification from the client and apparently the phrase means "‘avec l’axe 2, les menus du soir conviennent également aux repas du midi." which is a lot clearer!! Not at all how I had understood it (I didn't really understand it at all if I'm honest haha!!)

17:18 May 11, 2020 

or even about food in general, I would be careful not to make any mistake, never mind that it might be about packaging. Translating without being certain of what your source text means is never a good idea, and even more so here.

15:55 May 11, 2020 

I think part of the puzzlement here is that we don't have the whole of your wider context, to know in what way Axe 1 and Axe 2 are actually presenting the products, saying about them, etc. And the fact that Axe 2 is described as being 'dans une moindre mesure' and 'également' begs the question what has been referred to before? or are they saying "compared to Axe 1 and/or the existing packaging"? I feel sure simply seeing these visuals would clarify things no end.

13:02 May 11, 2020 

I didn't quote Larousse actually. So checked it: while accepting that positionner can be used in a handful of contexts, as do the other dicos I've already mentioned, it also adds: Ne pas l'utiliser en dehors de ces emplois comme un simple synonyme (qu'il n'est pas) de placer. Préférer asseoir, camper, disposer, fixer, établir, implanter, installer, mettre en place, poser, poster, ranger. (https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/positionner/6... I only pointed that out because of the lousy French used in the sentence asked, which really got me started this morning, and to show that , even allowing for fanciful usage in ads or marketing talk, for instance, in the circumstances only the authors really know what they mean. I would go back to them and ask.

12:52 May 11, 2020 

The underlying meaning seems to me fairly clear: they are trying to reduce (minimize?) the distinction between baby meals meant for 'supper' or 'lunch' — you can just imagine a parent going to the cupboard and saying "Oh bother, poor Baby will have to go hungry as I don't have any 'lunch' meals in stock, only 'supper' ones!"
Clearly, there is no inherent difference between the 2 meals, other than the way they have been trying to market them to date. Perhaps there is a minor difference in e.g. size that they are seeking perhaps to play down here.
That's how I understand 'positionner sur...' in this instance. And cf. other uses in marketing etc., like 'se positionner sur le marché haut de gamme / entrée de gamme' etc.

12:47 May 11, 2020 

I think Le Grand Robert is a little behind the times here: in such marketing / business management context, 'to position' has a slightly special meaning, which is not, I believe, adequately covered by any of the properly FR synonyms suggested — whence, no doubt, the need to fall back on the EN term, while the Académie Française makes up its ponderous mind...

11:58 May 11, 2020 

Le Grand Robert describes it as un anglicisme and adds: Dans tous ses emplois..., le mot serait avantageusement remplacé par des synonymes tels que localiser, situer, régler, déterminer, etc. Could one of these help clarify your sentence?

08:47 May 11, 2020 

Thanks ph-b, reading your comment makes me feel better. I was getting the same vibe, but I was chalking it up to some specific native French phrasing that I was not yet familiar with.

08:09 May 11, 2020 

While they're at it, your clients could also "revamp" their French! dîner du soir is pleonastic and repas de midi are called déjeuners. Or they can use use repas for both and say repas de midi/(celui) du soir. If their thinking is as muddled as their written language is muddied, good luck with working out what it all means and with the translation! Sorry - I realise you can't really go back to your clients and tell them to get their act together, just a Monday morning rant about this week's first crime against language :-).
Practically speaking, the usual reliable monolingual dictionaries say that positionner must be used in some specific contexts only, and your clients' is not one of them, unsurprisingly, which means only they know what they mean. However, it seems to refer, in the right context, to the place that something occupies in relation to sthg else - that's the meaning of sur ("par rapport à").
This said, I agree with Matt's "version/approach" and I understand that positionner sur means that dinners are aligned (!)/depend (to a lesser extent) on lunches - whatever that means: in terms of times/content/layout?