To succeed overseas, businesses must appeal to their international customer base. However, in crafting their international brand image, many companies neglect a key piece to the puzzle: Localizing their message.
The truth is proper localization can save a company millions. How? If done incorrectly, a poorly translated message can have disastrous outcomes. A marketing piece that alienates or offends a group of customers can be very expensive. Damage to a brand’s reputation may be permanent, with costly efforts for re-positioning.
When translating content for an international audience, their local culture must be taken into context. Any country or region’s culture is the basis for their language. When translating one must understand that both languages are affected by their respective cultural contexts. Cultural nuances can affect the meaning of what seems like an easy translation, completely changing the meaning from what was intended.
Kentucky Fried… Fingers?
Take for example, KFC’s entry into the Chinese market. Many don’t realize that the American fried chicken franchise had a less than auspicious start when they opened their first Beijing shop in 1987. Their slogan, “Finger-lickin’ good” aimed to paint a picture of chicken so good that the customer would keep licking their fingers after they’d finished eating.
However, this was unfortunately mistranslated into Mandarin as “Eat your Fingers Off.” For customers unfamiliar with western culture or cuisine at the time, this surely inspired more apprehension than hunger. Fortunately, as a fast-food giant in a large and untapped market, KFC was able to recover from their blunder to eventually make up 40% of the fast food industry in China (Per the Harvard Business Review).
While KFC’s story highlights how a company can recover from such a mistake, most miscarriages of translation don’t end so well.
So how can you avoid the pitfalls of mistranslation in your brand marketing? Here’s what you can do:
1、Replace cultural expressions of the source text with that of the target language. Any one country or region’s language is inextricably tied to their culture. Thus, any cultural expressions such as idioms or slang will usually only make sense within the context of its source culture.
Take for example the Chinese phrase “加油.” These two words together lack any cultural meaning within the English language. Literally translated, “add oil” this phrase may leave any English speaking audience confused, wondering exactly what they have been asked to “add oil” to. On the flipside, one cultural equivalent to Chinese’s “加油” is “Go.” In this case the Chinese audience may left scratching their head. “Go where exactly?”
2、Pay attention to connotative meaning and slang. When translating one must take into account differences in values or taboos between the two cultures. What may be neutral or positive in one culture, may have negative implications in another culture.
Let’s look at the unfortunate case of the Ford Pinto. In 1971 American automobile giant Ford introduced the Pinto, named after a breed of horse.
When introduced to Brazil, the Pinto’s expected sales never materialized. Upon further research they found the culprit. The word ‘Pinto’ turned out to have quite the negative connotation in Brazilian culture- being common slang to describe men with small genitals. After realizing their mistake, the Pinto was rebranded as the Corcelo in Brazil, which means horse in Portuguese. However, the damage to the model’s branding was already done, and sales never quite took off as Ford had hoped for (per https://econsultancy.com/why-brazil-bound-brands-should-be-wary-of-cultural-mistakes/).
What may be neutral or positive in one culture, may have negative implications in another culture. Translation must take these societal and spiritual value differences in account when searching for equivalent meaning in the target language. Failure to do this can lead to major mistranslation gaffes.
3、Instead of directly translating text, translate its implied meaning.Direct translation can change the meaning between source and target languages. To highlight the dangers of ignoring this, let’s exit the world of marketing into the world of geo-politics:
When addressing the Western Bloc at the United Nations summit in 1956, former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev uttered the famous phrase “We will bury you.” This was widely seen as a threat of attack, and quickly ratcheted up Cold War tensions between the USSR and the UN. As it turns out, it was an unfortunate mistranslation, which really meant “We will outlast you.”
While mistranslation from differences in implied meaning usually don’t result in high-stakes geopolitical fallout, it can certainly do damage to your overseas brand.
4、Don’t forget about graphical elements and photography. Translation goes beyond the words on a page; your visual content should also match the culture of the local region. Audiences are sensitive to people dressed differently, of a different ethnicity, or otherwise conducting themselves in a way unfamiliar or inappropriate within their culture.
Localizing holds importance all the way down to the most minute of graphical elements. In Chinese culture the auspicious number ‘666’ is used as a form of encouragement or expression, with the general meaning of being or doing something awesome or impressive. We can see the number peppered throughout Chinese advertising, usually in the form of peripheral visual elements such as emojis.
As it turns out, ‘666’ has quite a different meaning in the Christian religion. Often called “The Mark of The Beast,” this number is synonymous with the Antichrist or the devil, and is purportedly used to invoke Satan. To include this number in your advertising while trying to penetrate a heavily Christian market such as the United States would be brand suicide.
5、Know the cultures of both the source language and the target language. Having an understanding of the nuances of life in that country will always be more valuable than just reading articles about it online.If you aren’t familiar with your target market’s culture, then consult in someone who is.Their advice will help you avoid making important mistakes regarding socio-economic levels, preferences, taboos, religion and more.
For most, that final point may seem impossible to achieve. Fortunately, at iSpiderMedia our content team includes writers from several international backgrounds, fully fluent in several languages including English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese among others. Not only can our writers bridge the linguistic gap between your brand and your new target market, we can also localize your content to fit their cultural and regional expectations and realities. With iSpiderMedia we can build your brand without borders.
