Pennywise, pound foolish
In a previous post I described the concept of transcreation.
Transcreation is a creative process that takes into account the target group and culture and appropriately adapts content in one language when translating it into a second language. Essential if you are serious about penetrating a foreign market. I described the ‘little mistake’ Honda made when introducing a new car to the Swedish market without sufficient knowledge of the target market. But there are many more examples of similar ‘blunders’.
The Write Away, text and design top seven:
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Honda
The modest Honda Jazz is a car that sells well all over the world because of its small size and Japanese reliability. But things didn’t immediately go well for Honda. When the car manufacturer introduce a model named ‘Fitta’ to the Scandinavian market they discovered, too late, that the word ‘fitta’ has vulgar connotations in many Scandinavian languages. The company quickly renamed to model “Honda Jazz” and was then able to continue sales in Scandinavia. And let’s be honest: Honda Jazz sounds much better.
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Pepsi
Another infamous failed translation effort. Pepsi was keen to conquer the, as yet untouched, enormous Chinese market. With the cheerful slogan “Come alive with Pepsi” success should be guaranteed. Unfortunately, instead of a transcreation of the slogan, it was translated literally as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead”. Not a smart move in a country that is steeped in traditional values.
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Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment enjoys unprecedented popularity both with adults and children. with that type of global presence you would certainly expect the company to have a fantastic transcreation team. Well, you wouldn’t think so by looking at the translation of Avengers: Infinity War for the Korean audience. Additionally, many cinema goers felt that even the English translation was below par. Furthhermore, viewers were so disappointed that they set up a petition to have the translator fired.
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Ford
Sales for the car, the Ford Pinto, never took off in Brazil. A professional campaign encouraging people to ‘Put a Pinto under the Christmas tree’ was launched without success. Why? Actually, in Brazilian, the word “Pinto” means “small male genitals”. Not many people want to find that under the Christmas tree!
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California Milk Advisory Board
Made by Goodbye, Silverstein & Partners, the “Got Milk” campaign generated plenty of positive attention. Until it was launched in Mexico. When it was translated into Mexican the campaign became “Do you breastfeed?” Not entirely the interpretation they had in mind.
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Coca-Cola
We talked about Pepsi, so let’s also take a look at a Coca-Cola translation that’s just as ridiculous. Coca-Cola is literally translated into Chinese as Ke-Kou-Ke-La. This means either “bite the washing capsule” or “mare filled with wax”, depending on the dialect.
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Schweppes
A successful marketing campaign should be simple yet effective, don’t you agree? That was true until “Schweppes tonic water” was translated into Italian, which resulted in “Schweppes toilet water”.
Why these mistakes are made:
- the company relied solely on machine translations and neglected to have the texts checked by a qualified linguist;
- the designated translator did not have the qualifications, experience or confidence to be more creative with the translated text.
Why you must avoid making these mistakes:
You only have one chance to make
THE PERFECT FIRST IMPRESSION
Take every possible step to ensure that happen. What may seem like a cheap solution, may cost you dearly in future, in terms of lost opportunities.
Invest in a great translation or transcreation from Write Away, text and design: it is worth it.
