Marketing Material Translations
Translation in itself is not always the answer to your language needs, in particular where marketing or creative material is concerned. When copy needs to be adapted so it feels as if it has been written purposely for a market, or key phrases such as a play on words or alliteration need to be maintained, literal translation is not the answer.
We are using the following process:
We start by selecting the right style and voice of translation and direct liaison is maintained on an ongoing basis if that's what you need. Only translators with prior creative experience within your industry will be used. This ensures the creative essentials of the original copy are not lost in translation and your translated documents returned the way you need them. We'll build a database of agreed company and industry terminology to ensure uniformity throughout your documents.
We know the local markets and its customs which ensures that your adverts and promotions have the desired effect when localized into your target language.
Last word:
The last thing you need is to ruin all your hard work by having your adverts, brochures, websites, press releases or emails badly translated. Below are a few examples of translations going disastrously wrong for multinational companies:
Marketing Translation Mistakes
Latte?
Latte means milk in Italy. In English, Latte is a coffee-drink. Many folks like to head to Starbucks or other coffee shops to take early morning latte breaks...
In Germany, Latte is a well known word for an erection. So, "morning latte" is when you wake up in the morning with an erection! The word "break" means "destroy", so taking that "morning latte break" is destroying that erection. I'll leave the details to your imagination, as well as all the puns on how you take your steaming hot drink.
Salem Cigarettes
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem - Feeling Free," got translated in the Japanese market into "When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."
Schweppes Tonic Water
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water
Rolls Royce
Rolls Royce changed the name of its car the Silver Mist to the Silver Shadow before entering Germany. In German, "Mist" means manure (to put it nicely).
Pope T-shirt
An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired "I saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed "I saw the Potato."
Andrew Sheh explains: Capital P "Papa" means "Pope". "papa" means potato. Finally, "papa" with an accent on the last "a" means father.
Beardo writes: el Papa (masculine) is the Pope; la papa (feminine) is the potato. VI EL PAPA. VI LA PAPA.
Chicken
When Kentucky Fried Chicken translated their slogan " Finger lickin' good" into Chinese, it came out as "Eat your fingers off"
Chevy
When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that "no va" in Spanish means " it won't go"
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