Is your brand's message lost in translation?

When people think about cross-cultural marketing blunders they usually think of the funny translation gaffs. There are dozens of examples. You’ve probably come across a few of these yourself. 

Great post on the Brand Ranter blog:

When people think about cross-cultural marketing blunders they usually think of the funny translation gaffs. There are dozens of examples. You’ve probably come across a few of these yourself. 

These types of mistakes are easy to spot with a quick back translation or a check with someone from the local market. The silent killer of many cross-cultural campaigns is translation that looks fine in a back translation but to a native sounds lifeless and utterly forgetable. Your brand's personality expressed through emotion, nuance and colloquialism is often the first thing to be lost in translation. 

Read the entire post here: www.brandrants.com

Comments

[essay]

These types of mistakes are easy to spot with a quick back translation or a check with someone from the local market. The silent killer of many cross-cultural campaigns is translation that looks fine in a back translation but to a native sounds lifeless and utterly forgetable.

[Sunitha Cole]

Successful cross-cultural transfer is essential for a good translation, particularly in advertising. In the 1960s, for instance Swedish Electrolux hoovers were successfully marketed in the Britain with the slogan: ‘Nothing sucks like an Electrolux’. When the company used this in the American market years later, hoping the audience would find the double-entendre of the line amusing, one can imagine that it didn’t come across in quite the same way as in Britain; humour is not just a language thing. .Translation-companies work with linguists who are familiar with both the culture of the target and the source language.