The news of expanding overseas often gets brands dizzy with excitement, which ultimately leads to rushed marketing efforts. As a result, an expertly crafted launch campaign can sometimes get derailed by the tiniest of mistakes – whether that’s a poor translation in your advertising or misuse of cultural symbols. Therefore, it’s important to utilise effective branding translation services when introducing your brand internationally.
Here at Absolute Translations, we have over twenty years of experience in branding and translations. Over the past two decades, our team of native-speaking translators has helped brands establish themselves worldwide. We have seen brands successfully introduce their products to countries such as China, South Korea and Germany following our translation services. With our past experience of branding translation services, our team have shared below four brands who learned they needed translations the hard way:
It’s not only important to check that your branding materials target language is correct but you must check for slang and colloquial language too. Unfortunately, Scandinavian vacuum company, Electrolux, made this mistake when launching their vacuum cleaner in the US during the 1960s. They used the slogan, “Nothing Sucks Like An Electrolux” which hinted at the power of their cleaner’s suction. What they didn’t realise is that the term ‘sucks’ is often used by English speakers in the United States of America to show disappointment. Therefore, it sounded like Electrolux were knocking down their own product.
The luxury ballpoint pen brand, Parker Pens, launched their brand in Mexico with the slogan, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you!” You may be thinking what’s wrong with that? Well, when translated into Spanish, the slogan was “No te embarazará chorreándose en tu bolsillo,” which meant ‘it won’t leak and get you pregnant’. While it was slightly embarrassing for Parker Pens, the advertisement definitely led to increased awareness for the brand in Mexico!
Back in the 1920s, Coca-Cola was looking to introduce itself into the Chinese market. Without an official name in Mandarin, the drink was pronounced “ko-ka-ko-la” which meant ‘bite the wax tadpole’ when read. This was obviously far from what the brand represented and so Coca-Cola created a phrase for their drink. This new phrase translated to “to allow the mouth to be able to rejoice” which is much more fitting.
To find out more information about our branding translation services, why not get in contact with our team today. Absolute Translations can assist you on 0333 577 0767 or you can email us on main@absolutetranslations.com to receive a quote.
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