Advertising Bloopers

When businesses release new products into foreign markets, massive advertising campaigns have to be done in order to penetrate the local market. A good advertisement will certainly increase the product visibility. However, if you have a successful English language advert, how do you transfer that success to the foreign market? Big companies will usually hire big advertising firms to take care all of that. But what you do not see in the background is that these advertisement firms rely heavily on professional translation companies to produce error free advertisements in the target language. The advertisement translation must also be culturally sensitive to the local audience. Advertisement translation is not only limited to foreign markets; it is also very relevant in the UK market, where there are many foreigners. As a result, there is a great demand for advertisement translation in creating multi-lingua promotional literatures catalogues, brochures, or even in-flight magazines that are full of advertisements.

However, many small and medium size enterprises often try to lower down their marketing cost. There is a downside to it. Without help from the professional translation companies, many of these enterprises have failed to obtain valuable cultural insights of the target local market. In turn, the quality of their advertisements has also suffered resulting in advertising bloopers. Translation errors can have a devastating effect on sales and brand reputation. Here are some examples which big companies have encountered over the years.

• Kellog´s, the famous cereal producer, wanted to introduce a new cereal brand called "Bran Buds" in Sweden. However, after translation, it was written as "burned farmer".
• The UK Company Clairol wanted to release a new curling iron "Mist Stick" in Germany. However, the marketing team later found out that "mist" is a slang for manure in German. German customers were quite reluctant to use "manure stick" to curl their hair.
• Va Bene, a world famous Italian culinary name opened a new restaurant in Shanghai. However, its name became a joke amongst the local people. Although "Va Bene" means "it goes well" in Italian, but the pronunciation is very similar to the Shanghai dialect for "not cheap".
• American Motors wanted to sell their car "Matador" in Puerto Rico. Matador is a very famous fighting arena and it rings well with the American general population. However, Puerto Ricans were very reluctant to buy the car because "Matador" means "killer" in Spanish.
• An American Cooking Oil Brand did not do very well with their sales in South America because the brand name was translated into Spanish as "Jackass Oil".
• The world famous Schweppes had its share of bloopers. They went ahead to market their "Schweppes Tonic Water" as "Schweppes Toilet Water" in Italy.
• Toothpaste giant Colgate sold their new product called "Cue" in France. What they did not know at that time was that "Cue" is the name of an infamous French porn magazine.
• The company Gerber, which manufacture baby food in the USA, did not do well with their products in the African countries. There was nothing wrong with their translated promotional text. They also used a baby photo on the packaging. Only after some marketing feedback, the company found out that African consumers want to know what content is inside the container, and they wanted to see the picture of it on the label. In this case, they expected to see the picture of baby food. This is mainly because the general African population is illiterate.

Therefore, it is always important to watch out for these advertising bloopers as they can make or break your business. Prime Languages specialise in producing Blooper-Free Translations.

We can provide a Quick Translation Quote or a Free Callback.
Alternately, telephone +44 (0)207 785 7198.

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