Marketing Translation

The problems marketers have had translating famous slogans into other languages are infamous in the marketing world, and they are often the subject of humor for the general public as well. KFC translated its slogan "Finger Lickin' Good" into Chinese, but it came out as "eat your fingers off." Ford was completely unaware that its Pinto model shared a name with a Brazilian Portuguese slang term for "tiny male genitals." Perdue's famous slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken" was mistranslated as "it takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused." Sure, we laugh at mistakes like these, but for the companies involved the mistakes are not just embarrassing, they cost money.

As a result, businesses search long and hard for a foreign language translation company who can provide the professional translations their business depends upon. More than just understanding how to change words from one language to another, translation involves understanding the market you're translating into and what they consider appropriate or correct. Translations need to do more than just be grammatically correct, they have to be culturally appropriate as well.

As a very basic example of this, a French translator cannot simply translate from English to French – after all, Quebecois French and Parisian French are different enough that a local would be put off if they didn’t feel the language use was “correct” or didn’t understand the cultural references. The same goes for translating English to German – there are different dialects (for instance the German spoken in Austria might not be the same as that spoken in Switzerland, Germany, or other areas of Europe). The variations can be great or even so minor that someone who spoke German as a second language might not notice the difference, but using the wrong dialect or social references can create significant misunderstandings and result in an audience who is offended or untrusting.

It’s clear, finding a Translator who knows the subtleties of your target market’s language is crucial, and it all comes down to choosing a professional translation company very, very wisely… Otherwise, you could end up like Ford; trying to market a car with a name that's vulgar in the country they were trying to expand into.

The process of globalization has put a premium on marketing in multiple languages, but in order to benefit from globalization's immense power your firm needs to make sure your materials make sense in every language you translate them into. Rather than "arousing" chickens, you want to make sure you're selling "tender" chickens. You want your chicken "finger-lickin'" not "eating off your fingers." An effective translation service can help you avoid these kinds of problems. We’re a translation company based in Toronto and employ only the highest quality translators. We, at Technovate Translations Toronto, understand that good translators know what works and what doesn't work in your target language so you'll never have to deal with an embarrassing and costly mistranslation.

Technovate Translations can assist you in all your marketing translation needs. We have offices to serve you in Toronto (our head office), Vancouver, and Los Angeles. Our translators are fluent in their native languages and English as well. As a result, they are highly qualified to produce careful, coherent, and comprehensive translations of all your marketing documents and materials. Let them build a bridge between your language and your target language so your documents will always use culturally appropriate terms and idioms to target your audience effectively. We also go the extra step of utilizing a quality control team to double-check every translation.

Call-1-800-736-7764 to speak to one of our representatives today!