Make sure your marketing resonates with all audiences with multilingual content
When Nokia launched its Lumia phone in 2011, it made quite a stir in the Spanish market where Lumia is a colloquial term for prostitute.
Pepsi was left similarly red-faced when it attempted to enter the Chinese market with the slogan “Pepsi Brings You Back to Life '' only to find it was translated locally as “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From The Grave”.
What do these two examples have in common? They’re both the result of ineffective and incomplete translation, and they’re not unusual. Google ‘lost in translation marketing fails’ and you’ll find dozens of similar examples from companies who’ve fallen into the trap of focusing on wording at the expense of context.
You’re probably familiar with the phrase ‘content is king’. At NATIONS we have an addendum—‘context is also king’. If your company’s message isn’t translated with an eye to the cultural context of its audience, you’re putting your revenue and your reputation at risk.
That’s why the NATIONS team offers clients a multilingual content strategy. This goes beyond translation to ensure your message has the impact it should—whether it’s on a billboard in Buenos Aires or in a magazine in Manilla.
The importance of culture-first content
Messaging in marketing isn’t just about the words on the page. It’s about how it makes your audience feel, how they react, and what they do as a result.
Conveying all that emotion and nuance isn’t as easy as swapping out one language for another. There are many factors to consider, including:
National, regional, and local colloquialisms
Slang can often trip up advertisers. Even those who know their market may not know the local colloquialisms associated with a particular city or neighborhood within that market. When Clairol released its ‘Mist Stick’ curling iron in Germany, they failed to spot that in some parts of Germany ‘mist’ is slang for ‘manure’.
Cultural customs
The world is not homogenous. Different markets bring different experiences, traditions, and conventions to the mix. Tweaking your translation to speak to these audiences can often mean not just changing words, but changing design elements too.
Some countries may attach a specific meaning to a certain color, a symbol that’s considered inoffensive in England might raise some eyebrows in Belgium—a good translator needs to be alert to all those potential pitfalls.
And, in some cases, perhaps the product itself is the problem. When toothpaste manufacturer Pepsodent began advertising their whitening toothpaste in Southeast Asia, they overlooked one crucial detail—in that region, black teeth are a sign of health and good fortune.
Our transcreation and localization services
NATIONS offers both localization and transcreation services as part of our multilingual content strategy. The former puts content in the appropriate cultural context, while the latter localizes advertising messaging in particular, removing the need for separate campaigns in every target market.
Transcreation and localization aren’t just about avoiding embarrassment. When you can’t communicate effectively with international audiences, you’re limiting your company’s reach and profitability. And that severely hinders your ability to compete in today’s global marketplace.
NATIONS has helped dozens of high-profile agencies and advertising companies create an effective multilingual content strategy. And we don’t just offer these services to marketers—our team has partnered with businesses across all types of industries to optimize their international content.
So don’t waste time, energy, and money going back to the drawing board for each new campaign or drafting separate documents for offices in Shanghai, Venice, or London. Let us transform your original content so it can be rolled out wherever it’s needed. Get in touch with our team of professional translators and interpreters today to see how we can maximize your message and expand your audience.
