Practical Sales Training™ > How To Lose The Sale > Bad Translation
What is it?
If your product/service/business name translates poorly into other languages, then it could be a challenge, or worse… a scandal.
Why does it work?
If you sell internationally, how the name of your business, product or service translates can make a big difference. From slang, to pronunciation to straight up bad direct translations, there are some real risks to your brand that you need to be prepared for.
For example, a coffee cup brand name at IKEA in Thailand translated literally as a cup of death (see more here)
How can you use it?
1 – You can manually translate into the languages of the markets you will operating in to check for issues (best to use a person to help as some nuance will be lost on online translators)
2 – You can rename your product entirely / just for that market. This is why the Vauxhall Nova no longer exists and Coca Cola changed their translation in China:
When Coca-Cola was first introduced in China, the name was translated into Chinese phonetically as “Kekoukela”. Unfortunately, this literally means “biting a wax tadpole”. Finally, the company had to change the translation to “可口可乐” (Kěkǒu kělè), which means “happiness in the mouth”. (source)
Example
This ad campaign from FranklyFluent takes well known slogans and badly translates them to contrast the difference in connection and meaning. Simply enact it!
Some more funny / worrying examples here.
See also
