Cultural blunders: brands gone wrong
October 14 , 2021Cultural blunders: brands gone wrong
by Target Language Translation Services
- October 14 2021
Attempts to create globally consumed brands, or regionally consumed brands have proved challenging. Changing a product to cater for local needs or tastes risks hurting your reputation and your likelihood of successful expansion. And some brand marketers seem to wrongly think that they can convince overseas consumers that their products and services transcend cultural barriers.
Localization is incredibly significant for expanding overseas, which is about way more than simply making sure that your content is translated and reformatted for a new audience. It’s also about making sure that you don’t fail dismally when it comes to reaching out due to cultural differences, slang or historical references.
As with all things, the key to localizing your content for a new market is research. Before you can possibly hope to appeal to the hearts and minds of a new target market in a new country you’re going to really want to focus on how not to send the entirely wrong message.
Brands Gone Wrong
Here are some localization examples of epic fails to use as scare tactics – and entertainment – to motivate you to take the correct steps early on. This is why doing your research before launching internationally is going to be incredibly important.
VICKS
When Vicks first introduced its cough drops in the German market, they were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of “v” is “f” which in Germany is the guttural equivalent of “sexual penetration”.
Clairol
The hair products company, Clairol, introduced the “Mist Stick” – a curling iron – into Germany, only to find out that “mist” is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the manure stick.
PEPSI COLA
Pepsi Cola lost its dominant market share to Coke in South East Asia when Pepsi changed the color of its vending machines and coolers from deep “Regal” blue to light “Ice” blue as light blue is associated with death and mourning in their region.
Salem
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, “Salem - Feeling Free” was translated into the Japanese market as “When smoking Salem, you will feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty.”
How to Avoid Cultural Mistakes in Localization
It’s simply not enough to translate your content and place it on the target market. A literal translation is never enough when it comes to presenting the finished product in a different region.
While translation is the main part of the process, localization includes understanding the culture of a particular region. Translating and adjusting your content to that specific locale is something you really need to do if you’re thinking about conquering the global market.
Understand the culture of the country you’re about to target--Think about your business, the brand you sell, the User Interface of your website, images that you display and, most importantly, do your research! When you start to understand your target region and cultural differences, you’ll most likely have to make some adjustments, even though you probably initially thought you wouldn’t have to.
Use symbols and colors wisely--Localization and images that you display to your potential customers go hand in hand. Try to play it safe when it comes to images as well and replace the ones that can be controversial with images of nature, and you don’t want your potential customer feeling neglected, or even worse, offended. The process of localization of your website or e-commerce in both of these cases would include providing an alternative to an item for that region or omitting it from your offer completely.
This article is reprinted from TU Press, campaign and Phrase.
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