Localization myths debunked

‘When forced to pick between truth and legend, print the legend’ is my favourite quote from ‘24 Hour Party People’, where Music Journalist, Nighclub Owner and the founder of Factory Records, Tony Wilson describes some ‘debatable’ events in his life and central role in the ‘Madchester’ music scene in the late 80s and early 90s. While I commend Tony for being honest about his dishonesty, it seems that many people have taken this advice to heart and have overlooked the truth for telling a much better story.

Now, I’m going to awkwardly segue into the point of this article. While researching an earlier blog on famous translation gaffes, I found that there were many examples of localization errors that were pure fiction – for some reason, the internet has collectively decided to follow Tony Wilson’s advice and print the legend when it comes to translation mistakes, rather than sticking to the truth of the matter. This has led to the creation of many localization myths, based around some very basic errors that large, reputable companies supposedly made.

So in this article, we are going to look at some famous translation faux pas, explain why they aren’t the mistakes some people believe, and what lessons we can learn from these examples.

Chevrolet Nova ‘Doesn’t go’

So, the popular story is that Chevrolet launched the ‘Nova’ car model in the early 1960s, and then exported it to Spanish-speaking countries, without checking if the name had any embarrassing connotations. But wait, ‘No va’ in Spanish means ‘Doesn’t Go’, meaning Chevrolet was selling and marketing a car called the ‘Chevrolet does not go’ in Spanish. How could they make such a basic error?

Unfortunately, while this makes for a good localization myth, it doesn’t add up for a number of reasons:

• Chevrolet Nova was quite popular, with iterations of the model existing from 1962 to 1988, selling over 2.5 million units, which includes sales in Spanish-speaking countries such as Mexico.
• The phrase ‘No va’ doesn’t make sense when talking about a car not working – Spanish speakers are more likely to use the phrase ‘no marcha’, ‘no funciona’ or ‘no arranca’, among others, depending on the exact context.
• In Spanish, the word ‘Nova’ is used to refer to the astronomical event, so it would be seen as different from the phrase ‘No va’.
• Mexican oil company Pemex sold a brand of leaded petrol called ‘Nova’ around the time of the Chevrolet Nova’s launch. Would a company based in Mexico name their petrol ‘Doesn’t go’?

So, rather than Chevrolet blindly launching a car into Spanish-speaking markets without doing their research, it seems that they intentionally gave the car a name that would work in both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking markets – it even had its own companion petrol in Mexico, so you could fuel your Nova car with Nova petrol. This kind of internationalisation of a product name, something that Honda should have considered with the Fitta/Jazz launch in 2001, shows that Chevrolet had created a product with international audiences in mind, leading to a very successful car that was produced, in various iterations, from 1962 to 1988.

Coca-Cola asks Chinese customers to ‘Bite the Wax Tadpole’

Our next localization myth involves Coca-Cola, easily one of the most recognisable brands to exist. You can find Coca-Cola beverages all around the world. So, how does such a well-known and widespread brand make a translation error? The story goes that when Coca-Cola was applying for a trademark in China in 1928, the company went for a literal translation of the phonetic version of their name ‘ko-ka-ko-la’ into Mandarin, which translates into ‘Bite the Wax tadpole’. You can imagine the perplexed looks as Chinese buyers scanned shop shelves and saw a beverage asking them to sink their teeth into a wax amphibian.

However, the truth is slightly more complex. While early, pre-trademark Chinese importers of Coca Cola are reported to have phonetically translated the name, with little regard for what the translated name meant, Coca Cola itself spent time carefully researching Mandarin and decided on a name that was a close translation phonetically but had positive connotations. They arrived at K’o K’ou K’o L’e, which roughly translates to ‘To allow the mouth joy’. While this may seem slightly strange in English, it seems to have worked in Chinese, with Coca-Cola applying for a trademark under this name in 1928.

So, rather than being a translation blunder, Coca-Cola’s efforts to find a localized name that fitted their brand phonetically, whilst also having positive connotations, show how much they cared about their brand, and how Chinese customers understood their product. This kind of effort and attention to detail in localization pays dividends later down the line, with Coca-Cola generating over $10.85 billion worth of sales in China alone in 2024.

Printing the Legend

So, rather than these two examples being stories of companies thoughtlessly blundering into international markets, what these stories show us are two companies that carefully thought out the launch of their products, that ensured that their products’ names made sense in their target languages, and in Coca-Cola’s case, painstakingly chose a translation that would work phonetically with the original name, but also had a positive meaning in the target language.

These examples show that with a well-thought-out localization process, you can not only prevent embarrassing errors, but also make localized versions of your products that show local markets that you care about how your product is perceived in their language, that you know their culture, and can make your global brand seem local to your customers. If you’d like to discuss how you can do this kind of well-thought-out localization for your products, why not get in contact with us here?

And, if I haven’t convinced you that well-thought-out localization is a good idea for your products, at least I’ll soon have some new material for my next blog post.