Translation errors made in marketing campaigns

There is a well-known saying amongst marketers that the easiest way to spot a mistake in your work is to press the publish button. While meant humorously, I can tell from personal experience that it is also, unfortunately, true. It also seems to extend to marketers working in other languages. There are many examples of companies conceiving new advertising campaigns or launching new products, only to make some very unfortunate translation errors that harmed their brand image and hampered the success of their products.

However, many of these examples are from large, multinational companies that would have had the resources to establish robust localization processes and should have been able to anticipate these types of errors. They would have been seen by numerous members of staff, approved by managers and stakeholders, and showcased to other departments at internal meetings. So, why were these mistakes not spotted?

In this blog, we’ll look at two examples of localization errors that hampered the efforts of famous companies, discuss why these mistakes may have happened, and suggest ways that these localization errors could have been avoided.

Honda Jazz and an unfortunate tagline

Cars are truly a global product – it’s not uncommon for modern cars to be designed in one country, tested in another, and then manufactured at different factories around the world, with parts coming from third-party suppliers around the world. Yet, it is an industry that seems to have its fair share of localization gaffes.

In 2001, Honda released a new compact car, called the Fitta, in Japan, to generally good reviews and sales, with plans to release the car across Europe in the following year. However, to the dismay of the Swedish arm of Honda (who, according to this article by Swedish automotive magazine Automotor Sport, were not informed by the Japanese arm of the business about the name), Fitta is a rather rude term, that you certainly wouldn’t want to name a car after. Luckily, despite this mistake being spotted by some European press outlets, the name was changed to ‘Jazz’ before its launch in Europe in the following year.

So, what caused this unintentional gaffe? Well, it seems that Honda were simply keen to get their new car to market, and announced its launch in Japan without consulting their international offices. While undoubtedly someone would have raised the alarm at Honda Sweden before the car was launched in Europe in the following year, it seems clear that localization was thought of as a separate task to the initial development of the Fitta, so mistakes, such as naming your car after a rude word in another language, were not picked up on in the development of this car.

This demonstrates how important it is for localization teams to be involved with your work as soon as possible. By ‘internationalizing’ your documentation at an early stage, you can ensure that your documentation is easy to translate, and identify and remedy potential errors before the translation process begins, saving you time, money and potential embarrassment in the long run. While the beginning stages of developing a new product feel far away from taking this new product to market, ensuring you factor in translation early in your project will help you avoid the kind of error that Honda made in this example.

Luckily for Honda, the name was quickly changed in the year before the car was released in Europe, and despite the initial embarrassment, it didn’t dampen sales, with the original Jazz selling over 500,000 cars in Europe, before being replaced by the higher spec version in 2008.

Nike ‘Get Fat’

Nike has been one of the leading brands of sports clothes and footwear since it was founded in 1964, and their ubiquitous slogan ‘Just do it’, along with the Famous Nike ‘swoosh’ is recognised around the world. With this long-standing pedigree, it’s hard to believe that Nike would make a translation error, but that is what happened when they released a limited edition ‘Air Force One’ trainers back in 2015.

Nike released two separate, special versions of the Air Force One trainers, just for the Chinese market. The first had the Chinese character ‘發’ printed on the heel, meaning ‘Be rich’ or ‘Prosperous’. On the other had the character ‘福’, meaning ‘Have fortune’ or ‘Good luck’ printed in the same place. Seperately, this was a nice bit of customisation for a Chinese audience. However, in promotional shots of the trainers, which were widely shared online, the two sets of trainers were mixed together side by side, which unfortunately changed the meaning of both characters to the mildly insulting ‘Get fat’, which, for a brand famous for its sports pedigree, isn’t ideal.

So, what caused this mistake to be made? Clearly, the shoes were meant to be two different products, so when checking the translation of these shoes separately, the use of these characters would have seemed reasonable. However, the team in charge of creating the promotional shots clearly did not consult their localization team, so the meaning of combining the two characters was not spotted. This highlights the importance of having someone with knowledge of local culture and language who has oversight of all stages of your project. There are many cultural considerations, such as the changing meaning of Chinese characters when combined, that many without knowledge of Chinese customs are simply not aware of, so a careful checking of all promotional material, which takes extra time, will ensure embarrassing faux pas like these are avoided.

While Nike did cop some criticism from Chinese speakers, especially on Weibo, with some users urging Nike to ‘Give up on the Chinese Market’, or lamenting ‘surely you have at least one Chinese person at your company’, some users did see the funny side, with some people tagging their friends on the original post, perhaps unkindly suggesting that these shoes were tailor made for them.

Lessons learnt

So, what lessons can we learn from these translation mistakes? Well, it’s that no one is immune to translation errors. Big, multinational companies can still slip up every now and then. It also highlights the importance of getting a localisation team involved in your project as soon as possible and giving them oversight over any customer-facing communications. Not only does this give them ample time to plan the translation process that you need, and will save you a lot of hassle later by allowing you team time to iron out any potential issues before they arise, such as issues with formatting or design, it also gives your localization team the chance to spot any potential embarrassing mistakes, such as the two mentioned here.

While these mistakes were spotted fairly early, and didn’t have much of an adverse effect on either Nike or Honda in the long run, there are many examples of translation gaffes that have caused offence, harm, or endangered the lives of people due to poor localization processes, such as the 47 patients who were given the wrong knee replacement prosthesis in Berlin in 2007, due in part to a poor translation of packaging and documentation in German from US English.

So, if you have a product you are looking to start marketing overseas and need some help with your translation process, why not get in touch? Or, if you have any questions about this article, feel free to contact us. We’d be more than happy to hear from you.