“Translation fails” – when incorrect translations become expensive and embarrassing

A product launch is never easy

When launching a product into a new market there are several important parameters to be considered.
Foreign language aspects are especially underestimated or overlooked. Just translating the copy is nowadays not enough any more. The content of websites, products, catalogues and instruction manuals have to be localized that means they must be specifically adapted to each target market.

There are numerous examples which underline the importance of an internationalized translation as well as there are countless negative cross-sectoral examples for translations which are often not only funny but can also result in really damaging the originator. These are not only marketing slip-ups as incorrect translations can lead to international relations suffering or letting them run in the wrong direction.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

The American game developer Bethesda published its game 'The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion in 2006'. For a speedy introduction into the German market Bethseda decided to translate the game in a very short time scale by in-house employees. This led to significantly worse reviews and had to be laboriously corrected. A famous example of a pretty awful localization is the "Schw. Tr. d. Le.en-W." which does not mean anything at all in German and was supposedly an abbreviation for "Schwachen Trank der Lebensenergie-Wiederherstellung" (weak potion to restore the life energy).

Mitsubishi Pajero

One of the best known examples is the Mitsubishi Pajero - Pajero in South America is the zoological term for a sleek and graceful wild cat. Mitsubishi only realised much later that in Spanish slang it is first of all a really strong insult. Therefore the "Pajero" had to be renamed "Montero" for the Spanish speaking regions. Even though it is by far the most famous example for a badly chosen brand name within the automotive industry it is not the only one. A further example from a long list is the Mazda Laputa. Mazda thought of an island from "Gulliver's Travels" but in Spanish "la puta" is a derogatory term for a prostitute.

„We care about the small people“

During the oil catastrophe of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the oil rig "Deep-water Horizon" the BP's CEO, the Swede Carl-Henric Svanberg stated: "We care about the small people". This remark turned into a dictum expressing the arrogant and pretentious attitude of a giant corporate group towards the interests of many English native speakers affected by the catastrophe. The corporation excused this later with a "false translation" as the original meaning was probably "common person" but the damage to the image was already done.

"Communicate Supplier", AliBaba.com

The most prominent example in the list of misleading translations and the following consequences could be attributed to the Chinese online trader AliBaba. In 2014 they spectacularly floated the company on the stock market to become a competitor to Ebay and Amazon. So far the company does not seem to care about translation and apparently only uses the most simple translation tools for its German website. The section for car parts is called "Body parts" , others are "portable audio with the loud noise" and "young ladies essential mini thermal portable mobile photo bag printer with android". The layout of the site and especially the disastrous translations do not give the impression of a serious rival to western online traders at all but rather discourages possible customers from buying anything at all. Firstly the company has to solve the problem of the unprofessional translation to really become competitive outside the Asian market.

Good reasons for implementing a Translation Management System (TMS)

These examples point out the necessity of putting more commitment into translations and their localizations. To launch a new trade mark the specific characteristics of the target market have to be taken seriously. Translations are more important than ever when opening up new business potentials as incompetently translated texts can not only be very annoying but cause real damage.

Among other things the introduction of a TMS helps to avoid these kinds of mistakes and at the same time translations are lifted to a professional level consequently paving the way to a successful internationalization without any embarrassments.