One of the significant milestones for a company is to expand internationally. Fundamental knowledge of international marketing becomes indispensable since a lack of such knowledge could result in being offensive, which may sequentially cause negative consequences including being blacklisted by the target country.
Imaging a customer who is about to enter a fast food restaurant sees the slogan “Eating Your Fingers Off”, would the customer still have any appetites to eat in this restaurant? This awkward slogan was from a well-known fast food restaurant, KFC. Initially, the slogan was “Finger-lickin’ good”. However, due to bad translating, the phrase was translated to entirely different meaning in Chinese when KFC first opened in Beijing, China.
From the above example, it is clearly shown that translation is really important. Bad translation can have funny effects or may confuse the foreign customers. Then, a company is unable to utilize brand positioning to create a distinguish impression in customers’ mind since the bad slogan, in this case, has already established a misleading image. Thus, a company would need extra money or time to build a “right” impression to the customers.
References:
- “Lost in Translation: 9 International Marketing Fails – Businessnewsdaily.com.”Business News Daily – Sales and Marketing. N.p., n.d. Mon. 7 Oct. 2013. <http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5241-international-marketing-fails.html>.