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At SE,
we believe that marketing translation goes beyond words.
A marketing or creative copy's tone, understated
meanings and designs need to be adapted such that it feels
as if it has been written specifically for the target market.
Only then the meaning, flair and effectiveness of your translated
message will be as good as that of the original.
A plain literal translation, though correct,
will lack in punch and style of the original message. And
sometimes can change the meaning of your message to such
an extent that it turns funny or downright offensive.
And if you are thinking that this happens
only with smaller companies looking for cheap translation
services, then check the following real life blunders by
the big guns.
- "Coca-Cola"' in China was first translated
as "Ke-kou-ke-la" meaning "bite the wax
tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax"
depending on the dialect. Coke later found the right Chinese
characters that are phonetically close to the brand, "ko-kou-ko-le"
which can be translated as, "happiness in the mouth".
- Parker (Pens) translated the slogan for its ink,
"Avoid Embarrassment - Use Quink" into Spanish as "Evite
Embarazos - Use Quink"... which also means "Avoid Pregnancy
- Use Quink."
- Coors slogan, "Turn it Loose," translated into Spanish
as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
- Puffs tissues had a bad name in Germany since "Puff"
is a colloquial term for whorehouse.
Real fun to read but bad translations can cost a fortune
to you.
How we overcome this?
To assure that you don't get in this list of bad translations,
we only ever use qualified in-country translators who have
sound experience in creative writing and are thorough
with the cultural intricacies of the target market.
Further we involve you in each stage of
translations to keep in sync with your expectations.
Once your translation is done, our team of
in-house DTP experts will work on the layout and deliver
it in any of the following electronic file formats as per
your requirement.
- QuarkXpress
- InDesign
- Pagemaker
- Powerpoint
- Illustrator
- Photoshop
- Corel Draw
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