Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Development - Localisation : how to ruin your brand abroad for sure with an ill-chosen name
The corporate world is full of horrendous stories about how corporations suffer serious image losses on overseas markets simply because they neglect to take the cultural differences into consideration.
One of the best known examples - which by the way ultimately appears to be false - is about the Chevrolet Nova. No one understood why the car didn’t sell on Spanish-speaking markets until someone finally realised that “No Va” means “doesn’t go” in Spanish.
The story may be true or not, but the point remains: names that have no connotation whatsoever in French for instance can have an odd meaning in another language.
Another example? Each day as I take the kids to school in Brussels I walk past a house door with a copper plate that reads:
"Dentists... Mean... Pain"? Aaaouch. I am certain they are great practitioners… but I wouldn’t bet they have that many English-speaking patients…
So – if you are about to expand your activity in a country where a foreign language is spoken, remember to make sure your corporate name won’t play a nasty trick on you!
Those interested can find other stories about mistranslations here - and if you come across other similar gems, please forward them to me! I’d be delighted to publish them with a link to you.
About the author: Pierre Leonard is the co-founder and owner of Virtual Words, a company that provides translations in 40 languages thanks to a global network of 1500 language experts.
One of the best known examples - which by the way ultimately appears to be false - is about the Chevrolet Nova. No one understood why the car didn’t sell on Spanish-speaking markets until someone finally realised that “No Va” means “doesn’t go” in Spanish.
The story may be true or not, but the point remains: names that have no connotation whatsoever in French for instance can have an odd meaning in another language.
Another example? Each day as I take the kids to school in Brussels I walk past a house door with a copper plate that reads:
Dentistes
Dr S. Mean - Dr Y. Pain
"Dentists... Mean... Pain"? Aaaouch. I am certain they are great practitioners… but I wouldn’t bet they have that many English-speaking patients…
So – if you are about to expand your activity in a country where a foreign language is spoken, remember to make sure your corporate name won’t play a nasty trick on you!
Those interested can find other stories about mistranslations here - and if you come across other similar gems, please forward them to me! I’d be delighted to publish them with a link to you.
About the author: Pierre Leonard is the co-founder and owner of Virtual Words, a company that provides translations in 40 languages thanks to a global network of 1500 language experts.
