13-03-2014, 03:37 PM
TRANSLATION BLUNDERS
TRANSLATION BLUNDERS.pdf (Size: 17.69 KB / Downloads: 14)
Parker pen wanted to introduce a ball point pen in Mexico. The company wanted to high light the new
pen’s USP. The advertisement for the pen wanted to convey to the readers that the new pen “won’t leak in
your pocket and embarrass you”. However, the company wrongly thought that the Spanish word
“embarazar” meant embarrass and the advertisement said, the new ball point pen “won’t leak in your
pocket and make you pregnant”. See the embarrassment caused to Parker Company by the ‘embarazar’.
Written communication primarily uses words and at times pictures to convey ideas and messages. Many
companies, in their zest to enter international markets, use words they use locally to communicate with
their international customers forgetting the connotations of words and the meanings assigned to those
words by their overseas customers. Many well known MNCs too committed this blunder. Many a time
these cultural mistakes cost dearly. Cultural dissimilarities often erect communication barriers even to the
global corporations.
Managers who are concerned with dissemination of marketing communication should become sensitized to
the cross cultural divide. Internet has transformed even the local kirana retailer into a potential global
seller. Globalization and ‘net revolution’ has made the global market a small local market where success
and failure in transactions depend on knowledge about cross cultures and semantics in addition to total
customer satisfaction concept. This emphasizes the fact that marketing communication has to be effective
across cultures and literal translation of successful messages else where may not guarantee the same
success in a foreign market where the communication provides an altogether different meaning.