 Hello, so today I wanted to talk to you about marketing. I got asked a question by By let the language come let the language come ask me. Do you have any video where you talk about marketing translation? And so I wanted to address that here because marketing translation is its own little beast and in fact to me it's one of the most difficult types of translations probably after Literary translation and poetry poetry translation is almost impossible, but like literary translation like that marketing translation can be very difficult So let's get into it marketing translation. What is it? Marketing translation is basically the translation of and you know advertisements commercials anything having to do with localization Anytime you're trying to basically sell products in a different country and you're translating whatever the text is that's marketing Translation, I mean it can also just be websites of companies and pamphlets brochures stuff like that Anything along those lines usually has to do with marketing. In fact, most websites Marketing is the main skill they want when they want their websites translated because that's what websites are there for This can be an issue for many many different reasons with localization especially with localization That's why you see very often when people need marketing translations They specify that they want localization and they need someone who specializes in localization Why is this? Well, there are a couple reasons first of all now You guys might have heard some of these horror stories or stories from the news They hear about various commercials that didn't translate at all well a famous one for English is there's a Swedish company called Electrolux and They make a vacuum cleaner and so they had a slogan that said nothing sucks like Electrolux That's great because it rhymes and they thought they were golden to have something a vacuum cleaner advert That says nothing sucks like Electrolux for the States But of course it doesn't work and you have a lot of these that are lost in translation a couple of the other famous ones are Parker pens They had they had a slogan which wait I have it written here which was already bad It was it was it won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you I mean, I don't know that to me is a bad slogan in any language But when they tried to have the same slogan in Spain they Used embarassado, which means it sounds like embarrassed, but it means to be pregnant and So the slogan was these pens won't leak in your pocket and impregnate you Another one that was famous was power gen power gen is a company and it's an Italian company Or it's at least they have an Italian base and so the website for that was power gen Italia And but when you put it all together it says power gen Italia and so that can be an issue as well Then there are other Examples that you hear I mean I could go on and on and you know because they're fun And you hear about them in the news because another one that's famous is Vicks Many of you might know the company Vicks and when they went to Germany, however, they forgot that Vicks The V is pronounced F like an F and so it sounds a lot like a bad word in German And and yeah, anyway, I won't bore you with all the other ones But there are many examples of these mistranslations and these are the famous ones These are the ones I have to do with brand names and with slogans However, just with the marketing text there are a lot of issues that can happen and you really need to pay attention when you're marketing When you're dealing with marketing text and translations the main thing you have to deal with are Idioms these are metaphors similes innuendos Stuff like that because these are very hard to translate. So whenever I deal with marketing translation It's it's something that I always have to pay attention to basically I go over the text with a fine-tooth comb Because a badly translated expression within the text is really gonna stick out like a sore thumb and to make matters worse What you might try to do is try to just explain what the expression says in detail But then you'll never get to the point It sounds like you're beating around the bush and you'll just make it so complicated that whoever's reading it can't wrap their head around it And they'll just lose interest. I Don't know if you saw what I did just there. So in these past two sentences. I used wait one two three four five different Idioms I said go over with a fine-tooth comb will stick out like a sore thumb to make matters worse which is also an idiom and Beating around the bush and then wrap their head around it all of these are things that can't really be translated into most like pretty much any language literally and you need to find an equivalent expression and That's where a lot of marketing translation can trip up because It's hard to find these same expressions and you need to Understand first of all what it means and you need to find an equivalent expression That means the same thing and can be used in the same context Can't wrap their head around it if you if your native tongue is not English first of all You might have an issue understanding it like they can't wrap their head around it second of all Even if you understand it, then if you have to translate into another and to your native tongue, which is not English What is the equivalent you need to find the the equivalent of that now? I'm sure there is an equivalent But it's not necessarily all that obvious and you can't literally just said they can't wrap their head around it because literally that doesn't mean anything To wrap your head around something doesn't make sense. So These can be very These can be big issues another issue that you come up with marketing translation is geographical issues You know, these are obvious like in the States if you talk about the Wild West it means something if you talk about the South It means something and everyone in the States understands this But if you transpose it to a different country, it's very different and you you see this all the time in Italy There's a big north-south divide that a lot of people understand also There's certain issues people understand geographically such as if someone has a certain accent. They're from a certain place Which might be very hard to translate also, you know Like in Italy if someone has a mandolin and pizza there it has something to do with Naples those are stereotypical things of Naples, but it's very hard to transpose that to different countries and So a lot of these geographical issues can come into play as well Then last but not least is the overall tone if you have a commercial that says bye from us now We have great we have done that and that and that and that so you want to Be able to convey that tone in different languages and so you need to use the right expressions but keep in mind and A commercial like that is very like you see it a lot in places like the States But in other places you might not want to use that type of language because it sounds too brazen or too in your face And they use different types of commercials in different places. And so this can very much be an issue as well Once again for Italy, you know, I know Italian and English best, but in Italy they have It's very Imagistic and you see this all the time you hear with songs and when people speak and all that you try to create imagery with everything you do and so you see a lot more of Stuff being conveyed through this imagery rather than just your words or shouting at you be like bye now If you buy now you got that And not to say you don't hear that you do but it's usually done very differently So it's very hard sometimes to translate all of these and to convey the right Meaning the right expression the right tone and to be sure that it translates correctly and conveys the correct message So that's why when you are dealing with marketing It can be very tricky. So usually when I deal with marketing translations the few that I do deal with is What I do is I have to review the translation twice extra So usually any translation I do like I've mentioned before I go through the translation Then I look at it again with new eyes, you know in more of the target language and that mentality so I can Make sure it flows. However with marketing Translations I need to look over it another time just searching for idioms and expressions and these metaphors and similes and stuff like that Make sure that I didn't translate something literally like to make matters worse Might sound just like something people say. Oh, yeah, and to make matters worse But if you literally translate it into most languages, it really doesn't work and so you need to find the equivalent So, yeah, this can be an issue as so I try to go over it once again Searching just for these expressions and make sure I translated them correctly Then I do it once again just looking at the tone making sure that the right tone is conveyed and then it works in that language and this is Yeah, you know it can be complicated and Some people are really good at this and some people it just kind of clicks and they understand right away What's being tried to convey it and how to convey it in the next language? And if you are one of those people then by all means get into marketing get into localization because people who are good at it are Very rare and if you are good at it You will be able to do very well in translation Because you'll be in high demand once word starts getting out and once you do some good translations of this Then it can be very good Remember you work for the client and so many times you're gonna have to explain it if you changed a certain Expression or if you changed a certain tone or something like that But if you know what you're doing and if you're good at it, you know You can explain it and they'll be happy with it another brief story before I finish there was So this is probably the first time I came across this and when I realized the skill that's needed to do stuff like this when I was young the movie look who's talking came out with John Travolta and Kirstie Ali and The way it works in Italy is it gets dubbed so it doesn't come out until like a year later a six months later or something like that depending on the movie and So this movie had come out in the States, but not yet in Italy, but they were talking about in the local paper and The movie called look who's talking someone said oh, there's a new movie They're saying in Italian obviously and they say and they're saying and it's called guard a key parla And I remember my mother was reading and she's like that, you know, what garbage or what you know What do they do? I'm like why she's like guard a key parla. That's not how you say it in Italian It's sent a key parla. I was like, oh, yeah, that doesn't work when you say it in Italian Look who's talking literally and I think it's the first time that it clicked for me In fact, then when the movie came out it was called sent a key parla But just this article that mentioned the movie before it came out called it incorrectly and which made me notice it anyway So I hope this helps you if you are interested in marketing translations Then you do need to keep stuff like this in mind and but it can be very lucrative So and it can be very attractive and can be fun too because you're coming up with new advertisements In your new target language and so and new ways of selling things new ways of advertising things But so it can you can have a bit of fun with it as well So really depends on your attitude and and yeah, if you think it's for you So I hope you find this useful and if you are interested in marketing translations please do let me know and let me know how you would go about it or what you think about it and That's about it. I'll see you in the next video. Thanks. Bye