January 30, 2012
In
“PEPSI BRINGS YOUR ANCESTORS BACK FROM THE DEAD”
(1960s Pepsi advertising slogan in
Chinese translation) This somewhat literal translation of the slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” is a prime example of the issues facing a business moving into overseas markets. Pepsi survived this hiccup, of course, but how many good companies have fatally undermined their export strategy from the outset by failing to appreciate the nuances of a foreign language? Wolfestone Translation offers tailored solutions to this problem, helping businesses to make the breakthrough into lucrative overseas markets. With the Eurozone far from stable many Wolfestone clients are looking to Asia for sustainable growth, and with good reason. China’s middle class, a happy hunting ground for exporters, already numbers more than 200 million and will soon exceed the total population of the United States. The Chinese government reacted to a slight slowdown in 2011 with a $400bn stimulus package, which was followed by a flood of private investment. With rapid urbanisation and a government cash reserve in excess of $3 trillion, China remains the “Holy Grail” for many British exporters. But how can they avoid the “Pepsi Pitfall”? The long answer will be explored in detail on these pages over the coming weeks. The short answer is that they can work with Wolfestone. Detailed analysis by UK Trade and Investment, the government agency responsible for developing international trade, shows that companies who localise their marketing into the language of their target audience generate an average of six times more business than those who don’t. Crucially, Wolfestone offers clients both globalisation and localisation, opening the door to every developed economy and providing a thorough and current understanding of the target culture. Our global network offers not only native speaker translators but also native resident translators. Clients seeking to connect with consumers in unfamiliar countries can have their message shaped by translators who actually live, work, buy and sell there. Our translators are completely in tune with your target market because they are part of it. Many reputable manufacturing companies hire technical writers to prepare their product brochures, user guides and service manuals. They believe this extra creative polish gives them a promotional edge, and there’s a wealth of evidence to support that judgment. If this pays dividends in the domestic market, then the attention to detail in a Wolfestone translation project offers the key to even greater possibilities overseas. In the words of the Katie Melua song: “there are nine million bicycles in Beijing”. Someone had to make them and someone had to sell them. In a country whose increasingly affluent middle class already numbers more than 200 million, the market could hardly be more inviting. A famous drug company marketed a new medication in the United Arab Emirates. To make their point clearly they used a series of pictures. The first picture depicted someone clearly ill, the next picture showed the person taking the medication, and the last picture showed them restored to good health. The campaign was a disaster. They’d forgotten that in the Arab world people read from right to left. The right
translation partner would never make that mistake. That’s why clients come to Wolfestone.
(1960s Pepsi advertising slogan in
Chinese translation) This somewhat literal translation of the slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” is a prime example of the issues facing a business moving into overseas markets. Pepsi survived this hiccup, of course, but how many good companies have fatally undermined their export strategy from the outset by failing to appreciate the nuances of a foreign language? Wolfestone Translation offers tailored solutions to this problem, helping businesses to make the breakthrough into lucrative overseas markets. With the Eurozone far from stable many Wolfestone clients are looking to Asia for sustainable growth, and with good reason. China’s middle class, a happy hunting ground for exporters, already numbers more than 200 million and will soon exceed the total population of the United States. The Chinese government reacted to a slight slowdown in 2011 with a $400bn stimulus package, which was followed by a flood of private investment. With rapid urbanisation and a government cash reserve in excess of $3 trillion, China remains the “Holy Grail” for many British exporters. But how can they avoid the “Pepsi Pitfall”? The long answer will be explored in detail on these pages over the coming weeks. The short answer is that they can work with Wolfestone. Detailed analysis by UK Trade and Investment, the government agency responsible for developing international trade, shows that companies who localise their marketing into the language of their target audience generate an average of six times more business than those who don’t. Crucially, Wolfestone offers clients both globalisation and localisation, opening the door to every developed economy and providing a thorough and current understanding of the target culture. Our global network offers not only native speaker translators but also native resident translators. Clients seeking to connect with consumers in unfamiliar countries can have their message shaped by translators who actually live, work, buy and sell there. Our translators are completely in tune with your target market because they are part of it. Many reputable manufacturing companies hire technical writers to prepare their product brochures, user guides and service manuals. They believe this extra creative polish gives them a promotional edge, and there’s a wealth of evidence to support that judgment. If this pays dividends in the domestic market, then the attention to detail in a Wolfestone translation project offers the key to even greater possibilities overseas. In the words of the Katie Melua song: “there are nine million bicycles in Beijing”. Someone had to make them and someone had to sell them. In a country whose increasingly affluent middle class already numbers more than 200 million, the market could hardly be more inviting. A famous drug company marketed a new medication in the United Arab Emirates. To make their point clearly they used a series of pictures. The first picture depicted someone clearly ill, the next picture showed the person taking the medication, and the last picture showed them restored to good health. The campaign was a disaster. They’d forgotten that in the Arab world people read from right to left. The right
translation partner would never make that mistake. That’s why clients come to Wolfestone.
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