The Significance of Translation in International Business Communications

Common European thought is the fruit of the immense toil of translators. Without translators, Europe would not exist; translators are more important than members of the European Parliament.

Milan Kundera, Czech novelist, playwright and poet (born 1929)

Marketing academics certainly realise the importance of good translations in international marketing: almost all standard marketing textbooks now discuss the significance of translations and back translations in international business communications. In practice, however, there are innumerable examples of translation bloopers such as the sign at a Scandinavian airport “We take your bags and send them in all directions” or the one in a Swiss restaurant “Our wines leave you nothing to hope for” or the note in a doctor’s office in Rome “Specialist in women and other diseases”. But wrong translations are used even at the top level of international marketing. Such translations are not only embarrassing but potentially very costly to the company that uses them as part of its marketing communications campaign. Famous examples include the launch by General Motors of their Chevy Nova in the South American market where “nova” means “it won't go", the Electrolux slogan used in the American market to advertise a vacuum cleaner “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”, and the introduction of the Curling iron “Mist Stick” in Germany where the very similarly pronounced word “Miststück” is an abusive term for a woman.

While such examples are humorous, wrong translations, notably in the legal, technical, financial, and pharmaceutical areas can be dangerous; one needs only think of directions on prescription drugs or a misinterpretation of a legal brief. One way to avoid translation mistakes is back-translation, whereby a translated text is translated back into the source language without making reference to the original. While this is useful as an approximate check, it is far from infallible and typically does not work at all for short and catchy slogans which often make use of puns or contain cultural references that are entirely lost in the back-translation process. Given the indispensability of human translators and the increasing globalisation of the world economy, the translation industry looks set to continue on its upward path for some time to come.