Abstract
Market globalization has made multilingual marketing communications a sine qua none for most transnational businesses. Exploring new foreign markets has thus meant translating and localizing marketing communications, so as to enable foreign consumers to have the kind of experience that may spur them into being favorable to the products or services on promotion. Conscious of this imperative, many Nigerian companies have embarked on multilingual packaging as a key component of their international marketing strategies. Although such a language-based tactic has enormous potential, Nigerian companies' use of multilingual packaging is confronted to a multitude of problems. This chapter explores four of such problems, including mis-translations (of packages), partial translation, typographic and design errors, and companies' adherence to the myth stating that English is the language of business. To address these challenges, the chapter recommends non or reduced reliance on automatic translation and resorting to the services of a professional translator, “transcreators,” and experienced marketers.
TopTheoretical Framework
This paper is anchored in the social innovation theory. Propagated by the like of Phills, Deiglmeier and Miller (2008), Agustini et al (2015), Konda, Starc and Rodica (2015) and Siroen (2016) among others, this theory seeks to explain the most appropriate approaches and processes that result in profound and lasting change as well as in better ways of dealing with societal challenges. As put by Phills, Deiglmeier and Miller (2008):
Key Terms in this Chapter
Localization: Localization is the act of making something local or restricted to a particular locale. In the context of business, it is the process of customizing products or services according to regional or local specificities or for local consumption. It thus entails taking a product or service, and then modifying it in such a way that it becomes acceptable to a particular locale.
Marketing Globalization: Term used to refer to the process of promoting and selling goods and services in an increasingly interdependent and integrated global economy. It entails adjusting marketing strategies in order to adapt to business conditions in other countries.
Punctuation: In the linguistic perspective, punctuation is viewed as the marks employed to divide sentence and phrases in a context of continuous writing or sentence formulation. It is equally defined as the system governing the use of such marks. In design however, punctuation goes beyond mere textual features or typographical symbols, thus the common coinage of “visual punctuation”. In terms of typography or design, punctuation is more than just periods, brackets, exclamation points and the like. It is any feature that causes a reader or user to stop or pause. It can happen while reading text or as the eye moves from one element to another. These bits of visual punctuation are everywhere and are vital parts of any design concept. Elements of visual punctuation therefore include tools used by the designer to separate, group or emphasize elements, photos or words within a design and intentionally or accidentally cause the viewer/reader to stop and look at a certain part of the canvas or package. In line with this, two types of visual punctuation may be identified namely “classical” punctuation marks (including common readable punctuation markers – commas, square brackets, full stops and the like) and “conceptual”/“situational” punctuation including elements such as spaces, rule, color, lines and icons.
Transcreation: Technically speaking, transcreation involves translation and (re)creation of marketing messages. The term actually refers to the process of taking concepts from a source content and adapting or recreating them for specific target language markets.
Glocalization: Portmanteau term derived from a combination of “globalization” and “localization”. In the context of international marketing, glocalization refers to the process of conducting business according to both global and local considerations. The term is thus used to describe the process of developing and distributing products globally but with contextual adjustments to accommodate consumers or users in specific local markets.
Digital Marketing: The process of using one or multiple forms of digital platforms to market products, services or brands. This process extends beyond Internet marketing to include other forms of technology-driven marketing notably mobile telephony, social media, the electronic billboard and any other display advertising among others.