editorial
It's Not About Language:
It's About Culture
by Andrea Castro
Let's suppose that it's the year 2106. All advertising is highly individualized, and companies are able to tailor their marketing message based upon not only your age and income, but also your propensity to consume in relation to your mood, your recall of past commercials, etc. Mass media with its one-message-fits-all approach will be regarded as a quaint reminder of the past.
Coming back to 2006, where 1 out of every 7 people in the United States is Latino, and many companies are still using their mass-message approach. When it comes to advertising to the Latino consumer, many companies misguidedly believe that they can simply translate their English ads and voilà their Latino marketing is complete. Add a few superfluous upside-down exclamation marks and your work is done.
To the Latino consumer however, the implication of mere translations can be very different. Would you want to alienate the segment that according to the Insight Research Corporation is not only the fastest growing minority but also the fastest growing sector of the entire US population?
Here are just some of the pitfalls of quick-and-easy translations and how to avoid them for your Latino marketing endeavors:
¿Qué? While it may make sense to want to translate something as simple as "Customer Support," a company that shall go unnamed, translated even that simple term to "Soporte al Client." This however, could be interpreted as "putting up with the customer" - not exactly the approachable image that the company probably had in mind. This happens so often that there is even a section in AdWeek's Marketing y Medios, dedicated to pointing out and explaining Spanish blunders in advertising.
Sending the wrong message: Word-for-word translations send the message that the advertiser did not have them in mind originally, giving them a sense that they are less important to that company. Imagine receiving a recycled Christmas card from a friend, her intentions may have been genuine, but her approach left you feeling snubbed. In other words, translations do not work especially when your target consumer knows that it was merely translated.
It's not about language: Companies think that the answer lies in the language,when in fact; it has less to do with language itself, and more to do with culture. Assuming that Latino = Spanish, ignores cultural aspects of the message and the language. The language that you would use for a Spanish-speaking consumer living in Miami, is different from the bilingual tween in Los Angeles.
La solución: The best way to solve this dilemma is to truly adapt your message. Companies may ask then what the difference is between translation and adaptation. Adaptation takes into consideration cultural differences, linguistic nuances and allows the creation of a message from scratch and perhaps even the insertion of "insider jokes" that are only relevant in Spanish. And what differentiates effective Latino advertising is just that. It applies innovation and creativity with cultural intricacies along with language in order to execute a perfect, tailored on-the target message.
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Andrea Castro is a Project Manager at Latino Agency, an advertising agency focused on Market Research, Strategic Planning, Creative Development and Execution, Media Planning and Buying, Community Outreach and Promotion for the Latino market. You may contact the Latino Agency at (415) 927-1010 or by emailing: ali@latinoagency.com
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