The ATA Chronicle - September/October 2017 - 10

OUTREACH REPORT continued

Ghada Shakir with fellow TEDxNIU speakers

messenger between my classroom and the
classroom across the hall. She would ask me
to convey verbal messages or involve me in
an activity (e.g., "Please go to Mrs. Johnson's
class and bring her these books and ask
her if she can lend us a book for our circle
time.") At first, I just memorized what
she was telling me to say. I literally didn't
understand a word. As I interacted more
with the teachers and the other children,
things slowly started to make sense and I
began relating to my surroundings.
In other words, my teacher helped me
adapt by establishing a connection. Now,
every time I hear the phrase "bridging the
gap," I remember my experience running
back and forth across the hall conveying
messages between the two classrooms.
I then explained that just as my teacher
had made a connection with me to "bridge"
our two cultures, businesses should
also make the same effort to establish a
connection with their intended consumers
on a cultural level. In other words,
localization is not just about learning the
language in question, but gaining a sense of
the surroundings in which you operate and
developing an emotional connection to the
place and the culture of that environment.

WANT TO REACH A FOREIGN MARKET?
DO YOUR RESEARCH
Global corporate giants who have
precariously navigated the lingual
landmines of foreign markets without
proper care have found themselves in
the center of public criticism from time
to time. A poorly worded document
or a mistranslated slogan can derail a
10

The ATA Chronicle | September/October 2017

sales campaign before it even starts. For
example, when Nokia introduced their
new brand of smartphone, the Lumia, to
Spanish-speaking countries a few years
ago, the company did so without checking
to see if the name it had chosen for the
product had an equivalent meaning in
the target market. It turns out that lumia
means "prostitute" in a gypsy-influenced
Spanish dialect, which is obviously not
a word the company wanted to have
associated with its flagship product.
Unfortunately, this realization came too
late for Nokia, and the company ended up
facing considerable backlash for this error.
On the other hand, a successful
marketing technique that the Coca-Cola
Company utilized in 2014 to market
their product through the "Share a
Coke" campaign was to transcreate
the brand's message and localize it to
local markets. A marketing campaign
encouraged consumers to purchase
Coke bottles and cans personalized
with their names and with the names of
friends and family members on them.
The campaign capitalized on the global
trend of self-expression and sharing, but
in an emotional way. The results were
tremendous (www.coca-cola.co.uk/stories/
share-a-coke):
■■

#shareacoke a No. 1 global trending
topic on social media.

■■

998 million impressions on Twitter

■■

2% increase in soft-drink sales,
increasing Coke consumption from 1.7
to 1.9 billion servings per day.

Bottom line: do your research!
I explained that these examples
showcase the inherent challenge of
entering foreign markets. Aside from
flaws arising from literal translations, the
culture of the intended region must be
scrutinized closely to establish a deep
connection with the intended audience.
Cultural awareness is crucial to avoid
misunderstanding or offending people.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE
"WHAT" BUT THE "HOW"
I concluded my talk by quoting a story
told by Tommy Weir, the author of 10 Tips
for Leading in the Middle East:

"You travel abroad for the first time
and decide to buy a Coca-Cola drink.
Before this experience, your assumption
was that Coke was the same all over
the world. Every advertisement you've
seen consistently shows Coca-Cola's
trademark red color and the bottle's
contents to be dark caramel, giving
the impression that Coke's ingredients
are the same everywhere. Now you
discover something new about the
famed Coke drink: the taste varies
greatly from one region to another. In
other words, the 'what' of Coke is the
same wherever you live-a soft drink to
quench thirst, but 'how' it tastes varies
by region to match local tastes."
So, it's not about the "what" of things,
it's about the "how"! In other words, for a
business to succeed in a foreign market, it
will have to adapt its message in a way that
is culturally appropriate to the market it's
trying to reach. This is key to getting people
to connect with your product or service.

MAKING AN IMPRESSION
After the conclusion of the talk and during
a networking break, a large number of
attendees lined up for questions. First,
100% gave positive feedback, telling me
they enjoyed the talk very much. Many
said they found it "eye-opening" and very
beneficial. My topic resonated with quite
a few attendees, particularly international
students. Perhaps the best news of all
is that the members of the university's
business faculty are considering
incorporating the material from my talk
with their marketing classes next year!
Ghada Shakir is the assistant
administrator of ATA's Arabic
Language Division. An
Arabic<>English translator,
localizer, and interpreter, she
is the president of Gingkos Inc.
Translations, Localization and Culture, a language
company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She also
serves as a director of the Midwest Association
of Translators and Interpreters (an ATA chapter).
She has a master's degree in computer science
from Eastern Michigan University and a BA in
translation and interpreting studies from
Al-Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq.
www.atanet.org
http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/stories/share-a-coke http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/stories/share-a-coke http://www.atanet.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - September/October 2017
