English

Say What? When Taglines get Lost in Translation

Almost every brand has a tagline. But what happens when companies try to enter new markets? It’s not as cut and dry as merely putting their company slogan through the translation filter. Corporate taglines not only need to be converted into a different language, but also from one culture to another. If not, when these marketing campaigns cross oceans, they could mean something entirely different.

Read on to find out hilarious examples of taglines that got lost in translation.

  • Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)

When KFC expanded into China in the late 1980s, it’s iconic slogan “It’s finger lickin’ good!” was translated into a not so appetising Mandarin tagline, “Eat your fingers off”.

  • Pepsi

Similarly, Pepsi’s tagline “Come alive with the Pepsi generation” didn’t go down too well in China. It came out as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead”.

  • Coors

While beer lovers in America could identify with Coors’ tagline “Turn it Loose!”, the Spanish translation “Suffer from diarrhea” gave people a stomach-churning feeling.

  • American Dairy Association

The famous “Got milk?” marketing campaign got Spanish customers all puzzled when it was translated as “Are you lactating?”

Converting taglines into other languages goes beyond merely doing a word-for-word translation or hitting the “Google Translate” button. It’s essential to work with translators who understand the nuance of the language, and can maintain the original intent and style while adapting it to have the same impact in another language.

 

Reference: http://www.jaywingpr.com/news-views/2013/lost-in-translation-15-advertising-slogans-that-didnt-translate-well/

Image source: http://www.jaywingpr.com/news-views/2013/lost-in-translation-15-advertising-slogans-that-didnt-translate-well/

 

Epic Tattoo Typos

Twenty years ago, tattoos were usually sported by sailors, prison inmates or gang members. But today, tattoos have burst onto mainstream culture and are a common sight among artistes, athletes and even among the ordinary man on the street.

We all know it’s important to do a spell check before sending off an email or report, but it’s even more vital to check for typos before inking words on your body. If not, you could be walking around with a permanent reminder of your spelling error! Let’s take a look at some hilarious examples of misspelled tattoos. Now, that’s definitely not cool!

Image source: http://therightrant.blogspot.sg/2010_01_01_archive.html

https://www.instagram.com/p/z9ExFjK_j7/

http://www.tattoodefender.com/blog/tatuaggi-con-errori-ortografici-correzioni-gratis-colombia/

https://www.pinterest.com/indytattoff/ink-regrets/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/154389093446358470/

Hitting the Mark with Tighter Writing

Writing in a bold, direct way can help you to communicate and ultimately persuade more effectively. Whether it’s an Electronic Direct Mailer, marketing collateral, press release or website content, tightening up your writing can help your company get noticed and stand out from the crowd.

With readers’ short attention spans in today’s information-rich world, what you write has to compete for attention from social media and other digital platforms. How can you compete better with more effective writing? Read on to find out.

Write shorter

Readers are impatient nowadays. Cut out unnecessary detail and repetition. Writing concisely shows that you respect the reader’s time as more valuable than your own.

Move key insights up

If you don’t grab your readers’ attention quickly, they’ll probably move on to something else before you’ve even made your key points. So, front-load your key insights. This increases the chances that readers will stick around to see if you can prove it.

Replace jargon with clarity

When you’ve been in a particular industry for some time, you may unconsciously use technical jargon in your writing. While it may make sense to you as an insider, your layman readers may not be able to figure out what you mean. Explain what you mean in plain English. If you do need to use a technical term to make things clearer, define it first.

Cut out weasel words

What are weasel words? They are words that are intentionally ambiguous, such as “generally” and “most”, which make your writing sound weak. Deleting weasel words strengthens your writing, making it sound bolder and clearer.

Avoid passive writing

Using the passive voice can make your writing sound vague and uninteresting. In contrast, adopt an active voice to make it easier to understand. Introduce the subject first. For example, instead of saying “Colgate is recommended by Dentists”; rewrite as “Dentists recommend Colgate”.

Harnessing the power of these writing tips can help you to communicate more directly to your audience while making every word count.

 

Reference: https://withoutbullshit.com/blog/10-top-writing-tips-psychology

Image source: http://www.nikkielledgebrown.com/writing-concisely/

Multi-million dollar lawsuit over a comma mistake?

 

Punctuation matters.

A costly class-action lawsuit about overtime pay and dairy delivery in the United States didn’t come down to trucks, milk, or money. Instead, it hinged on one missing comma.

In this lawsuit, delivery drivers for Oakhurst Dairy in Maine, Portland, USA had been tussling with their employers over whether they qualify for overtime. In March 2017, a US court of appeals determined that certain clauses of the state’s overtime laws are grammatically ambiguous. Because of that lack of clarity, the drivers won their appeal and were found eligible for overtime.

At the core of the case is the Oxford comma – a polarising punctuation mark. So, what is an Oxford comma? It is the final comma in a list of things. For example: I like eggs, ham, and cheese. The Oxford comma comes right after ham. In the example sentence, it’s clear I like three types of food. Remove this comma and there is a potential to read the last two items as one combination item.

Back to the lawsuit. According to the state law in Maine, the following activities are among those that don’t qualify for overtime pay.

The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of :
(1) Agricultural produce;
(2) Meat and fish products; and
(3) Perishable foods.

Note the comma-less space between the words “shipment” and “or”. Is packing (for shipment or distribution) a single activity that is exempt from overtime pay? Or are packing and distributing two different activities, and both exempt?

In the absence of the Oxford comma, the judge ruled that the law is ambiguous as to whether distribution is a separate activity, or whether the whole last clause is one activity. As a result, the court ruled in favour of the drivers, costing the dairy a whopping US$10 million (S$14.1 million) – all because of a comma mistake.

Reference: https://thewritelife.com/is-the-oxford-comma-necessary/?utm_source=The+Write+Life&utm_campaign=e61ec1d1f9-Dedicated_elance_8_1_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ae07a22b59-e61ec1d1f9-121135881&mc_cid=e61ec1d1f9&mc_eid=bed7d1c11e

Image source: http://pc.blogspot.sg/2015/09/the-oxford-comma-kanye-west-of.html

To double space or not

Were you taught in school to use two spaces after a full stop at the end of a sentence? Or maybe you picked up this habit when you learned to type using a typewriter. Well, it turns out that the correct usage is to leave only one space after a full stop.

In today’s age of modern communication, the two-spaces-after-a-period construction seems to be outmoded. So how did the two spaces rule come about anyway? Back in the day, during the typewriter age, monospace typing was used, where every letter took up the same amount of space. So the space for the skinny lowercase “i” was just as wide for a capital “W”. This not only created an awkward amount of white space between letters, but also made it difficult to ascertain where certain words started or ended. To ensure good readability, typists would add an additional space at the conclusion of a sentence.

But thankfully, computers are now able to write in “proportional fonts”, removing the need for double spaces. However, this rule remained etched in the minds of people who grew up during the typewriter era, so much so that they mistakenly thought it was the grammatically correct way to type.

Now that you know, happy punctuating!

Reference: https://melmagazine.com/for-the-love-of-god-stop-putting-two-spaces-after-a-period-acd45fe4673d

Image source: http://www.jshermanstudio.com/blog/page/11/

Get Liked: Boosting your business with engaging Facebook posts

With 1.8 billion monthly active users on Facebook, it’s hardly surprising that companies are increasingly using such means to engage with customers. But figuring out what to post on Facebook can be tough. Wondering how you can write engaging Facebook posts to generate leads for your business? Read on to find out how to get your firm noticed and Liked.

Ask questions
Asking close-ended multiple choice questions (A, B or C) or those that require a Yes/No reply are easy ways to increase engagement.

Keep it short
People’s attention spans are short nowadays, so we recommend sticking with concise posts, as most people tend to skim through posts quickly and won’t read long-winded posts.

Post an engaging image
Our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text, so images can clearly enhance your posts. An appealing image not only captures readers’ attention, but also increases the chances that they will share it with their circle of friends.

Be conversational
Keeping a friendly, conversational tone in your posts will definitely help to soften your corporate image, while allowing you to connect with prospects and clients. At the same time, it aids in branding your business as a relatable entity.

Give a clear Call-to-Action
At the end of the day, you want to give your audience a little nudge, to get them to take action. Using call-to-action messages ranging from “Shop now” to “Sign Up” or Book now” will help to drive traffic from your Facebook page to your website.

Try these tips the next time you’re crafting a Facebook post for your business and enhance your engagement with your customers.

Reference: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-facebook-business-page-ht#sm.001cv1kyo11vke48qvj1yik5q36jv
https://www.postplanner.com/7-no-brainer-tips-to-write-awesome-facebook-post/

Image source: https://www.sitepoint.com/master-facebook-marketing-with-this-15-course/

OMG…How Social Media is Impacting Language

There’s no denying that the Internet and social media have had a profound impact on our lives, transforming the way we interact with each other. From Facebook to Twitter and Instagram, social media platforms allow us to easily share our thoughts and photos with our family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances quickly.

The result? An ever-increasing speed of communication. Written exchanges on social media are concise and shared between all the friends you are connected with. Together with this, we have seen an increasing use of abbreviations and acronyms to help us to say more on social media. For example, Twitter’s 140 character restriction literally forces you to be brief in the way you communicate.

English is constantly evolving. These social media short-forms have not only altered our vocabulary, but have gained mainstream recognition through their entry into the Oxford English Dictionary. Let’s check them out.

• AFK (Away from keyboard)
• BFF (Best friends forever)
• BRB (Be right back)
• FYI (For your information)
• IMHO (In my humble opinion)
• LOL (Laugh out loud)
• OMG (Oh my God)
• ROFL (Rolling on the floor laughing)
• TMI (Too much information)
• TTYL (Talk to you later)

How many of them do you know?

Reference:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/24/lol-omg-oxford-english-dictionary_n_840229.html

Has social media changed the way we speak and write English?

Image source: http://www.fondation-lamap.org/fr/page/35586/comment-avoir-des-connaissances-nous-aide-les-savoirs-accelerent-et-renforcent-la

When what you see isn’t what you get…

When what you see isnt what you getHave you ever bought something because of an attractive advertisement, but the product failed to meet your expectations in real life? If so, you’re not alone, for false advertising claims are commonplace in today’s competitive corporate world.

Businesses may be tempted to push the boundaries of truth by making misleading claims in their advertisements, to try to get an edge over their competitors. But while this may yield short-term gains, this could backfire on them in the long run, leading to big time damage to their corporate reputation and massive settlement payments. For example, back in the early 2000s, two major Korean car makers overstated the horsepower in some of their vehicles by as much as 10%, leading to expensive settlement payouts of around US$75 million to US$125 million.

If you want your business to stand out from your competitors, there are definitely more effective and legitimate ways to draw customers. Why not try engaging a copywriter to craft compelling text to market your products and services? From crafting catchy slogans and attention-grabbing taglines to persuasive text, a copywriter can add a snazzy angle to your advertisement, helping you to influence your customers to take action. Start the new year on a right note, write right to get your message across in your commercials!

Reference:

http://www.businessinsider.com/false-advertising-scandals-2…#

Image source:

https://aubrepiercelackey.wordpress.com/…/ethics-and-false…/

Turning Eye Appeal to Buy Appeal

In today’s Information Age, people are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information, whether from online or real life sources. Coupled with declining attention spans and readers who just skim through information, it is all the more important to craft content which appeals visually to your consumers before even attempting to persuade through the written word.

How can you craft attractive content in your marketing collateral that attracts readers and has eye appeal?
i. Avoid long and wordy sentences
ii. Use bullet points to highlight the important issues
iii. Have a catchy font that is big and easy to read
iv. Vary ways to underscore the significance of your text, for example bolding, italicising or underlining it
v. Use headings and subheadings
vi. Indent your paragraphs
vii. Have a unique selling point and make it the most prominent in your writing
viii. Include quotes and captions
ix. Have rhetorical questions or transition words to signpost and guide your reader
x. Make it concise
xi. Make it visually appealing with images, flow charts, tables or infographics

Take a look at this checklist the next time you are creating content for your company brochure, advertisement or website. Making it eye-catching would definitely help to convert your visitors into customers.

Photo by Igor Vikhrev by Unsplash 

It Pays to Plan before you write

the-power-of-a-planIn today’s competitive business environment, how do you make your website, brochure or advertisement stand out from the crowd with compelling content? But before you even craft any content, you should realise the importance of planning before writing.

If you think you can save time by just quickly cobbling together some text without coming up with a plan, think again! Chances are, this may result in content that lacks a sense of direction, and may even lead to incoherent text that can confuse, rather than effectively conveying your message to your target audience.

So, what goes into the planning process before you even start to craft your marketing material? Let’s take a look.

1) Who is your target audience?

Before you even write a single word, you should know exactly who it’s aimed at. Writing without a target market in mind will deliver just one thing – poor results. With this in mind, you can craft your content structure, tone, layout, style and language accordingly to suit your target audience, This will result in pitching your message at the appropriate tone to them.

2) Communicate W.I.I.F.M (What’s in it for me)?

After narrowing down your target audience, it’s time to plan your content to showcase how your product or service is going to help your customers. Avoid the common pitfall many business owners make of writing about themselves or focusing exclusively on your product’s features. Instead, consider how your product or service will make your consumers’ lives easier, help them save money or time, help to solve a problem or make them feel better, among other things. By giving careful thought to this in your content, you will be answering the question at the back of your customer’s mind, “what’s in it for me”

As obvious as it sounds, it is critical to keep these points in mind as you plan the content to market your business.

 

Reference:

http://www.evancarmichael.com/library/chris-pracy/Online-Copywriting-Plan–5-Steps-to-Writing-Your-Business-Website.html

 

Image source: http://www.atb.net.au/planning-your-corners-fail-to-plan-plan-to-fail/