R.L. Polk, an automotive market research company, was launching into China but faced challenges with lack of brand recognition, negative perceptions of market research, and inability to pronounce their name ("Polk" was pronounced as "Pork"). The author was asked to help with the creative process. He realized the existing English marketing materials would not work when directly translated. By participating in redefining goals and developing new creative solutions like a timeline of Polk's history and providing a phonetic translation, the author helped ensure the launch was a success and Polk's meaning and brand was effectively communicated and aligned with the Chinese audience.

1. case study
Creative Challenges in Translation:
Launching R.L. Polk into China

2. People sometimes forget how important a role I was asked by our Polk client to participate in a meeting with
trust plays in their relationships. In the context their creative team managing the launch into China. I knew the
of business, trust is paramount – something team’s creative director, whom I had worked with back when
I was rather dramatically reminded of during he was with a local advertising agency. Also present at the
my experience helping launch automotive meeting were a writer and a designer from a creative firm
research company R.L. Polk into China. that Polk had hired to help create the necessary marketing
materials. The team showed me a bunch of brochures
The challenges there were these: How do you
and other print pieces they’d created, and the stuff really
begin to build trust when your audience doesn’t
looked great. Polk, like many companies, hoped to simply
know who you are, already has a negative
use as much of their existing marketing materials for the
perception of the services you provide, and,
“translation” as possible.
in fact, can’t even pronounce your name?
But there were a few problems. As we discussed the launch,
Let me back up and first talk a little about who
Polk’s creative director mentioned, in passing, that one of the
R.L. Polk is. If you’re not in the automotive
challenges they faced was the pronunciation – I should say
business, you may not know the name; the
mispronunciation – of the company’s name. It seemed that
Chinese certainly didn’t. R.L. Polk conducts
the Chinese could not say “Polk” and instead said “Pork.”
market research, generating a lot of the data that
We all agreed that being called “R.L. Pork” was not good for
auto companies and others use to understand
business. Incredibly to me, the team admitted that no one at
consumer buying patterns. At the time, the
the company had ever thought to ask their translation supplier
company had no presence in China and there
for any ideas or solutions to this core problem of identity.
was little, if any, knowledge of or experience with
At this time, the team also told me that the idea of a “private”
their products and services amongst Chinese
company doing “research” was unheard of in China. In China,
businesses and consumers.
“market research” was performed by the government and,
as you might imagine, it was not considered an activity
that the average Chinese person wanted to participate in.

3. So they had some serious challenges to overcome to gain As I listened to the ideas being exchanged, I learned that Polk
market acceptance. had a long history to be proud of and had, in fact, pioneered
many research and market analysis tools in use today.
As we looked at the English pieces the team wanted to
use as the basis for translation into Chinese, it became A few days later the client contacted me to tell me they wanted
clear the materials spoke to an audience who had a strong to meet with the complete creative team again and to bring
understanding of who Polk was and what the company any ideas I might have to that meeting. Fortunately for me I
offered. The language used was quite informal and was also good friends with the designer of the creative firm
contained expressions that would not translate well or be that they had hired to design the launch materials. So before
understood by their Chinese audience. I left the meeting the meeting we spoke on the phone about how to position
convinced that if we followed the client’s direction and Polk in China. Since no one in China knew who R.L. Polk was,
“translated” these materials, their launch would be severely I suggested that we set some basic goals for the launch.
compromised. Translating marketing messages is one of the
What did we want to accomplish? I thought the first thing
more challenging translation activities and can easily lead
we needed to do was help the audience understand what
to many of those well publicized mistranslations, something
Polk does and work to earn their trust. I proposed that the
I had no interest in participating in or being remembered for.
marketing materials feature a time line from Polk’s inception
The next day I told the client we were uncomfortable with to the present, using breakthroughs in market research and
translating any of their existing materials and that I thought analysis that Polk had pioneered as milestones to share their
they needed a brand-new approach. Surprisingly, they were history with their audience and begin to gain trust. I liked
grateful for my opinion and we discussed how to move this idea because I thought it would also help the company
forward. Since I didn’t have a solution right then and there, address the local mistrust of anything to do with “market
I could only suggest that we gather the rest of the creative research” in general. The creative firm’s designer agreed
team together and try to talk through the problems. and thought the time line idea could work well.
With the team assembled, it occurred to me that our first At the meeting with the client and the full creative team, the
problem was that we had never clearly defined our goals designer and I presented the time line proposal together.
or objectives beyond “translating marketing materials into We explained the objective of the launch should be to define
Chinese for the launch into China.” Also, I couldn’t get the a clear, positive perception of what Polk does and why
problem of the Chinese mispronunciation of the company’s the company is trustworthy. Then a simple solution for the
name out of my head. While my role was to provide direction mispronunciation problem popped into my head: Let’s provide
in support of the translation process, by being invited to a phonetic translation in the text to help the audience learn
participate at the beginning of the creative process I was how to pronounce R.L. Polk correctly, since changing the
actually now part of the creative process itself. This fact name was not an option. Finally, I told the writer to write
allowed me to think outside of the “translation” box. straightforward headlines and body copy that might be a little

4. less clever – void of any double meanings – but clearer
and more businesslike in tone. We finally had a direction
that could work.
By first addressing the issue of trust, we helped ensure
that the launch of the R.L. Polk brand into China was a
success. Time has proven that Polk correctly understood
how important the Chinese market would be, and today
they continue to grow their business there. The launch
was a success because we identified the root challenges
the brand would face and produced solutions to meet those
challenges. By participating in the creative process, I was
able to provide guidance that helped develop a marketing
strategy that improved the translatability of the English text.
As a result, no meaning was lost in the translation and all
ideas were effectively communicated in a voice that was
properly aligned with the audience. While it’s my job, this
project was also one of the more enjoyable and rewarding
work experiences I’ve had. I can’t thank the team at Polk
enough for allowing me to participate, and I’m ready for
the next such opportunity in the future.
Rick Woyde has worked in the translation industry for over 25 years.
Rick was previously the President & CEO of Detroit Translation
Bureau, a leading translation supplier to the automotive industry.
Rick has been an invited speaker at almost every translation
industry conference, including the ATA, Localization World,
LISA and IMTT and has published articles for almost every
language publication. Rick chaired the SAE J2450 Translation
Quality Metric committee from 2000 -2005. In 2005, Rick was
awarded the “Outstanding Contributions Award” from the SAE.
You can view his full profile on LinkedIn and he can be contacted
at rickw@languageartsandscience.com
333 West 7th Street, Suite 120
Royal Oak, MI 48067
Ph: 248-246-0475, Fax: 248-282-0433
Visit our website at www.languageartsandscience.com
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