The impact of English-Shona translation of adverts on consumer attitudes in Zimbabwe

Abstract This study aims to explore and investigate translation procedures and how linguistic and cultural adaptation affects communication and marketing outcomes on consumer attitudes and behaviors in Zimbabwe. To answer pertinent questions, the study adopted a mixed-method research design, combining qualitative corpus analysis and quantitative data from questionnaires. Two different questionnaires were administered to different groups, and English-to-Shona translated adverts were collected. The study made use of participant observation and responses from both company representatives and consumers were analyzed. The study is grounded in the Skopos, communicative, and appropriateness theories to understand the interplay between translation strategies and marketing goals. Results of the study revealed that Shona translations frequently employ techniques such as cultural adaptation, modulation, and reformulation to achieve linguistic and cultural equivalence. However, the impact on consumer engagement varies, with 80% of surveyed consumers occasionally influenced by Shona advertisements. Keywords: advertising, consumers, English, marketing, Shona, translation. How to cite: Phiri, R., Nge, D., & Ayonghe, L. (2024). The impact of English-Shona translation of adverts on consumer attitudes in Zimbabwe. GPH-International Journal of Educational Research, 7(12), 15-31. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14566512 1. Introduction According to Munday (2002), translating advertisements are ways through which companies gain insight into other countries or cultures. The clamor for the presence of local languages in Africa has led to the vulgarization of adverts in various domains such as social media, audio-visual media and many more, hence the rise of translation of adverts from English to Shona languages in Zimbabwe considering culture and context to effectively communicate. Cook (2001), considers advertising to be simply, everywhere; we cannot walk down the street, shop, watch television, go through the mail, log on to the Internet, read a newspaper or board a train without encountering advertising. Zimbabwe’s constitution recognizes 16 official languages, with English as the official medium, alongside Shona and Ndebele which are the predominant indigenous languages in their respective geographic spheres, namely Mashonaland in the east and Matebeleland in the west of Zimbabwe. Advertising is omnipresent, and its effectiveness depends heavily on cultural resonance and contextual appropriateness. Translating advertisements involves more than linguistic transfer, it requires transcreation and cultural adaptation to maintain the original message’s impact. Industry theorists like Wu (2018) emphasize that advertising translation must evoke the same emotional responses as the source material. Advertising texts does not only include words, but also cultural concepts, ideas and visuals. De Mooij (2004:179) defines translating advertising copy as ‘painting the tip of an iceberg and hoping the whole thing will turn red’. To him advertising lies on the cultural notion, as advertising is not made of words only, but made of culture. Translating advertising goes beyond translating a regular written text as it includes cultural elements such as shared beliefs, attitudes, norms, roles, and values. Hence, Reboul (1978) suggests that to transfer an advertisement from one language and culture to another, it is worth considering translating, adapting, and creating. Advertising texts are rich in cultural and social elements, whether they are translatable or not is still being questioned hence attention has to be paid to cultural and textual nuances.Basem (2006) says when translating, two languages and two cultures are involved. Simply speaking translated advertisements have an attractive power to manipulate consumers as they advocate, encourage, ask questions, announcing about products or services invoking their cultures that are deeply embedded into their minds. A closer reading of these authors as well as others has led to the quest to study how advertisements are translated in Zimbabwe where there is multiculturalism thereby addressing the issue of techniques and strategies that are implied in the translation of adverts from English to Shona in Zimbabwe marketing terminology in terms of translation strategies. The purpose of this research is therefore to investigate the techniques, strategies, and impact of such translated advertisements. 1.1 Problem statement It has been observed that translated advertisements from English to Shona fail to give the intended effect on the target consumers as those of the original advertisements. This study, therefore seeks to assess the translated advertisements on consumer attitudes and the procedures used in their translation. 1.2 Research Questions 1. What is the impact of translating English language advertisements into Shona by companies on customers in Zimbabwe? 2. What are the various translation techniques used in these English adverts to Shona translated adverts? 1.3 Objectives 1. Identify, analyze, describe and assess the effectiveness of the translation of advertisements in Zimbabwe on consumer attitudes and behaviors. 2. Identify, analyze and describe the techniques involved in the translation of advertisements from English to Shona. 2. Review of related literature 2.1 Conceptual Review In this part key concepts related to the study will be defined. 2.1.1 Translation Bell (1991:20) highlights that the phenomenon of translation is, ‘a replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language’. Bell (1991) refers to an important notion in translation theory, namely equivalence, whereby the translator renders the message to the targeted audience in the closest possible equivalence that will be well understood by the target audience. In line with this study, Bell’s definition simply means giving an appropriate translation equivalence from source text to target text. 2.1.2 Advertising Bovee and Arens (1986:5) views advertising as non-personal communication of information that is usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the diverse media. Bovee and Arens (1986) view advertising as persuasive in nature according to messages being conveyed on various media to catch the eye of anyone who could be a possible client; for example, on social media, television, billboards, and radios whereby marketers have to pay to convey a message about their goods or services, hence the words they use in this case should be catchy to quickly attract the target audience. 2.1.3 Advertising translation According to Sharabi (2023), advertising translation covers the conversion of marketing content to effectively reach a full-target (full-fledged) market or audience through translation, transcreation, and localization. In this way advertisements will not only be linguistically accurate but also will resonate to the essence of culture. De Mooij (2004), considers translating adverts like painting the tip of an iceberg, what you see are the words, but there is a lot behind the words that must be understood to transfer advertising from one culture to another. 2.1.4 Advertising slogans Brierley (2002) says advertising slogans are short, memorable phrases used in advertising campaigns. Their purpose is to emphasize a phrase that the company wishes to be remembered by, particularly for marketing a specific corporate image or connection to a product or consumer base. Slogans speak volumes about a product, service or even the company itself to the customer’s attention. 2.1.5 Consumer behaviour According to De Mooij, (2004: 181) the correlation between consumer behavior and cultural values show that a culturally appropriate advertising style is the key to successful advertising. Consumers are products of their own culture and language therefore one has to consider certain pre-established notions of each culture before advertising. 2.1.6 Translation strategies Ngoran (2017:36) describes ‘domestication and foreignization’ as the two main strategies in translation. He says ‘foreignization’ is source-text oriented, word for word, structure for structure and literal while ‘domestication’ is target text-oriented, free, natural,and transparent and message for message. 2.1.7 Translation techniques Ngoran (2017:38), considers a translation technique as an operational mechanism put in place by the translator in the course of actual translation. Translation techniques are micro strategies which narrow down the strategies that the translator uses in their translation, while techniques usually concentrate on segments of the text. They fall under strategies and they are the decision made by the translator in translating segments. Examples of translation techniques include; borrowing, calque, literal translation, reformulation, explicitation, transposition, modulation, cultural, formal and dynamic equivalence, local and global adaptation. 2.2 Theoretical review The Skopos, communicative and the theory of appropriateness were used. 2.2.1 The Communicative theory According to, Ngoran (2017), the communication theory of translation is a theory that aims at communicative translation, which attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original language.Communication is the ultimate goal of language instruction to enable learners to communicate effectively with others in real-life situations.The communicative theory is applied to this study as translation of advertisements, requires not only the linguistic aspects but also the communicative aspect making sure that the meaning of the message has been transmitted and in its originality. 2.2.2 The Skopos the