2023-10-31 16:34:45
I love different cases regarding how large companies enter different international markets without conducting proper research of the target audience, pump in millions and billions, and then it turns out that they missed the mark with the name or slogan.
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I’ll tell you a few of these high-profile cases and I’ll be grateful if you give me some more interesting examples in the comments.
Andrey Gavrikov is in touch, the same one who is one of the main b2b marketing specialists in the CIS. But today the topic will not be regarding b2b, but regarding b2c itself in all its beauty. I’ll tell you why I chose this topic for my first full-fledged post on VC at the very end.
In China, there is a shoe brand Eblan, which planned to enter the Russian market, but for some reason they decided to change the name. I think that it is not necessary to do this, because… Everyone has a friend or two for whom this would be the perfect gift!
Coca-Cola made a mistake when it mixed English and the language of the indigenous New Zealanders – Maori – in its slogan. It should have turned out to be “Hello, buddy,” where kia ora in local means “hello” and mate in English means “friend, buddy.” Everything would be fine, but in Maori mate means “death”. And Pepsi once went to China with a slogan that was relevant at that time: “Live with the Pepsi generation.” But when translated it came out as “Pepsi will make your ancestors rise from their graves.”
If we talk regarding China’s neighbors – the Japanese, then when they entered Russia with the Sanyo brand, jokes flowed freely, just like regarding the Korean SsangYong cars. And what is the value of the luxury Korean cosmetics brand O HUI, which is now popular among Russian fashionistas? Or Czech foot cosmetics Pedik? What do you think of the Polish Uroda?
Coors used the slogan Turn It Loose! (in the sense of “Become Free!”) to promote your beer. In Spanish it became “Suffer from Diarrhea!”
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Parker pens also screwed up the Spanish-speaking market by translating their slogan: It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you. The translator was not very professional and the slogan began to sound as in: “It will never leak in your pocket and get you pregnant.”
Clairol entered the German market with dry deodorants under the slogan Mist Stick (meaning “Misty Deodorant”). The word Mist (“fog”) is German slang for “manure.” This is a normal aroma ???? The names of Turkish tea Pukala and Indian Pukka also caused a lot of smiles in Russia.
Colgate entered the French market with Cue toothpaste. Everything would be fine, but this is the name of a popular porn magazine in France ???? The French themselves entered Russia in the early 90s with their Bledina baby food brand. Not all mothers were pleased that some Bledina was feeding their children.
Chevrolet brought its Nova car to Latin America, but sales did not go well. The reason is that in Spanish “no va” means “does not go.” They also had to rename the Mitsubishi Pajero to Montenero because it was offensive to gays. But the Mazda Laputa didn’t fly because the translation meant “Night Butterfly”, although butterflies are supposed to fly 🙂
A major American chicken producer, Frank Purdue, used the slogan “It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken.” The translation turned out to be: “It takes a sexually aroused man to make the chicken tender.”
The Audi TT did not go to France because… “tete coupe” means “severed head”, and the Etron model did not work because “etron” is French for “pile of crap”. Lada Kalina in Finland became Lada 119. Why? Translated from Finnish, “Kalina” means rattling.
Yes, and where did Lada even come from? There was a legend so that Zhiguli would not be associated with “gigolo”, but it seems like in Arabic “Zhiguli” means “thief”. But I must say that Lada is really popular in poor Arab countries. Why is Renault Kaptur in Russia, and not Capture, as in Europe? Try to read the European version as if it were Cyrillic ???? But this is a good example of how the company prepared in advance for possible trolling.
The guys from Chevrolet have also prepared for this with their Kalos (in Greek, “beautiful”), which became Aveo and Trax, which became Tracker. In Russia, sales of Polish vodka Soplica and Danish beer Gavno will be difficult. If only for fun, of course.
Well, one more joint from ours at the end. Gazprom and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation decided to create a joint company. Well, without thinking twice, they decided to combine their names and the organization “Nigaz” was created. Well, no comments here. What other cool things do you know?
PS I promised to tell you why I chose this topic. Every Friday, in your cart”Gavrikov says“I post various marketing humor, so I decided to go straight to VC. In addition to marketing humor, you can also get various relevant information on marketing and business development there: cases, checklists, research and my observations. In short, subscribe!
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