Cracking
an international market is a goal of most growing corporations.
It shouldn't be that hard, yet even the big multi-nationals
run into trouble because of language and cultural differences.
For example...
The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la.
Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after
thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means
"bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed
with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then researched
40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent,
"ko-kou-ko-le," which can be loosely translated
as "happiness in the mouth."
In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come
alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi
will bring your ancestors back from the dead."
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin'
good" came out as "eat your fingers off."
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem -
Feeling Free," got translated in the Japanese market
into "Whensmoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that
your mind seems to be free and empty."
When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South
America, it was apparently unaware that "no va"
means "it won't go." After the company figured
out why it wasn't selling any cars, it renamed the car in
its Spanish markets to the Caribe.
Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped.
The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for"tiny
male genitals". Ford pried all the nameplates off and
substituted Corcel, which means horse.
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its
ads were supposed to say "It won't leak in your pocket
and embarrass you." However, the company's mistakenly
thought the spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass.
Instead the ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket
and make you pregnant."
An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the
spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead
of the desired "I Saw the Pope" in Spanish, the
shirts proclaimed "I Saw the Potato."
Chicken-man Frank Perdue's slogan, "It takes a tough
man to make a tender chicken," got terribly mangled
in another Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one
of his birds appeared on billboards all over Mexico with
a caption that explained "It takes a hard man to make
a chicken aroused."
Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French
Canada as Gros Jos before finding out that the phrase, in
slang, means "big breasts." In this case, however,
the name problem did not have a noticeable effect on sales.
Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the
name of a notorious porno mag.
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated
the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
Japan's second-largest tourist agency was mystified when
it entered English-speaking markets and began receiving
requests for unusual sex tours. Upon finding out why, the
owners of Kinki Nippon Tourist Company changed its name.
and finally...
In an effort to boost orange juice sales in predominantly
continental breakfast eating England, a campaign was devised
to extoll the drink's eye-opening, pick-me-up qualities.
Hence, the slogan, "Orange juice. It gets your pecker
up."
