International Brand Research
When spreading your brand geographically or to other target groups you need to assure that your brand is a good fit with the location’s conditions while balancing this issue with your effort towards consistent branding across markets.
Given the various (in)famous examples where multinational companies failed to properly research their brand’s localization for some of their new markets, are you sure that your brand will not conjure up similarly loaded and potentially negative connotations?
- Ford found out when the Pinto flopped in Brazil that its name was slang for “tiny male genitals” and subsequently rechristened it Corcel, meaning horse.
- General Motors initially introduced the Chevy Nova in South America unaware of the fact that “no va” means “it won’t go”. Once the company renamed the car “Caribe” in its Spanish markets, its sales improved.
- Gerber Baby Food was not aware of the common practice in Africa to feature a picture of what is inside on the product, and as a result ran into a problem with its depiction of a cute Caucasian baby on their label.
- KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) advertising slogan “finger lickin’ good” initially was published as a Chinese translation of “eat your fingers off.”
- Mitsubishi, in Australia, markets a four wheel drive named “Pajero” but encountered some embarrassment in Spain as the name means “Masturbator”.
- Panasonic developed a web browser and licensed Woody Woodpecker, the cartoon character, as its user-friendly “Internet guide”. The day before their ads were going to be released for a world version of the product, the product launch was delayed indefinitely once an American staff member at the internal product launch pointed out what the ad’s slogan “Touch Woody – The Internet Pecker” might mean to English speakers.
- Pepsi ended up with a translation of “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”, even though the company spent a lot of money for their “Pepsi gives you life” advertising campaign in China.
- Perdue’s slogan “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” allegedly got mangled on billboards all over Mexico as “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused”, featuring a photo of Frank Perdue with one of his birds.
- Salem cigarettes’ American slogan “Salem – Feeling Free” in its translation for the Japanese market ended up as “When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty”.
- Schweppes Tonic Water, in a campaign in Italy, was translated into Schweppes Toilet Water.
- The connotations of the name Daihatsu gave its “Charade” are quite similar in a variety of languages.
Ultimately it does not matter whether a lack of qualification of the translator(s) or insufficient international brand research were the culprit, in either case the company ended up with a certain amount of egg on its face.
We will research your brand and slogans for potentially unwanted connotations, including insults and religious overtones and – if necessary – provide you with recommendations for the localization of your brands.
To take action or to receive a sample report, contact us today.
