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Culture Trouble

I learnt in my marketing course that a company has to be sensitive to the culture or heritage of its target market; failure to take enough precautions in this regard can often have humorous results.

Here are some real-life examples:

  • The Dairy Association’s great success with the “Got Milk?” campaign led to a decision to expand the promotion into Mexico. It wasn’t good news when the association found out that the Spanish translation for the tag line is “Are you lactating?”

  • Coors beer also decided to use an existing slogan in the Spanish marketplace. Somehow the slogan “Turn it loose” was interpreted as “Suffer from diarrhoea.”

  • Scandinavian vacuum cleaner manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.”

  • Clairol introduced the “Mist Stick,” a curling iron, in Germany, only to find out that “mist” is slang for “manure”. Not too many people had use for a “Manure Stick.”

  • Pepsi’s “Come alive with the Pepsi generation” translated into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave” in Chinese.

  • When the Pope visited Miami, a T-shirt manufacturer, in an attempt to cater to the large Spanish population, printed T-shirts that promoted the visit. But, instead of “I saw the Pope” (el papa), the T-shirts displayed “I saw the potato” (la papa).

02 October 2003 · Fun

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