Global Marketing Mishaps

When launching a product in a new international market, it’s always a good idea to double-check those translations.

Translation mistakes are universal, and often easily forgiven. But what happens when your translation mistake misrepresents your product in a global market? Companies can spend millions on research, development and marketing when they launch products in a new country, but that doesn’t mean things can’t sometimes go very wrong…

A little too French

Reuters reported in 2003 that General Motors Corp. would rename its Buick LaCrosse in Canada because the name for the car is slang for masturbation (as well as “swindle”) in Quebec. GM officials said they had been unaware that LaCrosse was a slang term for self-gratification, particularly used by teenagers, in French-speaking Quebec.

That’s not quite what they meant

Honda introduced their new car “Fitta” in the Nordic countries in 2001, only to find out that “fitta” is an old word, but still used as a vulgar reference to a woman’s genitals in Scandinavian languages. The car was re-christened the “Honda Jazz” for the Nordic market.

Way to insult your target consumer

Clairol introduced the “Mist Stick,” a curling iron, in Germany only to find out that not only does the word “mist” generally refer to “manure,” but that the product name was also incredibly similar to “Miststück,” the German equivalent to “bitch.”

Asian languages can be tricky…

When Kentucky Fried Chicken was expanding their business into China in the late 80s, they had a little trouble with their slogan. One early translation turned the famous “finger-lickin’ good” into Chinese characters that meant “eat your fingers off.”

A car that gets around

When Mazda introduced the Laputa minivan in 1991, the Japanese automaker thought the name would evoke “Gulliver’s Travels.” Unfortunately, in Spanish “la puta” means prostitute. This, of course, made the ads claiming that “Laputa is designed to deliver maximum utility… while providing a smooth, comfortable ride” pretty funny. Distributors in Santiago, Chile went so far as to ask Mazda to rename the vehicle.

How embarazing

When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, the new ads were supposed to say, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” It’s a common mistake to substitute the Spanish word “embarazar” with its false friend “embarrass,” so, unfortunately, what the ads ultimately said was, “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

Sometimes it’s not the message, but the delivery

What happens when you don’t know your target? A few years ago, Samarin, a Swedish over-the-counter remedy for upset stomachs, used ads that looked like comic strips with no text. There were three pictures: first was a man looking sick, grasping his stomach; in the second he drank a glass of Samarin; and in the third picture he was smiling again. The ad campaign was a success in Europe.

However, when the company ran the ad in Arabic language newspapers they neglected one very important detail about their audience: Arabic readers interpret content from right to left.