And a few thoughts that might raise a smile ....
Marketing Explained ....
You go to a party and you see an attractive person across the room. You go up to them and say, "Hi, I'm great in bed, how about it?" That's Direct Marketing.
You go to a party and you see an attractive person across the room. You give your friend a fiver. She goes up and says
"Hi, my friend over there is great in bed, how about it?" That's Advertising.
You go to a party and see an attractive person across the room. You get their mobile number. You call and chat for a while
and then say "Hi, I am great in bed, how about it?" That's Tele-Marketing.
You go to a party and see an attractive person across the room. You recognize that person. You walk up, refresh their
memory and get them to laugh and giggle and then suggest, "Hi, I am great in bed, how about it?"
That's Customer Relationship Management.
You go to a party and you see an attractive person across the room. You stand straight, you talk soft and smooth, you open
the door for the ladies, you smile like a dream, you set an aura around you playing the Mr. Gentleman and then you move
up to the girl and say, "Hi, I am great in bed, how about it?" That's Hard Selling.
You go to a party, you see an attractive person across the room. THEY COME OVER and says, "Hi, I hear you're great in bed, how about it?"
THAT's the power of Branding
Third Way The Optimist says, "The glass is half full."
The Pessimist says, "The glass is half empty."
The Marketing Consultant says, "Your glass needs re-sizing."
The Pope and KFC
A Marketing Consultant employed by KFC gained an audience with the Pope, and offered him a million dollars if he would change 'The Lord's Prayer' from "give us this day our daily bread" to "give us this day our daily chicken." The Pope refused the offer.
Two weeks later, the consultant offered the Pope 10 million dollars to change it from "give us this day our daily bread" to "give us this day our daily chicken" and again the Pope refused the generous offer.
Another week later, the consultant offered the Pope 20 million dollars, and finally the Pope accepted.
The following day, the Pope briefed his staff.
"I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, that we have just received a check for 20 million dollars. The bad news is, we lost the Wonder Bread account!''
Below are fine examples of what happens when marketing translations fail to reach a foreign country in an understandable way.
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into German only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "manure stick".
Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.
When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the beautiful baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside, since most people can't read English.
An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I saw the potato" (la papa).
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into "Schweppes Toilet Water."
Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave," in Chinese.
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 mistakenly thought the spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
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."
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off."
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.
Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"
Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "it takes a strong man to make a tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate".