BITE THE WAX TADPOLE (and other marketing flops)

by Jeff Walker, www.CoffeeNewsLincoln.com

Sometimes it pays to do the research. We've all heard the story that when General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was unaware that "nova" means "it won't go." It took awhile for the company to figure out why it wasn't selling any cars. While this created plenty of chuckles in corporate boardrooms, it apparently didn't teach any lessons.

Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company discovered that "Pinto" was Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals." Ford pried off all the nameplates and substituted Corcel, which means horse.

Here are some other examples of the trouble that language and cultural differences have caused for big mulit-nationals:

In Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off."

Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called "Cue," the name of a notorious porno magazine.

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.

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.

And finally, my favorite is this one: In China, depending upon the dialect and your efforts at translation, "Coca Cola" can be read as "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax." After considerable research, Coca Cola finally came up with a phonetic equivalent to something like, "happiness in the mouth." Sounds good - unless you're the wax tadpole.

The bottom line is this: When marketing globally, it's OK to learn from your mistakes. But it's less costly - and less damaging to your brand - if you can learn from the mistakes of others.

Your company is small and you'll never market in another language, you say? Well, it's predicted that in a few years 75% of all web sites will have e-commerce capabilities, but closer to home, the last census figures show just how diverse our country and communities have become. You may be having to get a translator sooner than you think!