- Mark Young

As most anyone in the branding world knows, a literal world of opportunities beckons out there. Though the U.S. remains the largest market in the world, emerging markets overseas offer vast opportunities, assuming you’ve got the right mix of product and marketing. But before you run off to distant lands with your brand, some time-tested advice applies: Watch your mouth.

I’m not talking about profanity (for the moment, at least). Instead, I mean verifying the accuracy of your claims, ad copy and taglines. If both your rep and your manufacturing principals fail to carefully review what you’re saying, you may soon end up wishing that you and your brand stayed home.

For reasons that challenge common sense, many major corporations don’t take the time to properly translate their names, messaging and package designs. This isn’t a job that should be left to a computer or, worse, a Web-based translation program. At best, those devices are only 90 percent accurate. I say “only” because, in terms of language and communication, the relatively small percentage left over can be—and often is—the difference between the right term and an insult. Even U.S.-based translation companies can miss the meaning of a word or its relationship in context to the surrounding words, due to cultural differences, colloquialisms (seemingly minute regional nuances) or even religious connotations.

Having worked on enough of these projects, I can advise any brand that the best habit to adopt (if you can quite call it a habit) is practicing attention to detail. Some examples might be useful—and, just for the record, none of these clients were mine.

Let’s start with the oral-care business. What could go wrong with selling, say, a Waterpik in a foreign market? Well, when this product made its way to Denmark, the manufacturer was surprised to learn that “Pik,” in Danish, means male genitalia. An isolated case? Hardly. Electronics giant Panasonic came out with a Japanese computer made for Web browsing and licensed the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker to be the Internet guide. Translated, the instructions on the screen invited one and all to “Touch Woody the Internet pecker.”

This might be a good time to reiterate an anecdote that, while probably apocryphal, nonetheless endures as a good warning. The story goes that when Pepsi set up shop in Taiwan with the tagline “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” (another version goes that the unfortunate brand was Coke, with its phrase “Coke Adds Life”), the advertising line translated to a promise that the soft drink would bring your ancestors back from the dead. Doubtless, like all good advertising, it generated attention—but not the sort this brand had in mind.

Just in case you’re thinking that you’re on safer ground by venturing north to Canada—they’re just like us, right?—think again. GM harbored these same false assumptions when it began marketing the Buick Lacrosse in Quebec. Apparently, no one bothered telling the guys in Detroit that the term Lacrosse is a popular slang term among teenagers in Quebec for, well, shall we say, self-gratification. Nor did Hunt Wesson fare any better with its line of Big John food products in the same market. The direct translation—“Gros Jos”—means big breasts. Fortunately, the product was aimed at men, and sales didn’t suffer. French-speaking Canada claimed another linguistic victim with Gerber, which somehow neglected to allow for the fact that “gerber” actually means “vomit.” (The appearance of the pureed baby food, of course, did little to discourage this unfortunate association.)

Don’t think that American companies are the ones making mistakes. When foreign companies enter the U.S. market, the same snafus often occur in reverse. Take, for instance, the Italian company Powergen. It built an English-language Web site for battery chargers, only to discover that consumers thought the company was peddling an industrial-strength sex toy. (Why would anyone think such a thing? Consider the domain name the brand chose: powergenitalia.com.)

One final story: Swedish brand Samarin thought it was slipping safely out of the translation noose by opting for picture-only advertising. In an ad for its upset stomach remedy, the company used three simple drawings. The first showed a man holding his stomach in pain; to the right was an image of him drinking his Samarin; and on the far right a shot of him standing upright and looking happy. What could possibly go wrong with that? The campaign debuted in the Middle East, where most people read from right to left. Oops.

If you think these examples are funny, well, you’re right. But were it your brand dropping money on a campaign that confused your cherished product with a sex toy, you would probably not be laughing. Why do brands make these mistakes? Brands often trust their agencies, but it’s sometimes impossible for an agency principal to review every piece of communication that leaves his office—or to understand the colloquial nuances that often foil the best-laid marketing plans. Definitions are in the dictionary, but subtleties are not. Whatever your expansion plans, make sure they include someone who knows them.     


Mark Young is co-founder of Redford, Mich.-based Western Creative. You can reach him at myoung@westerncreative.com.