A series of interesting findings
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
I've just downloaded and read through P&G's 2006 Annual Report, and I must say it's quite impressive. The more I read about them, the more respect I have for this company. I just realized it's not very clever of me to write on your blog that you're thinking of starting a burger business when you're applying for a high stake job (they could be reading this even as we speak!). Oh well, it's just a contingency plan. Better to be prepared for anything right?
On a lighter note, I just love marketing humor/glitches:
- 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.
- The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem-Feeling Free", was translated into the Japanese market as "When smoking Salem, you will feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."
- 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.
Did you know that the Red and White Santa Claus that we see now on the TV and the streets was an image created by the Coca-Cola Company? Before Coca-Cola came up with their ads, all Santa Claus were either Black/White or Green/White. Though I don't believe in the jolly old Santa, I do admire the marketing genius of the jolly old company.
(The image that made Santa red and white)
Findings taken from Aha!Jokes and BuildingBrands
posted by sam @ 1:13 AM,
0 Comments:
The Author
Samuel Yau
How do you truly know someone? The truth is, you can't. Each person that you come across have a perspective of you that differs from another. So it's entirely up to you on how I am perceived to be
About This Blog
Initially this blog was birthed out of curiosity, on what it would be like to have a blog. To explore the world of entrepreneurship, business, marketing, etc and to jot down my learnings/experience here. As time passes on, the purpose change, the passion change, the person change.