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Below are the 2 most recent journal entries recorded in the "denisemm" journal:
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10:52 am
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Marketing Mess-ups (these will make you laugh)
You think you got problems? Imagine the egg on the face of these marketing and advertising directors when they discovered these mess-ups when transferring an adveritising headline or slogan in American English to another language?
1. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
2. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.
3. Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "manure stick."
4. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the beautiful Caucasian 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.
5. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
6. 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).
7. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave", in Chinese.
8. 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."
9. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, "it won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." Instead, the company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
10. And, in Mexico, after a year of awful sales Chevrolet discovered back in the 1970s that "Nova" the name of a popular car in the USA in Spanish means "does not go."
(Most of these came from a post by Mike Fesler on a ryze.com network.)
Now, it's easy for us to laugh at these because obviously there was a difference in language - poor translation going on. But the lesson is true even within the US. Very often words defined one way by one group are defined in a significantly different way by our ideal customers. It's critical that when we consider using a word that we consider how our ideal customer sees and interprets that word.
I have a first marketing mentoring meeting with a client in a couple hours. I skimmed over her "Get Ready Assignment." She's a delightful woman and very well educated. One of the things I've noticed is that she really plays up her educational background and the fact that she's taught at the university level. The disconnect is that her ideal customers are entrepreneurs and that particular group have a real disdain for anything "ivory tower" or "academic" or "theoretical." What she views as an asset is probably being viewed by ideal customers as a detriment. We'll see.
All the best,
Denise Michaels
Author, "Testosterone-Free Marketing"
Visit me at http://www.MentoringWithDenise.com
Current Location: home office
Current Mood:  amused
Tags: business, copy, customer, entrepreneur, ideal, marketing, owner
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11:39 pm
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This Amazing Opportunity
This time for the first time in our nation's history we have the opportunity to watch the first woman announce a serious candidacy for the highest office of the land - the Presidency. It's a historic time for women to really see how far we've come in regarding women as equal partners with men as leaders in both politics as well as the world of business.
How we both view and respond to her Presidential bid goes beyond whether or not Hillary Clinton wins or loses the election in 2008 but expands to how we look at women and their roles as leaders in both business, politics and other walks of life. This blog is not designed to be necessarily for or against Hillary's run but is about how people regard the idea of a woman running for the the office of President of the United States of America.
Just in the last couple days I've been shocked by the comments I've heard from other women (even women business owners) that reveal antiquated notions of the role of women and "their place" in our society.
Why am I writing about this? As author of the myth-shattering book, "Testosterone-Free Marketing" I'm all about supporting and empowering women to go for their dream. If we negatively assume that a woman doesn't have the smarts, the mental toughness, the contacts or the whatever to be President - in what other ways are we holding back women who aspire to do magnificent things in business, politics or other venues in life?
All the best,
Denise Michaels
Author, "Testosterone-Free Marketing"
http://www.tfmbook.com
Tags: boundaries, business, entreprenuer, express, expressive, leader, leaders, leadership, magnificent, marketing, outspoken, politics, stereotypes, strong, walls, woman, women
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