The 3 M’s…media/marketing/MISHAPS!!!

What exactly is cross-cultural marketing?

It involves learning how to adapt your company’s marketing strategies and marketing communications to the cultural differences in your various international markets. By applying cross-cultural marketing techniques, companies can increase their overall international marketing effectiveness….but they can also decrease their effectiveness if they aren’t careful…

Many unfortunate situations can occur when a company crosses cultures and fails to recognize the meaning of a particular symbol or symbols. Of course, these sorts of misunderstandings can happen with language, mannerisms and other aspects of communication as well.

Just a couple cross-cultural MISHAPS on the wall of shame—

“Besides the product, which is the manifestation of the positioning, the name is the most critical link to positioning itself. A name can add value, add margin, and add positive associations with your company product or service” (Hiebing & Cooper, 2003).

IKEA
IKEA introduced a workbench named, “FARTFULL.” Since “Fährt” is German for travel, that term fits the product well (in Germany) because the product is actually a mobile desk. Sales did not suffer from this translation barrier.

Rolls Royce
Rolls Royce changed the name of its car the Silver Mist to the Silver Shadow before entering Germany. In German, “Mist” means manure. It was a good move for the company to eventually change the name to “Shadow” rather than to keep “Mist” when Rolls Royce crossed over into the German market with this product.

Common phrase/term
Germany uses a refers to the American sachel/knapsack as a “body bag.” A term that isn’t used lightly here in America. It’s a product whose understand certainly gets lost in translation.

Sometimes companies choose to change their product name, and/or re-phrase a certain mannerism. However; there are other times when “any attention is good attention” is the concept. In our readings we’ve learned that what’s in a name counts! Naming your product is very important, and understanding how your product name and/or phrase translates in a different culture is key to product success!

Here’s a link to a long list of marketing and media mishaps!! —> http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/crosscultural-marketing.html

Sources:

Hiebing, R. & Cooper, S. (2003). The successful marketing plan: a disciplined and comprehensive approach. McGraw-Hill Professional.

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