Cross Cultural Marketing Blunders

Although cruel, cross cultural marketing mistakes are a humorous means of

understanding the impact poor cultural awareness or translations can have on a product
or company when selling abroad.

Below we have provided a few classic cross cultural marketing blunders for your
enjoyment. For more examples, please visit the 3 links at the end of the page.


1. Locum is a Swedish company. As most companies do at Christmas they sent
out Christmas cards to customers. In 1991 they decided to give their logo a little
holiday spirit by replacing the "o" in Locum with a heart. You can see the result..

2. The Japanese company Matsushita Electric was promoting a new Japanese
PC for internet users. Panasonic created the new web browser and had received
license to use the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker as an interactive
internet guide.

The day before the huge marketing campaign, Panasonic realised its error and
pulled the plug. Why? The ads for the new product featured the following slogan:
"Touch Woody - The Internet Pecker." The company only realised its cross
cultural blunder when an embarrassed American explain what "touch Woody's
pecker" could be interpreted as!

3. The Swedish furniture giant IKEA somehow agreed upon the name
"FARTFULL" for one of its new desks. Enough said..

4. In the late 1970s, Wang, the American computer company could not
understand why its British branches were refusing to use its latest motto "Wang
Cares". Of course, to British ears this sounds too close to "Wankers" which would
not really give a very positive image to any company.

5. There are several examples of companies getting tangled up with bad
translations of products due to the word "mist". We had "Irish Mist" (an alcoholic
drink), "Mist Stick" (a curling iron from Clairol) and "Silver Mist" (Rolls Royce car)
all flopping as "mist" in German means dung/manure. Fancy a glass of Irish
dung?

6. "Traficante" and Italian mineral water found a great reception in Spain's
underworld. InSpanish it translates as "drug dealer".

7. In 2002, Umbro the UK sports manufacturer had to withdraw its new trainers
(sneakers) called the Zyklon. The firm received complaints from many
organisations and individuals as it was the name of the gas used by the Nazi
regime to murder millions of Jews in concentration camps.

8. Sharwoods, a UK food manufacturer, spent 6 million on a campaign to
launch its new 'Bundh' sauces. It received calls from
numerous Punjabi speakers telling them that "bundh" sounded just like the
Punjabi word for "arse".

9. Honda introduced their new car "Fitta" into Nordic countries in 2001. If they
had taken the time to undertake some cross cultural marketing research they
may have discovered that "fitta" was an old word used in vulgar language to refer
to a woman's genitals in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. In the end they
renamed it "Honda Jazz".

10. A nice cross cultural example of the fact that all pictures or symbols are not
interpreted the same across the world: staff at the African port
of Stevadores saw the "internationally recognised" symbol for "fragile" (i.e.
broken wine glass) and presumed it was a box of broken glass. Rather than
waste space they threw all the boxes into the sea!


If were lucky our cross cultural marketing blunders will only cause great hilarity. When were not, they
can cause offence and cost us money. Here are a few of the blunders that some big boys made. With
all their marketing budgets they can still get things wrong. Cross cultural communication runs deep so it
is important to research carefully the Cultural Codes for specific products or brands and do some well-
undertaken market research.
Below you will find a selection of marketing blunders:
1. United Airlines unknowingly got off on the wrong foot during its initial flights from Hong
Kong. To commemorate the occasion, they handed out white carnations to the passengers. When they
learned that to many Asians white flowers represent bad luck and even death, they changed to red
carnations.
2. A company advertised eyeglasses in Thailand by featuring a variety of cute animals wearing
glasses. The ad was a poor choice since animals are considered to be a form of low life and no self
respecting Thai would wear anything worn by animals
3. Pepsodent tried to sell its toothpaste in Southeast Asia by emphasizing that it whitens your
teeth. They found out that the local natives chew betel nuts to blacken their teeth which they find
attractive

4. Locum is a Swedish company. As most companies do at Christmas they sent out Christmas cards
to customers. In 1991 they decided to become ecologically friendly and produce just one ad. The body
copy in the ad goes on about Locum saving trees by printing only one ad as a holiday good wishes rather
than sending out lots of cards.They decided to give their logo a little holiday spirit by replacing the o in
Locum with a heart. You can see the result
5. The Swedish furniture giant IKEA somehow agreed upon the name FARTFULL for one of its
new desks
6. There are several examples of companies getting unsuccessfully entering the German market
bad translations of products due to the word mist. We had Irish Mist (an alcoholic drink), Mist
Stick (a curling iron from Clairol) and Silver Mist (Rolls Royce car) all flopping as mist in German
means dung/manure. Fancy a glass of Irish dung?
7. The Japanese company Matsushita Electric was promoting a new Japanese PC for internet
users. Panasonic created the new web browser and had received license to use the cartoon character
Woody Woodpecker as an interactive internet guide. The day before the huge marketing campaign,
Panasonic realised its error and pulled the plug. Why? The ads for the new product featured the
following slogan:
Touch Woody The Internet Pecker. The company only realised its cross cultural blunder when an
embarrassed American explain what touch Woodys pecker could be interpreted as!
8. A US telephone company tried to market its products and services to Latinos by showing a
commercial in which a Latino wife tells her husband to call a friend, telling her they would be late for
dinner. The commercial bombed since Latino women do not order their husbands around and their use
of time would not require a call about lateness.
9. Proctor & Gamble used a television commercial in Japan that was popular in Europe. The ad
showed a woman bathing, her husband entering the bathroom and sponging her back. The Japanese
considered this ad an invasion of privacy, inappropriate behaviour, and in very poor taste.
10. And what about this one? A recent client of mine, a well-known pharmaceutical company,
who has to remain nameless, had launched a medicine to settle a bad stomach in Japan.
In Japan their advert ran along the following lines showing someone feeling ill, taking medicine and
feeling better:




















When a company fails internationally, the thud is heard round the world. A spectacular
failure might take the shape of a genuine disaster, in the case of BP's oil spill, or a cultural
disaster, like marketing frivolous toys to serious Chinese girls and boys. Either way, the
fallout can leave a company red-faced for years.
The irony of many international misfires is that companies that have proven domestic
success are as likely perhaps more likely to slip up. They overlook how their
established business model needs to adapt. They'd do better treating each effort overseas
as a new startup.
"Companies can become complacent and arrogant and then they make mistakes when they
expand overseas," says Peter Cohan, co-author of Export Now: Five Keys to Entering New
Markets and founder of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture
capital firm.
Whether it's bad marketing, sloppy operations, ill-advised corporate behaviour or mere
obliviousness to local culture, screw-ups happen. We asked Cohan, his Export Now co-
author Frank Lavin and Robert E. Mittelstaedt Jr., dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business
at Arizona State University and author of Will Your Next Mistake Be Fatal? what can be
learned from some of the most embarrassing international venture flameouts.
Heres the top 10 international flameouts, in no particular order:

1. Nestl in Africa
Accused of aggressively marketing its baby formula in impoverished markets where clean
water was not readily available, which caused children to be sick, Nestl was hit with a
boycott that started in 1977 and continues to this day in various regions around the world.
"They went in and tried to convince people that this was the modern thing to do," says
Mittelstaedt. "They assumed there would be clean water, when there wasn't any, and the
natural method would have been perfectly fine." While Mittelstaedt says it was the wrong
product in the wrong market at the wrong time Nestl may have done better selling
nutrients to mothers Lavin says that niche marketing, perhaps focusing on affluent
women who needed an alternative to breast feeding, would have given Nestl a foothold in
Africa without causing so much ire.
2. BP in the Gulf of Mexico
The 2010 oil spill was the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum
industry, causing extensive damage to wildlife habitats, as well as local fishing and tourism
industries. The oil and gas industry is unusual in that it's global cultural differences
don't have much impact except at the retail level. So, while the U.K.-based company
followed the advice of experts in applying the same standards in its offshore operations as
it did to its domestic ones, the problem was that BP's global standards were weak and
poorly executed. "They put money ahead of safety," says Cohan. This made their branding,
which positioned them as a greener kind of energy company, seem especially misleading.
"The vulnerability you have in a disaster will be significantly greater in foreign markets,"
says Lavin. "There is no home market good will."
3. SNC Lavalin in Libya
Currently facing multiple investigations into alleged wrongdoings by former executives, the
Canadian engineering and construction company, a global leader in its field, is learning a
hard lesson about hanging out with the wrong crowd. While the courts will decide whether
tens of millions of dollars in mysterious payments in Libya and other markets were illegal,
what will hurt SNC Lavalin most is the perception that they were fraternizing with the
regime of a much reviled dictator, the late Moammar Gadha. "Some people have a moral
compass and some people ask what it's going to cost me if I get found out," says Cohan.
"In a market like Libya, you have to make that moral choice before you even set foot there."
Although bribery and payoffs might be considered the cost of doing business in some
markets, laws like the United States' Foreign Corrupt Practices Act means that companies
should always follow their home country's rules, even if it gives their local competitors an
edge. Then there's SNC Lavalin's questionable corporate governance. "Companies have
lawyers for a reason," says Lavin.
4. Walmart in Germany
After opening 85 stores over the course of eight years, the U.S. retail giant abandoned the
German market in 2006 at an estimated cost of US$1 billion. Walmart's domestic success is
built on streamlined distribution channels, high-volumes sales and low prices none of
which fit into German culture or its regulatory regime. German policy and attitudes favor
the "mittelstand," small and medium-sized retailers that know the ins and outs of the
country's restricted business hours, intricate labor laws and multi-layered distribution
systems. "Unless the German laws and the culture change, the whole thing that sustains
Walmart's model which is their ability to discount heavily and to operate in some cases
24 hours a day doesn't work there. If you don't allow them to differentiate themselves, it
makes it very difficult for them to operate," says Mittelstaedt. Worse yet, Germans are less
price sensitive than North Americans. "They might even be skeptical of discounts and
question the quality of the product," says Lavin.
5. Home Depot in China The U.S. DIY giant entered the Chinese market in 2006 and opened 12
stores before they realized that most Chinese people don't like to do it themselves. The
company closed its last seven Chinese stores in 2012, absorbing a $160-million after-tax
charge. Although China is in the midst of a huge building boom, it doesn't have the same
implications as in North America. And it's not just that labor is cheaper in China. All those
new apartment complexes and planned communities don't need to be renovated yet. And
then there's the culture. In China, there's status in having work done for you. "In developed
countries, doing it yourself is seen as an enjoyable hobby. Even a stockbroker might do it,"
says Lavin. "In aspirational, developing societies, it's viewed as a sign of poverty." Home
Depot might have been better off as a wholesaler to contractors or selling appliances and
accessories.
6. Mattel in China
In March 2009, the U.S. toy company opened a 36,000-square-foot Barbie store on
Shanghai's flashy Huaihai Road. Two years later, they shuttered the place and scaled back
their efforts to sell Barbie in China. The skinny plastic doll was seen as too frivolous a
pastime for Chinese kids. "Chinese parents, more than American parents, emphasize
education. Toys can be seen as an indulgence," says Lavin. That's especially important
considering Chinese families usually have only one child. "You'll do anything for your child
to succeed," says Mittelstaedt. Disney, for example, has found success in China by tying its
playful entertainment brand to a chain of English Learning Centers kids aren't just
playing with Mickey Mouse, they're learning new skills with him. If only Barbie could give
MBA instruction.
7. Best Buy in the United Kingdom
Four years into a $1.1-billion joint venture with the U.K.'s Carphone Warehouse, U.S.
electronics retailer Best Buy pulled the plug on the overseas operation, closing all 11
outlets. Part of the problem was cultural: Big box retail is not as widely accepted on the
other side of the Atlantic. "Some things that work in the largest economy in the world don't
work in smaller economies," says Mittelstaedt. "You can't scale down the same way." But
Best Buy's timing was also badly judged. The margin in electronics is growing thinner and
thinner. Even major manufacturers like Sony, Sharp and Panasonic are in trouble. So much
of the electronics retail business has moved online that consumers around the world use
big box stores as mere "showrooms" for online rivals. "Best Buy has tried to compete with
their own online presence and with a loyalty program, but then you see the inconsistent
pricing. It's confusing," says Mittelstaedt.
8. Coke in India
In 1977, Coca-Cola left India when it refused to give its recipe to the India government and
so lost out on one of the world's biggest markets for 16 years. But Coke's return in 1993
has not been entirely triumphant. A dispute that ran from 2003 to 2006 saw local
governments ban both Coke and rival Pepsi, after an environmental group claimed the soft
drinks contained high levels of pesticide. Some villages also complained that the bottling
facilities were hogging local water supplies. Cohan says protectionism may have played a
part in the demand for the Coke recipe; it may have been a strategy to give domestic
players an advantage. And local politics probably played a part in the pesticide allegations.
He thinks Coke made the right decision the first time in deciding to abandon the marketa
company should never let its intellectual property fall into the hands of a foreign power.
But when faced with the tainted-drink scandal, he says Coke could have acted more
quickly. "You shouldnt be quiet about it. You have to fight back in the media and present
your side of the case."
9. Korean Airlines in the United States
Between 1970 and 1999, 16 Korean Airlines aircraft were in serious accidents, killing more
than 700 people. In the most shocking incident, a plane was shot down in 1983, killing all
269 passengers and crew, when the pilot erroneously flew into Soviet airspace. At one
point, the United States Department of Defense prohibited employees from flying on
Korean Air planes and the Federal Aviation Administration was considering banning the
airline from America airspace. While most international failures result in companies failing
to adjust to local expectations, the Korean Airlines problem was the opposite the airline
had failed to keep up with rising international safety standards, partly because of its
corporate culture. Because of the strict adherence to rank, co-pilots and other crew
members would not point out even the most glaring errors to the captain. "You just didn't
question the pilot," says Mittelstaedt. The airline finally brought in American experts to re-
educate the workforce so that all crew members would address any problem they saw. "It's
a lot less expensive to invest in more rigorous procedures than to have accidents."
10. Ford in Europe
Between 1988 and 2000, U.S.-based Ford Motor Company acquired European boutique
brands Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover. But the automotive mammoth
struggled with the luxury brands and in 2007 and 2008 sold them all off. Lavin points out
that some mergers don't work the way their proponents expected them to. "You don't
create aggregate value. Most of the time, one plus one doesn't even equal two." In this
case, it turned out the mainstream-oriented, large-scale style of Ford was a poor fit for the
niche brands. "They didn't have a lot to add to the process. Ford couldn't add any value,"
says Mittelstaedt. "Companies fail when they export their model overseas, but they can also
fail when they buy an overseas company. They usually want to scale it up, as oppose to
letting it continue the way it was, but it doesn't work that way."
As Cohan puts it: "I remember looking at the Jaguars at that time and thinking, 'They look a
lot like Fords.'"