Wrong Stuff

If a business wants to sell its products internationally, it has better do some market reseach first. This is a lesson that many companies-including some large American corporations- have learned the hard way. Sometimes the problem is the name. When General Motors introduced its Chevy Nova into latin America, it overlooked the fact that Nova in Spanish means “it doesn’t go". Sure enough, the Chevy Nova never went anywhere in Latin America. Sometimes it’s slogan that doesn’t work. No company knows this better than Pepsi Cola, with its ‘Come Alive with Pepsi!” campaign. The campaign was highly successful in the United States, and Pepsi translated its slogan literally for its international campaign. As it turned out, pepsi was pleading with germans to "Come out of the grave” and telling Chinese that pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave. Other times, the problem involves pictures and packaging. A smiling, round checked baby has helped sell countless jars of gerber baby food. So, when gerber marketed its products in Africa, it kept the picture of the baby on th ejar. What gerber didn’t realize was that in many African countries the picture on the jar shows what the jar has in it. Even cultural and religious factors- and pure coincidence- can also be involved. Thom McAn shoes have a Thom McAn ‘signature” inside. Yo people in bangladesh, this signature looked like Arabic script for the word Allah. In Bangladesh, feet are considered unclean and Muslims felt the company was insulting God’s name by having people walk on it.