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Thursday, September 28, 2006

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How not to market to Asia

The Japanese have been the Kings (Emporers?) of marketing gaffs. It is hard to imagine why the fluid replacement drink Pocari Sweat didn't make it in America, isn't it?

The Canning Room has a great post on U.S. screw-ups in advertising to China.

COKE IN CHINA

You would think that with the zillions of dollars Coke makes they could afford a top notch translation team, but alas....According to the Canning Room they first tried Ke-kou-ke-la because it was phonetically sounded out a semblance of "Coca-Cola". But, "it wasn't until after thousands of signs had been printed that they discovered that the phrase means "Bite the wax tadpole" or "Female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect' Second time around things worked out much better. After researching 40,000 Chinese characters, Coke came up with "ko-kou-ko-le" which roughly translates to Happiness in the mouth". I cannot wait for the traffic THIS is going to get me from the smut surfers on Google.

And then KFC (the Chinese call it KENDUTCHY) learned the hard way that their slogan, "Finger lickin' good" actually meant Eat Your Fingers Off when translated. Do I need to make a joke here?

And urban legend has it that Pepsi translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" rendered into Chinese meant, Pepsi Brings Your ancestors Back From the Grave." But, Pepsi never really had that slogan. The closest one was used from 1963-1967 1963-1967 and it read Come Alive! You're In The Pepsi Generation.

But, I like the back to life one a bit better....

And finally, the folks at Coke are not one-trial learners. Their Georgia Coffee brand in Japan (This is major jolt juice. It should have a warning label: May cause your body to hum like an adult toy) has just released the saddest Asian can of Joe: Deepresso.

Depressing Coffee