Although sometimes cringe-worthy, examples of global marketing bloopers are a useful means of appreciating that we are not all the same. For any company or business conducting a marketing campaign abroad they must take linguistic and cultural variations seriously.

Below we have provided a top 20 Marketing & Communications Bloopers from across the globe.  

1)    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!

2)    The Swedish furniture giant IKEA somehow agreed upon the name “FARTFULL” for one of its new desks.

3)    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.

4)    “Traficante” and Italian mineral water found a great reception in Spain’s underworld. In Spanish it translates as “drug dealer”.

5)    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.

6)    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”.

7)    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”.

8)    American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, based on the image of courage and strength. However, in Puerto Rico the name means “killer” and was not popular on the hazardous roads in the country.

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 touching her. The Japanese considered this ad an invasion of privacy, inappropriate behaviour, and in very poor taste.

10)    Leona Helmsley should have done her homework before she approved a promotion that compared her Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York as comparable to the Taj Mahal–a mausoleum in India.

11)    A golf ball manufacturing company packaged golf balls in packs of four for convenient purchase in Japan. Unfortunately, pronunciation of the word “four” in Japanese sounds like the word “death” and items packaged in fours are unpopular.

12)    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.

13)    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.

14)    The soft drink Fresca was being promoted by a saleswoman in Mexico. She was surprised that her sales pitch was greeted with laughter, and later embarrassed when she learned that fresca is slang for “lesbian.”

15)    Kellogg had to rename its Bran Buds cereal in Sweden when it discovered that the name roughly translated to “burned farmer.”

16)    When Pepsico advertised Pepsi in Taiwan with the ad “Come Alive With Pepsi” they had no idea that it would be translated into Chinese as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead.”

17)    Coors put its slogan, “Turn It Loose,” into Spanish where its translation was read as “Suffer From Diarrhea.”

18)    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.”

19)    Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno mag.

20)    During its 1994 launch campaign, the telecom company Orange had to change its ads in Northern Ireland. “The future’s bright … the future’s Orange.” That campaign is an advertising legend. However, in the North the term Orange suggests the Orange Order. The implied message that the future is bright, the future is Protestant, loyalist… didn’t sit well with the Catholic Irish population.

Source by David Arnold

Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. Marketing affects all individuals, all organizations, all industries, and all countries. (Kerin, 2006, p.22) In this paper I will explain the value of three pieces of marketing research, the components of marketing mix for Kudler new catering service, far as their product, place, price, and promotions. I will also explain how Kudler should determine the products it wants to offer and how they will determine how they will price their products to be relative to other catering companies. I will also explain what term place means, how Kudler will go about promoting their catering service and describe how technology will be used by Kudler in their market, lastly I will explain if Kudler decide to go with catering how that mesh with their decision to contract with organic growers.

Marketing research is an important part of understanding the market and where there is a need for a service. The product and service will have to be targeted to the right people who are in need of the service. The three pieces of market research allow you to specify, identify, and determine the current market. The three pieces of market research are: “Specifying Constraints- The constraints in a decision are the restrictions placed on potential solutions to a problem. Identifying data needed for marketing action- Often marketing research studies wind up collecting a lot of that are interesting but irrelevant for marketing decisions that result into marketing actions. The data should be able to provide manager with information that allows them to make clear choice of action to take for their product. Determine how to collect data- Determining how to collect useful marketing research data is often as important as actually collecting the data. The two key elements in deciding how to collect data are concept and method. Concepts are ideas about a product or service. To find out about consumer reaction to a potential new product, marketing researchers frequently developed a new product concept, that is, a picture or verbal description of a product or service the firm might offer for sale. Methods are the approaches that can be used to collect to solve all or part of a problem.” (Kerin, 2006, p.22)

Kudler has a new idea of starting a catering service but before they can start they will have to research the market to determine the right course of action. Kudler will have to define the marketing problem and the opportunity for increased customer satisfaction. The company will have to develop an organized plan to determine the effectiveness of their decision. People today are looking to eat healthier and stay in shape. Consumers have become interest in the quality of their health with today’s 54 percent of Americans is considered overweight. ( http://www.fit4free.org/musdevArticle.htm) As people begin to look into other foods the diet of many consumers are now change to foods that are healthier such as organic. This type of change in consumer’s diet has allowed companies like Kudler to provide these different types of food options. Before starting the catering service Kudler had decide to contract with local farmers for organic produce. The organic and gourmet food market in the United State has soured through the sky. There are more cooking show and more people cooking healthy than ever before. With this type of increasing market Kudler can began to advertise and market their organic product to their consumers. As organic continue to gain popularity with consumers the sales potential will continue to increase.

To ensure that their decision will be the best action to take for Kudler, the company will have to do research were they provide an atmosphere for customers to try their products and receive feed back. One method that Kudler could use is allowing customers to try their organic produce for free by providing samples. This can give Kudler a chance to introduce their new product and service to gain more customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is what drives a business to be successful, when customers are satisfy they return because of the product and service. Kudler will need to decide what food item and recipes will be their main attraction. The way that Kudler can determine their most popular products is by using there inventory process to track what items are being purchased frequently and more than others. According to what customers are buying, by tracking items in their inventory will tell them what products are doing well and the ones that are not, with this information Kudlers is able to determine what items would be put on their menu to entice customers.

The way that Kudler can determine its price is by knowing the community, competition, the cost of start-up, employees and preparation of meals. Unfortunately, with the quality of product that Kudler is providing the price for their food will be higher than their competition, but if Kudler can appeal to customers about their great quality and began to build loyal customers then they will pay the price because of the great quality. To be competitive in the market Kudler must be aware of the competition and the items and prices of their products and services. One of Kudler’s successful strategies is the focus on customer needs; these needs are met by offering an open menu with possible adjustments based on customer requests. With no set menu Kudler will be competitive in the market because they will cater specifically to each customer’s needs and their willingness to alter their menu keeps customers happy and coming back for future services. As a part of Kudler’s advertising strategy they need to focus on the customer satisfaction aspect and the openness to meeting and exceeding the customer requests received.

Promotion is the key to starting a new business and the right decisions must be made to be successful. Promoting communicate messages to potential customers and clients. Kudler already has a clientele base of customers due to their existing business that willcost them little to no money to advertise to them. With the use of existing customers Kudler will be able to get word out that they have started their catering business. When customers are satisfied with a service or product they will not only come back but began to recommend the services to their friends or anyone they come in contact with. Finding out the needs of potential customers and adding this key message to advertising will draw business. For specific forms of promotion Kudler should use newspapers, in-store fliers, direct mailers to current loyal customers, and advertising over the intercom at each store location. Technology will allow Kudler to be more efficiency, cut cost and labor. Kudler right now is not using technology to its full potential but as business begin to increase this will become important as the business grows and the clientele grows to an unmanageable amount. Organic growers will mesh well with the catering service because of the increasing interest in organic foods.

As Kudler continue to grow they must remember that the most important thing is to continue to satisfy their customers and meeting their needs. As the business grows they will need to upgrade on technology to cut down cost and labor to be more efficient. Kudler can also utilize their existing customer base to advertise their product as well, as customers continue to love the services offered the existing customers will recommend the services to their friends and so on. Marketing is essential for success, research and planning must be done in order to know what course of action to take. After the implementation phase Kudler can review and look back to see what results were achieved and were the processes was most beneficial for the company overall.

References

Kerin, R.A., Hartley, S.W., Berkowitz, E.N., Rudelius, W. (2006) Marketing. [University
Of Phoenix Custom Edition e-Text].New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Kudler Intranet. (2005). July 5, 2008, from
https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/CIST/VOP/Business/Kudler/KudlerHome002.htm
Gomez-Mejia, L.R. & Balkin, D. B. (2002) Management [University of Phoenix
Custom Edition e-Text] New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies

Source by Phil Forp

It is very important for any business to scan and analyze their marketing environment by continuously monitoring what is going on in the marketing environment. Marketing decision makers must collect, analyze and diagnose information about the environment. These actions of marketing decisions are explained under:

Environment scanning-it is the process of collecting information about forces in marketing environment; environmental analysis-it is the process of assessing and interpreting the information gathered through environment scanning; environmental diagnosis- it is the process of making decisions by accessing the significance of threats and opportunities. The following are importances of scanning marketing environment:

• To understand elements of the environment.
• To observe and understand the changes which are occurring in the environment.
• To analyze market situations
• To fit the organization properly into the environment so that effective strategies can be developed.

Any person venturing into any kind of business must be aware of his/her business environment. It is therefore very important for business to be positioned and be designed in a way that its image is in distinctive place in the market. It must thrive to provide best quality, best service, best value, lowest price and more advanced technology. When a business understands its environment correctly there is no doubt for it to achieve success and become profitable throughout its running.

SWOT analysis is an overall evaluation of a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It involves monitoring the external and internal marketing environment. SWOT analysis assumes that organization will achieve success by maximizing strengths and opportunities and minimizing weaknesses and threats.  It is very important for a company to indentify its weaknesses and opportunities as the information provided will help in informing the managers of the company on the various developments in the external and internal environment that have taken place. Also it leads to improved organizational performance and the company can also be in a position to framework its current and future positions.

A SWOT analysis is a procedure for identifying and examining opportunities and strengths, weaknesses and threats facing the business. It gives insight into company’s position in the competitive arena. When carrying out SWOT analysis to determine how you rate against a competitor, the following should be used (Kottler,2002)

Strengths –consider your company’s strong points, this should be both from your own and your customers, don’t be modest but be realistic, consider distinct advantages that your company offers; what customers say, do they enjoy doing business with you; is there anything you currently offer that cannot be copied by a competitor now or in future.

Weaknesses-evaluate your company weaknesses, not only from your own perspective but also from your competitors.

Opportunities- consider the areas in your market that offers a room for your company to grow; opportunities can come from changes in technology and markets on both broad and narrow scale, changes in government, policy related to your industry, changes in social patterns, demographic and customers lifestyle changes.(Lydon,2005)

Threats-although we don’t like to think about them, we all face threats in our businesses, many times they are out of control e.g. downturn in the economy, shift in market demographics or perhaps a new mega corporate opening in your local area.

After the research was conducted on telemarketing, the following threats and weaknesses facing it were found:

• Lack of experienced personnel.
• Inadequate fund for them to promote their services.
• Change of technology which requires them to train their employees now and then.
• Demographic changes of their target customers.

Equally they had some opportunities and strengths that have held them up high on their market, they are:

• They have strong brands that sells world wide.
• They have employed penetration method of pricing.
• They have very strong sales team.
• They have corporate image all the whole world.

To maximize their profit telemarketing industry should apply the following strategies to run successfully, they are:

Marketing planning-this involves overall strategies of marketing that helps company achieve its overall objectives. It is a tool for improving performance and it leads to development of standards for control. Marketing planning will help this industry to instill discipline in time and the management team will have a control mechanism for detecting future problems. Marketing planning provides on opportunities and threats, weaknesses and strengths of accompany. It works as a warning mechanism by making a company alert and sensitive to the environment.

Marketing communication-this involves communicating to the target market basically to inform about the product and influence them to buy their products. Marketing communications creates awareness of the existence of a product; and remind and reassures the customers so that decision they make while buying a product is effective. By communicating to their customer’s a favorable climate for future sales is created and competitive difference through careful choice of word.(Gelb,2003)

Use of promotional mix-this comprises of five elements, advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations and direct marketing. It is also necessary to conduct marketing audit, this involves comprehensive, independent and periodic examination of a company’s or business units, marketing environment, objectives, strategies and activities with a view to determine problem areas and opportunities. It is a plan of action to improve the company’s marketing performance.

Source by LindaMiller

Direct sales and home party businesses are booming. Direct selling is definitely the wave of the future as the world goes the current economic restructuring. With party plan companies blooming on every street corner how do you pick the right home party plan company for you? Do you like jewelry? How about make-up? Perhaps food is your thing, no fashion! Skin-care, that’s it! Seems as long as there are products being made, there is a party plan company selling it. The following are the 7 Pillars & Tips For Direct Sales Home Party Consultants for the success to consider when selecting a party plan company.

1) You, The Home Party Consultant: As an independent direct sales home consultant you are the company representative. People will judge the company by how you conduct yourself and your direct selling business. If you find people are a little resistant to what you have to say, don’t take it personally. I can guarantee they had a bad experience with another direct sales consultant. Now is your chance to build a new relationship.
Home Parties Tip: A home party business is not about the party plan company. A home party business is about the home party consultant.

2). Home Party Plan Company Leadership: Does your company of choice have proven MLM/Network Marketing/Direct Sales Experience? How long have they been in business? Are they ethical? –What about their integrity? Is the company privately held or publicly traded? (If the home party company of choice is publicly traded I hope it is one that Warren Buffet owns e.g., Pampered Chef) Have you actually read their Policies & Procedures? How Many pages? (Less is usually better.) WHY? Because the more paper work the less creativity and options you have. It means your every move will be monitored by the party plan company gate-keepers. You might as well get a job! Who does it protect? Comp plan set up to favor/protect distributors or company? Allow ‘walk away’ income? Loopholes to steal your commissions someday?
LONG TERM focus with a solid foundation, or “get rich quick” mentality? I recently read up on the ‘dead’ Circuit city company. The CEO said that their greatest failure was focusing on short term profits instead of long term value. Is your company of choice has not been in business for 5 years…think again

3) Timing of INDUSTRY and COMPANY: Did you know that jewelry home party plan companies are the hottest thing in the party plan industry? Yes Gold home parties are taking the nation by storm. Bill Gates willingly shares his secrets to success, he says:

1. Recognize the future of an industry
2. Take immediate massive action
3. Be at the right place at the right time!

If you can grasp this, success as a home party consultant is all but guaranteed! That said people will never be too young, too thin, too fashionable, too glamorous or too sexy. Any home party plan business surrounding these questions and problems will always be a hit! Run from Startups are to be avoided at all costs. This is what we call trending in the direct sales industry. E.g., once Mary Kay unveiled her company suddenly everyone had a beauty and skin care line you could sell from home. You want to find balance in your choice.

What phase is the Party Plan Company? Formulation? Momentum? Critical Mass? Plateau? Companies in the plateau phase offer more name recognition and less of an opportunity. (Under 5 year or 25 + I’d stay away)!

4). TARGET MARKET for your PRODUCTS: Is there huge demand for the home party products you plan on representing? Is the Future bright? Does the product meet Long Term TRENDS? The BIGGEST mistake people make is by making an emotional decision about their choice to become involved in direct sales. Sure your neighbor who is only a high school graduate jumped into party plan company ABC and made a killing and drives the car of your dreams. That is all well and good. However are you suited to the direct selling business? Is it the right time for you to jump in? More importantly have you identified a market for your product? Want to know why most home party consultants fail? because they found a product but have no one to sell it to. Your first step in succeeding is identifying a market for your product and then finding the right home party company. Trust me on this one, you will save yourself a whole lot of trouble!

5) Flagship PRODUCT(s): Products have to be REMARKABLE Not over-priced CONSUMABLE! Seth Godin, author of the best seller Purple Cow speaks at length on the issue of product remarkability. He talks about the mundane-ness of a regular black and white cow over a purple cow. A purple cow is remarkable. Remarkable incidentally doesn’t mean good or awesome

adjective

worthy of attention; striking
Is your home party product of choice one that will compel other to talk about and thus market for you? This is the essence of word of mouth. Is your product average or top of the line? Your product must be good enough to compel repeat buys and persuade me or any other person to tell a friend or ten about it!

6) Compensation Plan: The comp. plan should be the least of your worries, but I will discuss it for your benefit. The home party, direct sales and direct selling industry are all victims of the recruitment scam. You see you are paid for volume not the number of recruits you get. Look it this way what benefit is it to enroll 100 people who buy nothing? However if you make get 10 customers, and each buy $100 of products then you have a percentage of $1000 home party sales. The compensation needs to pay the average person fair percentage. Party plan companies reward home party consultants for selling products NOT for recruiting reps. Avoid comp. plan that pay on levels. Volume is quantifiable. Levels is cut throat and breeds the scams and failings that network marketing has a bad reputation. Paying on VOLUME not levels – drives BEHAVIOR in the field. Do you have a break-away plan? I would be cautious and careful. Best ’statistics’ to determine comp. plan include
‘TAC’ Total Average Commission? ‘PTV’ Percentage of TOTAL volume ?

7) Training, Education, Experience & Personal Development: Duplication is all well and good. Remember what I said at the beginning a home party plan business is about you. You are the single most important determinant of how successful this home party business. There is no such thing as proven SYSTEMS, UPLINE SUPPORT. The only thing that will help you build a successful business is personal development, training, education and experience. Do you have an Action Plan / Game Plan? It is one that can be taught to others i.e., duplicatable while still leaving room for creativity, innovation and expansion? Times have changed. Some things that worked just a few years ago, do not today. Many companies and TEAMS are using outdated systems and methods. Most people (92+% of population) do not like to sell or be sold. Are you building a home party business using 8 track methods in an iPod world? Don’t get caught in a rut!

Wishing you success,
Party Plan Pat

Source by Patricia Kagwiria Makhulo

Online marketing can no longer be considered as an afterthought when developing a marketing strategy. In 2008, Ofcom reported that online marketing represented a fifth of total UK revenues from advertising – and we believe it’s still got a long way to go.

There are good reasons for its unprecedented growth. One of the main reasons online marketing has always been at an advantage to other forms of marketing is because of its ability to drive acquisition, in such a transparent and accountable way.

More often than not, it is ‘acquisition marketing’ that clients are looking for – marketing with the end goal of acquiring new business. A well thought out acquisition marketing shouldn’t even stop there, but should really continue into the realms of adding value to the acquired customers to ensure repeat business where applicable, and/or referrals.

How to achieve acquisition through online marketing

In order to achieve effective acquisition marketing, there needs to be a clear and cohesive pathway for the customer to follow, right from the first click through to the point of conversion. This starts with a clear understanding of what you want the customer to do. If this isn’t clear in your mind, then it’s going to be very hard for the customer to figure out.

A marketing campaign which successfully brings thousands of people through to your site, all of whom are not particularly interested in what you have to offer and so leave immediately once they get there, cannot be called acquisition marketing. Traffic is simply a means to an end, and as such – can become a time consuming red herring.

A campaign which brings in thousands of people who are interested in your products or services, only for them to be bamboozled with such labyrinthine navigation or off-putting messages or design that they give up and go elsewhere before converting, is also not acquisition marketing.
A successful acquisition campaign must keep the visitor engaged at every single point along their journey towards becoming one of your valued customers.

This can only result from a genuinely integrated approach to online marketing, working on all areas of a campaign simultaneously, with the sole aim of leading visitors through seamlessly to the point of purchase or conversion. Implementing funnel / drop-off tracking is also key in this process, as often there is more to learn from the ‘non-converters’ than the ‘converters’.

Short AND long-term benefits

Despite our strong belief in acquisition marketing, there is clearly still a place for brand building exercises which will not only change or enforce your consumers’ perceptions of you over time, but also deliver better recall, referral and brand equity.

But with acquisition marketing, we look for measurable ways to increase levels of sales and conversions in a much shorter space of time. Part of the trick here is to not only make the process easy for customers, but also to spend time understanding their mindset, needs and concerns. By understanding these, we can begin to alleviate them – by offering them extra information, assurance or testimonials along the conversion funnel. Ideally, we want to dispel any concerns they have before they have even manifested.

Working with this mindset, we are able to take marketing forms such as pay-per-click advertising, and make them work even more efficiently than they are already.

Keeping your customers happy

At atom42, we get most of our business through referrals. When people have had a good experience with a customer or product, they simply can’t spread the word fast enough. Looking after your customers in the same way is one reason why acquisition marketing is also of long-term. Happy customers do two things: return and refer.

Increasingly, as natural SEO has evolved from being focused on “onsite” optimisation techniques – and moved into using more and more “offsite” factors when determining a site’s importance – we see an increasing number of long-term benefits from our SEO work as well – including link building, content optimisation and strategic partnerships – all of which can yield results for many years to come.

The significance of measurability

The real key to acquisition marketing is measurability, and this is something uniquely suited to online marketing.

For those in the business of online marketing, there are now an almost infinite number of tools at our disposal for diagnosing precisely what kind of results our efforts are generating with our online marketing techniques.

This means that we can prove without doubt that we are gaining the right kinds of results for our clients, with an extraordinary amount of precision. It’s no wonder that, according to the European Online Advertising Through 2013 report, online ad spend is predicted to carry on growing throughout the recession.

Source by Andrew Atalla