Laugh out louder

International advertising entails dissemination of a commercial message to target audiences in more than one country. Target audiences differ from country to country in terms of how they perceive or interpret symbols or stimuli; respond to humor or emotional appeals, as well as in levels of literacy and languages spoken.
When it comes to International business advertising, it should be so effective in attracting the world people in the International business environment. All of these marketing slogans and brand names mentioned below were perfectly fine in English. However, once they were translated into other languages they took on hilarious new meanings!

1. KFC

China has often seemed a land of dashed dreams for foreign companies eager to sell to 1.3 billion mainland consumers. In China, where there are more than 900 KFC restaurants and at least one new branch opening every other day. When American fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken opened their first restaurant in Beijing in 1987, they accidentally translated KFC's famous slogan, “Finger-lickin' good” to “We'll Eat Your Fingers Off!” in Chinese.

2. Pepsi

Revenue from Pepsi's emerging markets reached $22 billion in 2011, representing 34% of total revenue and nearly tripling from $8 billion in 2008. Much of that growth came from China. When Pepsi was advertised in China its slogan “We bring you back to life” caused a bit of panic, where they read it as, “We bring your ancestors back from the grave” in Chinese Language.

3. Gerber

Gerber Products Company is a purveyor of baby food and baby products, a subsidiary of Nestlé Group. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.

4. General Motors

General Motors Company commonly known as GM, is an American multinational automotive corporation which is World’s largest automakers by vehicle unit sales, employing 202,000 people. GM tried to market the Nova car in Central and South America. Nova sold poorly in Spanish speaking countries because "No va" in Spanish means, "It Doesn't Go".

Article By

A. Abinaya

Ist MIB

PSGCAS