In the increasingly international marketplace getting your name right is important, but it can also be tricky. Marketing people have to be concerned that their newly created name, or the name of one of their products might be inappropriate in their target markets overseas.

Many people don’t realize that a word or name in one culture can be a joke or an insult in another. Bad product and brand names are just the beginning - slogans and straplines can go awry too.

Take the example of Electrolux, the Swedish white goods company, who used the strapline “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”. In America it became a laughing stock. Take the slogan “I saw the potato”, used on promotional T-Shirts for the Pope’s visit to Miami. The correct Spanish translation would say “I saw the Pope.”

Damage control costs can be enormous and careers can be cast into oblivion. So, you must be proactive in determing how your message reads across the globe, or you’ll end up the butt of a news short on CNN or BBC (don’t get too many ideas here). So, what can you do?

1) Remember that you have both written and spoken dialects and accents to contend with.

2) Avoid names that can’t be pronounced easily, or can be pronounced ambiguously.

3) Avoid any name that confuses.

Best Possible Solution: Run all your written and spoken names, brands, logos, slogans and straplines through advertising experts of each nation. These experts should be well-grounded and knowledgeable in all facets of their culture (not just the college student in the office who lives in a nation near the one in question). Spanish speaking South Americans can tell you endless stories about the differences in accents of Spanish alone from nation to nation.

International Man of Templates,
Arthur Browning