“Moving a brand into a new country is never going to be easy, and most businesses will spend a huge amount of time planning and strategizing every aspect of their move down to a tee, in order to ensure a smooth transition into a brand new culture. Despite so much preparation, for some brands, one of the most seemingly simple factors has sometimes been overlooked, causing them to encounter some pretty significant problems in their new market. And what is this simple factor? Language barriers.
Although some businesses may have thought that breaking these barriers would be as simple as merely translating their original slogans and product names into the new language of choice, they have learnt the hard way that it’s not always that easy.
This infographic, created by Print Peppermint, explores some of the most disastrous attempts at branding across countries, where some of the brand names and slogans have ended up seriously lost in translation. One famous example is when the multi-national fast food chain McDonalds attempted to sell one of their most popular burgers in France under the name ‘Big Pimp’, which we imagine was not the most tempting of orders.
Mercedes-Benz also suffered a similar miscalculation when they renamed their brand in China to ‘Bensi’. Unfortunately for them, this actually translated as to ‘Rush to Die’ in Chinese, a name which would have undoubtedly effected the sales figures of their cars in that country.
So to uncover more stories about some of the brands who clearly didn’t do enough homework when it came to breaking down the language barriers of their new market, look no further than the list below, which outlines 15 examples of brands which got seriously lost in translation.”
See more from the infographic below from Print PepperMint and if you want to make sure you do not end up in this situation check out Pimsleur (also limited time 35% off & free shipping deal for our readers promo code SAVEALOT) – probably the best way to learn a new language and cheaper than Rosetta Stone (which I have never tried but also hear great thing about).
