ABSTRACT
Not even the largest companies always surmount the challenges of international business. While it is difficult for any company to fully understand the culture and language of a foreign marketplace, Americans have a reputation for ignoring and misunderstanding cultural and language differences. Some of the more humorous examples come from marketing attempts:
Translated into Spanish, the Coors slogan, “Turn it loose” read as “Suffer from diarrhea.”
Gerber began selling baby food in Africa with the same packaging used in the U.S. that displayed a Caucasian baby's face. To their dismay, they soon learned that in Africa, product labels usually bear a picture of the package's content to overcome language barriers.
Chevy introduced the Nova automobile in Mexico without changing its name. In Spanish, “no va” means “does not go,” and so, not surprisingly, sales were not as brisk as anticipated.
