Page 4B THE BATTALION
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1980
Blunder collection lesson to businessmen
Cultural differences, language barriers can cause problems in international marketing
United Press International
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Figuring students learn
best by studying the mistakes of others, David Ricks,
chairman of the Ohio State University International
Business Program, has built what he calls a “rather
novel collection.”
For 10 years Ricks has been ferreting out blunders
made by big businesses — mistakes the companies
would rather forget but which show students “why
it’s important to pay attention to concepts that don’t
seem important.”
— Pepsodent’s promise of white teeth bought no
new customers in part of Southeast Asia — where
people of status chew betelnuts, and black, discol
ored teeth are a symbol of prestige.
A blunder, as defined by Ricks, “is a mistake that
could have been avoided, but because of carelessness
it’s not. It usually results in some type of loss. ”
But most frequently, he added, errors occur when
a business overlooks some cultural difference in the
foreign market.
That’s most likely to happen, he said, when the
foreign customers are most alike, not the farthest
Some samples from the nearly 200 documented
blunders Ricks has uncovered:
— A baby food company tried unsuccessfully to
peddle its product in a mostly illiterate African nation
with a label showing a cuddly infant. It turned out
Africans thought the jars contained ground-up
babies.
— Chevrolet was puzzled when its Nova model,
popular in this country, would not sell in Latin Amer
ican markets. Firm officials finally figured out that in
Spanish, Nova means “does not go.”
— An airline advertised the “rendezvous lounges”
on its 707 flights in Brazil and lost customers. Ren
dezvous in Portugese is a place to have sex.
For that reason he counts MacDonald’s advertis
ing of “Big Macs” in Canada as embarrassing, but not
a blunder.
In French-Canadian slang big macs are big busts,
but the giant hamburgers still are selling wonder-
fully.
Similarly, an American company that manufac
tures female sanitary napkins noticed an increase in
sales in South American areas.
They soon discovered farmers were buying the
napkins in quantity, and using them as dust masks.
Chevrolet was puzzled when its
Nova model, popular in this
coun try, would not sell in La tin
American markets. Firm
officials finally figured out that
too. The trouble was the Campbell Soup cans looked
so small next to the English cans selling for the same
price. In England, soup is sold with the water already
added.
Also culturally ignorant was the aircraft company
that used ads in India picturing Pakistanis. Amer
icans may not be able to tell the difference, Ricks
said, but Indians can.
the grave.” A car wash turned into i
another of Ricks’ blunders.
car enet
Vol. 74 No
10 Pages
Or the firm that tried selling refrigerators to the
mostly Moslem Middle East with an ad picturing
their appliance chock full of food — including a giant
ham on the middle shelf.
in Spanish, Nova means “does
not go. ”
While most of the blunders Ricks has found are
marketing and advertising mistakes — the most
noticeable and hardest to hide — blunders have also
occurred in management, personnel and finance.
“There are a big variety and they occur in every
area of business. If there’s a way to make a blunder, a
business has done it,” said Ricks.
removed from Americans. Britain has been the
downfall of many an established American firm.
General Foods, for example, found that England
had no room for Jell-O. The firm found out too late
that British shoppers look for gelatin in cakes or
wafers, not powdered form.
Campbell Soups languished on English shelves.
Colors are culturally significant, too, noted Ricks,
who has collected the blunders made by firms that
forgot when labeling their products that green is the
color of disease in Africa and white the color of death
in Japan.
Hiring translators can be tricky as well. French
men working on advertising for French Canada and
American-trained language students working on
campaigns intended for overseas have blundered
often.
publican
president
“Body by Fisher” became “Corpse by Fisher” in a
Belgian ad. Pepsi’s familiar “Come Alive with Pepsi”
became in a German translation “Come alive out of
While some blunders are amusing „
more serious and costly, said Ricks wh
every company involved in a blunder aski!
fication and for information on corrective
"Some companies deny it happened''tb
sor said. “Some will say that it happened bub
ering all the decisions we make it’s not too ki
only make a few mistakes. And quite a few!
guys who made the mistake are no longerwitU
“I can’t confirm this, but it’s not a good(li
the guys who make that bad decision.” *-
Like the decision ofa U.S. pineappleco^ShJw
buy land in Mexico near a river. Company-X
were going to use the river to transport itstfie Democ
pies. After building a plant, the firm foundilled at the
river was dry — except at harvest time »|Ia few poir
flooded. W r both n
Or the decision of a fast food chain tolocattiK ^ WOlJ
German hamburger stand on a street thil
showed was heavily traveled. The hamburgers*
scl1 ' i/ti
Finally company officials checked out the I Jf L LM
next door. It was a bordello. r
Mexican town
booming again
United Press International
LAZARO CARDENAS, Mexico
— Lazaro Cardenas, the sleepy
fishing village that boomed and then
went bust with an over-ambitious in
dustrial development program, is
about to boom again.
Some 20,000 workers already are
pouring into the Pacific port to help
build and operate a $2.5 billion addi
tion to the existing steel mill.
The influx will almost double the
town’s current population of 21,000
— and perhaps bring back many of
the problems that once gave it a
reputation as a lawless “frontier”
town.
Back in 1971 Lazaro Cardenas’
3,000 fishermen and dirt-poor far
mers lacked paved roads, telephones
and electricity.
Then President Luis Echeverria
introduced a plan to turn the port
into the largest steelmaking complex
in Latin America. Almost overnight,
the village exploded to 70,000 peo
ple, most of them construction work
ers. Prostitutes and petty criminals
followed them.
The boom came to a whimpering
halt in 1976, when an economic
slump forced the Mexican govern
ment to postpone indefinitely the
multi-million dollar industrial de
velopment project.
Dald Reag
re than C
away wi
I, two Tex
unicatior
iversity ]
am Strong
itudents t
of the p
Id that thi
Some 45,000 people evacuated
Lazaro Cardenas, and local author
ities began shutting down the worst
bars and all but five of the houses of
prostitution.
But even now, 25 of every 100
technicians and administrators quit
SICARTSA every year, most of them
complaining of the town’s cultural
isolation, overwhelmingly hot and
humid weather and prices that aver
age 20 percent higher than in Mexico
City.
Last month the government of
President Jose Lopez Portillo
announced it would resurrect the
second and third stages of the ambi
tious Lazaro Cardenas project.
Within two weeks most buses
were arriving full and leaving empty.
FOR
PRESIDENT
By R1
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• Are you satisfied with Carter's double-digit inflation due
to an unbalanced budget?
• Do you think that increased military spending coupled
with decreased taxes as proposed by Reagan will help the
situation?
• Do you think that Carter's wishy-washy foreign policy or
Reagan s Cold War Strategy will increase America's secur
ity?
• How well informed can Reagan be believing that pollu
tion is caused by trees and that this country's pollution
problem is "substantially controlled"?
JOHN ANDERSON
★ has over 20 years Congressional experience in
Washington.
★ is a respected leader in Washington.
★ has Foreign Service experience.
★ demonstrates the courage to make tough deci
sions
JOHN ANDERSON
believes in
womens’ rights
balanced budget
rational military spending
civil rights 8
environmental preservation
energy conservation
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