A brand blunder is an error associated with the branding of a product, especially a new product in a new market. Reasons for such slips include the lack of understanding of the language, culture and consumer attitudes in the new market.
There are numerous examples of brand blunders in marketing history; there are also numerous urban legends surrounding brand blunders, where there is little evidence of an actual blunder.
International branding issues Problems with international product branding are often associated with the process of language localisation, in which the product brand name or advertising slogan carries a different meaning in the language of the target market. In addition to linguistic aspects, issues of cultural sensitivity can affect the success of a brand.
This is a risk faced by companies entering a new market. In international marketing, a brand name must be distinctive and easy to pronounce across multiple markets, but it must not have unintended negative or obscene connotations. This risk is usually mitigated by factoring cultural research into a branding strategy.
True cases
Examples of brand names which have proved unsuitable for use in most English-speaking countries have included:
Alu-Fanny, a French aluminium foil Barf, a laundry detergent from Iran's Paxan Industries Barfy, a brand of frozen hamburgers in Argentina Bimbo, a Mexican brand of bread Calpis, a Japanese soft drink Crapsy Fruit, a French breakfast cereal Atum Bom, a Portuguese brand of tinned tuna Spunk, Danish confectionery Kräpp, Swedish toilet paper (Swedish language pronunciation of crêpe) Kum Onit, a German make of pencil sharpeners Laputa: Castle in the Sky had its title shortened to just "Castle in the Sky" in the United States and Latin America due to the titular castle Laputa being phonetically identical to the Spanish phrase "La Puta", which translates to "the bitch" or "the whore". Plopp, a Swedish chocolate bar Pocari Sweat, a Japanese sports drink Poo, type of curry powder in Argentina Pschitt, a French fizzy soft drink A number of Belgian beer brands, such as Silly, Prik, Slag, La Plope, Pee Klak and Witte Dikke
Brand names and advertising campaigns which have proved controversial throughout their existence have included the following instances:
In the 1970s, hair product company Clairol created a curling iron called the Mist Stick. While the product sold well internationally, it did not sell well in German-speaking countries because the word "mist" is German slang for "manure" or "feces," causing customers to turn away from the product. A similar situation was done with the Silver Shadow, where Rolls-Royce was forced to rename the car because it was originally called the "Silver Mist." In 1997, the sportswear company Reebok introduced a women's running shoe called "Incubus"; the company was forced to recall the product when it was called to their attention that an incubus is a mythical male demon that rapes women in their sleep. A 1997 direct mailer from Weight Watchers featuring Sarah Ferguson, with a caption stating that losing weight was "harder than outrunning the paparazzi," appeared in mailboxes in the days before and following the death of Ferguson's former sister-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales, an incident in which paparazzi were at the time suspected to have played a role. The company quickly pulled the ads.Fergie Ads Pulled by Weight Watchers An April 2002 Starbucks ad featured twin cups of their Tazo drinks with the caption "Collapse into cool" and an airborne dragonfly, imagery and wording which reminded many of the recent 9/11 attacks. Though the ads were created before the attacks and the resemblance was coincidental, the company apologized and pulled the posters.Starbucks' 'Collapse into Cool' Campaign In 2005 the electronics company Nintendo brought to market in South Korea an electronic dictionary for children named Touch Dic; it was subsequently renamed Touch Dictionary as the name sounded too similar to the slang term "dick." In 2006, Sony had a limited Dutch billboard campaign promoting the then-upcoming arrival of the white PlayStation Portable by featuring a black woman and white woman with respectively colored clothing and hair in confrontational poses. After accusations of racism, Sony pulled the ads.Sony ad provokes race accusations In 2008, Greyhound Canada hastily pulled the slogan "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage'" after Tim McLean was murdered and beheaded by fellow passenger Vince Weiguang Li aboard a bus in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. A Nike ad on Oscar Pistorius' website used the caption "I am the bullet in the chamber" and was pulled in 2013 after his arrest in connection with the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.'Bullet in the chamber' Nike ad pulled from Oscar Pistorius' website In 2016, Nike introduced a special edition of its Air Force 1 shoes during Chinese Lunar New Year, bearing a “發” (“be rich/prosperous”) on its left heel, and an upside down “福” (“have fortune”; additionally, “upside down”, or “倒”, is a homonym for “arrived”, or “到”) on its right heel. However, this special edition has been ridiculed in the Chinese market, because combining these two characters, or “發福”, literally means “get obese” in Chinese.
The Honda Jazz was originally named the Honda Fitta. However, when marketing collateral reached the Swedish office of the company, it was pointed out that is a vulgar slang term for "vagina" in Swedish and Norwegian. The model was renamed "Jazz" for most markets, with the name "Fit" being used in Japan, China, and the Americas.Fitta blev dyr affär för Honda Similarly, Mitsubishi found that the name of its Pajero model was the same as the Spanish term for "wanker"; likewise, the name of the Toyota MR2, when spoken in French, bore an uncomfortable phonetic similarity to the French word , meaning "shit." German manufacturer Audi launched the e-tron electric car sub-brand in concept cars in 2009 and in production models in 2018, despite the French word "étron" meaning "crap." Hyundai Kona, a compact SUV made by Hyundai, means "Hyundai is facing agonizing death" or "Hyundai is dying" in Polish. "Kona" itself sounds like "konak" (erection) in Indonesian or "cona" (vagina) in Portuguese, although Hyundai Kona was phased out in Indonesia and replaced by Hyundai Creta instead and the Korean Automaker sold the Kona nameplate as Kauai in several countries. In 2020, the Renault Arkana SUV was renamed Renault Mégane Conquest in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, after the local Renault subsidiary objected to the similarity with the nickname of Serbian mobster and warlord Željko Ražnatović "Arkan". Earlier unfortunate car model name choices that were not rectified include Alfa Romeo MiTo (mito means "bribe" in several South Slavic languages) and Ford Kuga ("bubonic plague"). A name given by IKEA's Chinese website for its stuffed wolf toy Lufsig, Lo Mo Sai (路姆西), contained a homophone of Hai (閪), a profane Cantonese word meaning "vagina"; the name itself could be written as Lo Mo Hai (老母閪), meaning "mother's vagina."McBain, Sophie (10 December 2013). "How Lufsig the cuddly wolf became a Hong Kong protest symbol – A short lesson in the art of mistranslating names into Chinese." The New Statesman. Swiss beverage brand Schweppes were quick to pull a campaign in Italy promoting its Indian tonic water under the name "Il water", which means "the toilet" in Italian slang. The name "Tonica" was chosen instead. Ayds diet suppressant candy, which had existed for decades prior, continued to use this phonetically identical brand name through the 1980s, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic continued to grow. In 1985–1986, use of the name was in fact defended by executives of the company that manufactured it, as a boon to sales. Sales eventually plummeted, and the product name was changed in 1988–1989. In 2011, an internal leak of the Dell Latitude ST tablet (codenamed Peju) spread virally on the internet and received some attention in Indonesia, since means sperm in Indonesian slang. In 2012, a clothing store named "Hitler" opened in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The store immediately became embroiled in an international controversy over its association with the German Nazi-era leader, Adolf Hitler. Kiri cheese, produced by Bel Group, was rebranded as "Kibi" in Iran because of the derogatory meaning of in Persian for male genitalia and rotten or rank. Microsoft's Lumia brand translates to prostitute in Spanish, but it is an uncommon word with Romani roots. Apple's Siri personal assistant pronunciation in Japan as "shiri" translates to buttocks, and in Indonesia, siri translates to "de facto (unregistered) marriage". The World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view event Elimination Chamber carries a different name in Germany, "No Escape", in order to avoid associations with the Holocaust. In 2019, Mushkegowuk Council Grand Chief told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that Heinz's latest 'Mayochup' product (a portmanteau of mayonnaise and ketchup) means "shit-face" in Cree. The incident went viral on Twitter. In 2019, Kontool, a BI software based in Germany, decided to use another name in Indonesia since Kontool sounds like kontol (penis) in Indonesian slang. In 2020, Bank Artos renamed itself into Bank Jago. It went viral in Indonesia, since pronunciation of Bank Jago is similar to bang jago (an ad hominem rhetorical tactic in Indonesian slang to end any argument in a passive-aggressive way). After the 2017 Boston Marathon, participants received an email from Adidas. The subject line read, "Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!", wording which reminded many of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. A public apology soon followed. Telaso, a brand for various products, is an expletive on Southern and Western Sulawesi language which means smegma. Phanteks, a Dutch PC chassis manufacturer. Although Phanteks should be pronounced as "fan-techs," Indonesian people pronounce it as "Panteks," (pronounced as "pun-techs"), where Pantek is an expletive in Sumatran Malay (Minangkabau, Ocu, Palembang, Pasisi, etc.) and the Maduranese language, meaning "fuck you." Sangean, a Taiwanese consumer electronic brand, means "too easy to sexually arouse" in Indonesian slang. ITIL, an IT activities, and Itel Mobile, a mobile phone manufacturer, means vulva in Indonesian. BEGO, a dental health industry, GoBlog, a content management system written in Golang, and Daihatsu Be‣go, crossover made by Daihatsu which means retarded in Indonesian slang. MeMeX, a darknet search engine which sounds similar with memek (vagina) in Indonesian slang. In 2008, Esia, an Indonesian fixed-wireless CDMA carrier launched Esia Bispak, a service when Esia users can try various GSM carrier tariff to make informed decisions and benchmarks against Esia's tariff. However, the service itself received backlash for two reasons: first, it worsened the carrier tariff war, since it implies that GSM's tariff are more expensive than Esia's; second, the name of the service has a misogynistic nature, since bispak itself means slut/female prostitute in Indonesian pejoratives. Also in 2008, Ikea released a brown rug called Hoven, which in Czech means "shits." It was later renamed and the original Hoven version was discounted, resulting in a sign announcing "shits on sale."
The internet The rise of the internet has provided new ways for marketers to interact with the public. The resultant seemingly trial-and-error attempts to capitalize on new technologies have resulted in some of the most public brand blunders in recent memory.