International Marketing

There are several blunders that have occurred with respect to international marketing. Some come under the category of basic linguistic misunderstanding, but others are more catastrophic in nature, causing offense in addition to costing the company sales. In some cases, the blunder gets back to the home market and does damage there, as was the experience that Nestle had in Africa. This report will outline some of the blunders of the past and how international marketers can avoid these sorts of blunders in the future.

Blunders

Some international marketing blunders are simply issues of translation, or mistranslation. Google Translate does not get the job done -- languages vary from region to region, and international marketers can get caught by idioms and slang very easily. An obvious example was when Chevy launched the Nova in Mexico in the 70s. "No va," in Spanish, of course means "doesn't go," probably...
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