Know-How Exchange : Branding

hi Kathy

MNC Brands have to adjust themselves to the Chinese market in order to succeed there. This adjustment may range from packaging to proper translation of the brand name in chinese language(proper alphabet usage), to matching the taste of chinese people (less sugar consumption) to suitable marketing communication to reach consumers etc.

in short, if you are NOT from china then you HAVE to understand "China" first and then enter in the market.

let me share some example of famous marketing blunders MNCs have made in China

1. The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, "ko-kou-ko-le," which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth."

2. Pepsi adopted very dark blue in Japan while Pepsi China use very light blue in their product labels, vending machines, and coolers. Tronically Pepsi lost it dominant market share to Coke in South East Asia when Pepsi changed the color of its vending machines and coolers from deep "Regal" blue to light "Ice" blue as Light blue is associated with death and mourning in SE Asia.

3. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave," in Chinese.

4. Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off."

you can check the following links, you will get wealth of information on marketing blunders....

https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=3322#22976

hope that helps.

cheers!!

also check this link to a similar question asked here in this forum..

https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstid=5120

cheers!!