International Trade

International Marketing Mistakes

May 2008
The Chartered Institute of Marketing

The mistakes of international marketing have passed into urban myth. Every marketer can recount the story of the car brand Nova that means ‘doesn’t go’ in Spanish. Or the product whose packaging was painstakingly translated into polish and bombed because after years of communism, what Polish shoppers wanted were goods that looked as if they came from the west. But there is more to international marketing than making sure that your brand name isn’t a rude word in German.

Understanding the market is of course important whether one is trying to sell in a new county or on a new continent. But while it may be dangerous to assume that tastes are the same in New Malden and Newcastle, when moving into territories even further from home, these assumptions will be even more hazardous.

While with some relatively straight forward desk research it is possible to get to grips with obvious differences such as language issues, distribution methods or the types of advertising media that are available, but stepping outside one’s own cultural frame of reference is not always easy. We are all the centre of our own universe, and prejudices and pre-conceptions can cloud judgement. Many of the business decisions that can lead to success in the UK are based on hunches that are correct because we are immersed in the culture in which we operate. A colour that has one significance in a particular culture, for example could mean something completely different in another, while the way consumers shop and the way they make choices will vary widely. Taking it for granted that the same rules apply in international marketing can lead to costly disaster.

The economy, the political and social situation, the culture and... continued on page two >

 

 

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