5 Cross-Cultural Marketing Blunders!

Culture, of course, plays an integral role in the marketing mix. Being able to understand the cultural norms of a target market can make or break a brand. Naturally, companies know this and put a lot of time and resources into researching new markets, but sometimes…they don't. Without doing proper consumer research and pilot studies, marketers can make potentially disastrous mistakes that result in damaging consequences for the brand. Sometimes blunders can be rather humorous, but other times they can be a PR nightmare.

What happens when marketers fail to understand cultures different from their own? Let's take a look at 5 cross-cultural marketing blunders!

1. Pepsico, when promoting Pepsi to the Chinese market, used the slogan "Come Alive with Pepsi." Sadly for Pepsico, the ad campaign only confused consumers. Why? Instead of "Come Alive with Pepsi", the phrase was translated as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead."

2. Tesco, a London grocery store chain, came under fire for what many referred to as "insensitive marketing." Employees at Tesco set up a "Ramadan Mubarak" or "Blessed Ramadan" display box for a popular Pringles flavor: Smokey Bacon. Clearly Tesco seemed to forget that any form of Pork is prohibited in Islamic diets. Surprisingly, Bacon + Ramadan turned out to be a pretty bad marketing move.

3. FIAT was alienated from the Chinese market when they launched a commercial featuring an actor, Richard Gere, driving to Tibet. Gere is not very popular with the Chinese public due to his outspoken support for the Dali Lama and Chinese viewers took offense to the advert. So much so, that many vowed to never purchase a FIAT.

4. The hair company Clariol, introduced a product called "Mist Stick" that was popular in North American markets. When they tried to advertise it in Germany, the product didn't seem to do as well… it turns out that "mist" sometimes means manure in German. Safe to say, no one wanted to go around smelling like manure.

5. Procter & Gamble (yes, even marketing giant P&G makes mistakes!) had a popular commercial in Europe that featured a woman in the bath and her husband coming in to caress her. They decided to run this commercial in Japan too, but soon took it off the air because the Japanese found it to be crass and inappropriate behavior.