Sunday, 8 March 2009

Oops - Another International Marketing Mistake

Last week, rw3 read "International Marketing Mistakes" in Quest 2 (Hartmann, 2007, p. 5-6); as I was browsing the BBC News website over my morning coffee just now, I saw another neat example in "Button gaffe embarrasses Clinton" (2009). As you will see when you read the report, it all turned out well apart from a little embarrassment for US Secretary of State Clinton. If the highest levels of the US government can make such seemingly simple mistakes, it's not surprising that others do. 

And a question or two (there is often a question or two):
  • What was Clinton marketing?
  • What was the mistake? 
  • How did the mistake occur?
  • How serious was it? 
Has anyone else come across similar examples of international marketing mistakes lately? Please feel welcome to blog any other examples that you've read or heard about lately. If possible, include a reference so that we can read the original source of your example. 

References
Button gaffe embarrasses Clinton. (2009, March 8). BBC News. Retrieved March 9, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7930047.stm 
Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill ESL/ELT

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5 comments:

  1. Peter.AUA8 March 2009 at 11:56

    It's nice having my morning coffee at 11:00 AM instead of the usual 5:30 AM.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Soojin9 March 2009 at 00:31

    Wow, it is very interesting news.kkkkk It is funny. Also in Korea, one western foreigner got a similar mistake in famous radio show. He has learned Korean several years, and as audience listened, his sound seemed to be very good. The pronounciation was almost perfect. He also made a poem in Korean. The host and many audiences astonished his saying, and the host asked to read his poem in Korean. The time was New Year day, so he said about New year in his poem. Korean is mixed with Chinese letter, so the sound of original Korean,year, is "Hae", but the sound of Chinese letter in Korean is "Neon".(The letter is 年 in Chinese.) Actually, in Korea, "Neon" is a vulgar expression, indicating a pronoun of women. Therefore, usually, though the "Neon" means year, Korean avoid to use the sound "Neon". At that time, the western man study hard Korean, and also know well Chinese letter and the sound of them in Korean. So, in the poem, he said "Neon" very much. He would like to said that "Old year passed and New Year is coming". But the meaning can be that "Old bitch passed, and New bitch is coming". Many people were very embrassed his poem.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peter.AUA9 March 2009 at 05:39

    Soojin,
    Thanks for sharing that example. I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. An_lma13 March 2009 at 13:35

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. An_lma13 March 2009 at 13:37

    this's so funny, but they could cope very well in this situation.

    ReplyDelete

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