GARMINMARKETRESEARCH

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Here’s an example about how language is one of the most important tools when trying to create a marketing campaign

Pepsi entered China in 1981 and it tried to match Coca-Cola huge success in the Chinese market, nevertheless they made an important marketing mistake when they launched their company in China with the slogan “Pepsi brings you back to life” (their usual slogan back in the US) they never realized it was not going to be translated the same to Chinese than what they were aiming for, mainly because when the slogan got translated it came off with a different meaning; the new Chinese slogan was “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”.

China as many other eastern countries have a big impact about ancestor worship as part of their culture.

Whenever you enter a new country there are many important things you can’t overlook, such as history, culture, present situations and problems, language, among many others. If I had been the head of the marketing campaign during that time, I would have made sure to study completely the country first. During 1981 there wasn’t the accessibility we have today in which we are just a click away from any kind of information and we can read and learn everything from any given country, but that’s not an excuse for not making a proper market research.

Being Pepsi-Co a big company with an extensive history in the US, they easily could have hired any number of translators or local people to help them create a proper translation, so they wouldn’t offend anyone,

An important thing to understand is that each country is unique and with different cultures and traditions, you can’t simply expect to have the same success in China with the same marketing campaign you had success in the United States

I would have made a different campaign based on China´s culture, instead of having a campaign that promotes a Pepsi generation and how its main drink can help you throughout a difficult day by “bringing you back to life” and getting lost in translation whilst offending an entire culture, I´d rather prefer to conduct a research on what does Chinese people are striving for in a soda company, maybe they aren’t interested in a refreshing soda, maybe they want something different and innovative as Coca-Cola when it entered the Chinese market.

How this dire situation could have been avoided?

As I mentioned before Pepsi could have just hired some Chinese translators to validate that the slogan wasn’t going to get distorted once they have launched the campaign, they could have made a focus group with different people from Asian countries, so they could look the marketing development, and ask them for their opinions and suggestions. And for a more a more unique approach Pepsi-Co could have created a whole new Chinese department with local and qualified people to overlook every step of the marketing campaign and so resting assured that they wouldn’t commit any wrongs or mistakes during the whole campaign

REFERENCE LIST:

Sibley, A. (2018). 8 of the Biggest Marketing Mistakes We've Ever Seen. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33396/8-of-the-biggest-marketing-faux-pas-of-all-time.aspx [Accessed 1 Nov. 2018].

Zakkour, M. (2018). China's Golden Week - A Good Time To Make Sure You Don't 'Bite The Wax Tadpole'. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelzakkour/2014/10/02/chinas-national-day-golden-week-a-good-time-to-make-sure-you-dont-bite-the-wax-tadpole/#33d3a3a3560f [Accessed 1 Nov. 2018].

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