Lost in translation.

When a company plans to enter an international market, its priority should be to ensure that the brand is accepted and liked by its foreign customers. As we have said before, translating idiomatic and slang expressions can be quite tricky and just to prove our point here are some examples of poor translated slogans that lost businesses thousands and thousands of pounds.

When Kentucky Fried Chicken decided to conquer Chinese market with their “finger lickin’ good” idiomatic slogan, the translation ‘‘eat your fingers off’’ didn’t go down well with the Chinese customers.

Pepsi’s initial attempts of entering the desired Chinese market were not successful either. Their slogan ‘‘Pepsi brings you back to life’’ was translated into Chinese as ‘‘Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave,’’ a promise that even Pepsi could not keep.

When attempting to enter a Spanish market, American brewing company Coors translated their slang slogan ‘‘Turn it loose’’ which means ‘‘relax, do what you want, let go’’ as ‘‘Suffer from diarrhoea.’’ It comes as no surprise, that their beer was not popular for the right reasons.