Erik Qualman's Blog, page 692

13 Marketing Translations gone wrong

With advances in technology and social media, Word of Mouth has truly gone to World of Mouth.  Many companies centralize their global Facebook and Twitter efforts.  This has huge advantages, but it's also imperative to

Got Milk translated into Are You Lactating?

have involvement at the local level; from people who truly understand the market nuances and language. We live in a global economy and so it's imperative that we understand our world. Below are thirteen (an unlucky number in some countries) examples of marketing translations gone wrong:

1.    The wildly successful "Got Milk" campaign from The Dairy Association when used in Mexico brought a lot of attention also: "Are You Lactating?"

2.    Coors Brewing slogan "Turn it loose" when converted to Spanish means "Suffer from diarrhea" — uh…I think I'll just have an orange juice please.

3.    Clairol launched a curling iron called "Mist Stick" in Germany.  Mist in German is slang for manure. It turns out manure sticks aren't very popular in Germany.

4.    Matsushita and Panasonic were to launch a computer with an Internet browser in Japan.  They were going to run a large marketing campaign using the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker.  The campaign was put on hold when an American employee realized the translation was "Touch Woody – The Internet Pecker." This is very bad in American slang.

5.    Gerber kept the image of its smiley baby on their jars and packages when they entered the African market.  Only later did they realize, as a result of the low African literacy rate, many companies in Africa used pictures on labels to denote what's inside.

6.    Pepsi in China translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life." The slogan in Chinese literally means, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave."

7.    Colgate launched toothpaste in France under the brand name Cue, unfortunately that is the same name as an ill-famed pornographic magazine.

8.    Parker Pen in Mexico wanted its advertisements to parlay "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." Instead, the company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant." I guess it all depends on what you want out of a pen.

9.    Frank Perdue's line, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," is a bit different in Spanish — "It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate."

10. Latte means Milk in Italy.  In English Latte is a coffee-drink and it's popularity increased with the growth of Starbucks.  However if you are in Germany you may be careful what you order with your breakfast. A "morning latte" in German slang is when you wake up in the morning with an erection.

11.  Braniff International Airways wanted to highlight "Fly in Leather" but instead in Spanish came out as "Fly Naked."

12.  Electrolux, a Scandinavian vacuum cleaner, used the following in the U.S.: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

13.  Pepsi lost market share in Southeast Asia when it change its vending machines from deep blue to light blue.  Light blue is a symbol of death and mourning in Southeast Asia. I guess soda is worse than we thought for you.

Any that we missed?  Please let us know your favorites.

[image error]

100 Million on LinkedIn – Infographic by Country

Above infographic was supplied by Vincenzo Consenza who also points out:

Today LinkedIn, the most popular professional social network, has reached the mark of 100 million members worldwide, according to its own advertising tool. It's growth rate is increasing: in october 2009 user base was 50 million, in May 2010 jumped to 70 million.

56% of users are outside United States. Top countries are: U.S.A., India, U.K and Brazil. Among European countries the most active are: The Netherlands, France and Italy.

61% of members are men. Both users between 25-34 and 35-54 years old are 36%, while 18-24 years old are 21%.

The most represented industries are hi-tech (17%), finance (14%) and manufacturing (10%), while sales (12%), academics (10%), administrative (10%) are the most common job functions.

[image error]

Motivational Speaker: Social Media Keynote Oslo

Erik recently gave the keynote speech at they digital event of the year in Norway; Web Forum 2011. The comedian MC, Åsleik Engmark, wrote this little poem which is quite humorous moments after Erik delivered his keynote. If you pay close attention you can see shout outs to James Taylor, Gary Vaynerchuk, United Breaks Guitars and the Old Spice Guy.

Erik Qualman a world web sailor,

selling social ideas to Mr. James Taylor.

A pretty tall guy with hard working skills,

cause there ain't such things as magic pills.

Just learn from Erik, and do it well,

listen – interact – react and sell!

Go for Socialnomics; go for the win,

cause according to the Pope, Facebook is not a sin.

If you want your customers to smell really nice,

promote a deodorant like that good Old Spice.

If you want your followers to come to you and stay,

start to run your videos the New Jersey wine-blog way!

We all know what to do know, if the guitar gets heavy scratches,

and a toilet beer-can shelf for hockey matches.

So when's the next book coming Erik, I'm a real fan,

thank you for enlightening us…Mr. Equalman!!

Erik Qualman delivers motivational keynote on social media

[image error]

Homeless Radio Announcer with Golden Voice

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

He's known as the homeless man with the golden voice.  Ted Williams, a recovering alcoholic and cocaine addict has been given a second chance; thanks to exposure on YouTube.

A local Cleveland Station will be using Williams to do voice-over work for the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Quicken Loans has also agreed to give Williams a house mortgage free.  Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert founded Quicken Loans.

Great to see a social media site like YouTube giving a homeless man with a golden voice a second chance at life.

 

[image error]

Life Expectancy Study: 1 in 5 will live to be over 100

As we post on Twitter, Facebook we are leaving our digital footprints and fingerprints everywhere.  A recent study that David Leon highlights shows we will have more time to leave our mark.

Life Expectancy: 1 in 5 will see 100

1 out of 5 born in 2011 will live over 100 years
Average Life in U.S. Male 75.92 and Female 80.93

I wonder what will be the "New Twitter" when we're all 100?  Do you think people will still smoke?

[image error]

Facebook shares are 6x stronger than Tweets

Eventbrite demonstrates Social Commerce in action; specifically the Facebook "Like" and the "Tweet"  increase ticket purchases, especially when shared after the point of purchase. Between the social networks, Facebook shares led the pack, generating an average of $2.52 while Linkedin shares were worth $0.90, and Tweets just $.0.43.  The impact of sharing via email was still strong at $2.34.

People are more likely to post to Facebook after they have purchased a ticket to an event, in order to share with their friends and family what awesome conference, party, or networking event they are planning to attend. In turn, when friends and family see this post shared, they may also purchase a ticket to the same event because if that person is attending, it must be worth checking out.

As seen below: Over the last six months, 40% of sharing through Facebook occurred on the event page (pre-purchase) vs. 60% of sharing which occurred on the order confirmation page (post-purchase).

As seen in the stats above, unfortunately for Twitter, Facebook still overshadows it in reach for sharing by almost four times the amount. Facebook to this day is still a more "social" platform where people show who they are, what they do, and where they like to go. It "mirrors" their real life. Twitter, although enormous as well and still growing, has not been adopted by as many people, just yet. Will this change with the new quirks that are coming out with "liking" something on Facebook? Will people want to "like" something when it will be shown as a "share" versus a harmless "like?" Perhaps. Perhaps not. But for now, Facebook still takes the cake on ROI on event sales and promotion via social media.

 

[image error]

5 reasons to put technology in the classroom

Below is an excerpt from Heather Wolpert-Gawron's informative article found on edutopia.org.

Arguments against technology in schools — and better ones for using it:

1. The legal issues are daunting: what if a student writes inappropriate content online? Answer: Our job is to teach them how to use the tools of the real world. After all, using a circular saw is dangerous too, but only through shop class have many students learned to build a birdhouse safely.

2. How will we train all the teachers? Answer: It's simple. Have teachers train teachers. Give teachers who know how the paid release time to be trainers during their contracted hours of those who don't know how.

3. Where does the time come from? How can we add more to a teacher's plate? Answer: How 'bout this? Don't. Instead, take something off teachers' plates rather than put more on. We have to prioritize, and including technology is too important. We can't continue to have teachers waste their time on the curricular needs of yesteryear.

4. Some students don't have access to technology at home so how can we expect them to use it for assignments? Answer: To this I say, many homes don't have libraries either, but we still teach how to read. The fact is that it's a school's job to step up to provide and instruct.

5. It's expensive. Answer: Nevertheless, we cannot afford to fall any more behind in our comfort and use of technology. Policymakers need to start backing up their demands with funds.

[image error]

Insights from Eventbrite Founder [video interview]

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

While at SXSW in Austin I had time to chat with co-founder and current CEO Kevin Bright of Eventbrite.  In a short five year period Eventbrite has been able to transact 25 million tickets through their event tools. Wow.

Social Action 4 U: Text REDCROSS to 90999 to dontate $10 to the Japan efforts

Recommended Book: Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

[image error]

Semantic Text Technology

We knew it was only a matter of time. As Chris Anderson said, we live in a world of infinite content, and finite time. Anything that can help us sift through the former and add more to the latter is going to be very well received.

Last week Mashable ran a story on Aaron Patzer, the founder of Mint.com, who is leading a round of investment in TopicMarks, a fascinating startup which has developed a semantic text technology that can analyze content (text) and extract the most important information, effectively generating a Cliffs Notes summary of everything you need to know from any document. Where was this when I was in school?

While the technology is still very new, one can't help but wonder if this type of capability is the next big thing. With so much information available to us and only so much time in the day, anything that can help us digest it more efficiently  is going to be a welcome addition.

I was brainstorming with my friend the other day on what the next "big thing" might be. When it comes to communication, I don't know how much more connected we can be, short of psychic messages. Since we can pretty much obtain content whenever we want, perhaps the next big paradigm shift may be in how we consume our content. Using Semantic Text Technology we might be able to weed through nonessential items and get to the meat of what we are after, much faster. And that of course would net us that one precious resource that is so very finite. Time.

Too bad it's not mainstream yet, you could have used it to avoid reading this entire post.

Here is a link to the full Mashable Article

 

[image error]

One-leg wrestling champion inspired by posts on Facebook [video]

Wrestler Anthony Robles raises his hands in victory, but he was a champion well before he took the mat

Anthony Robles, an Arizona State senior wrestler was  born without a right leg; but that didn't stop him from winning the NCAA title in the 125-pound weight class on Saturday.  Robles defeated Iowa  sophomore, Matt McDonough, 7-1.

 

Robles received plenty of encouragement on social media (see Twitter screens hot below) before and after his historic victory.

"I wrestle because I love wrestling," Robles told USA Today. "But it inspires me when I get kids, even adults, who write me on Facebook or send me letters in the mail saying that I've inspired them, and they look up to me, and they're motivated to do things that other people wouldn't have thought possible."

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Robles who was born without his right leg received words of encouragement throughout his wrestling career on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter

 

"I was a terrible wrestler, only about 90 pounds," Robles told USA Today, "but my mom told me God made me for a reason, and I believe that reason was for wrestling."

Social Action 4 U: Make-A-Wish Foundation

Recommended book:It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong

[image error]