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Localisation Faux Pas (Archive)
February 2003 |
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When the soft drink Coca-Cola was released in the Chinese market, the name Coca-Cola was initially rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" (depending on the dialect) until thousands of signs had been printed. As a result, Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, "Ko-kou-ko-le," which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth." (Adapted from: International Cyber Business Services, Inc. Brand Naming: "Even Coke Can Get It Wrong", by By Colin Bates - http://www.icbs.com/KB/kb_brand-naming.htm) |
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