Will They Ever Think First?

[youngmafbog]

Car makers never seem to think before naming a car, the funniest being Vauxhauls Nova - doesn't go in Spanish but here Kia have dropped a right clanger

http://news.sky.com/story/1060546/kias-provo-car-model-angers-unionist-mps

[ludwig]

It's not easy naming things. So many different languages and meanings for things that aren't even proper words, like provo.

I don't the slogan 'The future's bright the future's orange' went down well with some people in NI either.

[emmie]

perhaps the Koreans were not aware of the meaning of the word...

[Zeuhl]

The old Triumph Acclaim translated into German as Sieg Heil

Allegedly ...

I expect the nuances of Irish para military history will be of little interest to people in most of Kia's markets.

I'd be disappointed though if Kia UK hadn't expressed some reservations.

[DTCwordfan]

Shell "Helix" and she sucks.

[Zeuhl]

It sort of happens in reverse too

The people at Lay-z-boy must have been really upset when someone broke the news about Thai transsexuals

And I wonder if the writers of Red Dwarf ever had a call from lawyers representing a certain European white goods manufacturer?

[Bazile]

It's a minefield

http://www.i18nguy.com/translations.html

[Old_Geezer]

If you are to market in a foreign country the onus is on you to discuss with the natives whether any of your proposed names may be an error. No excuses.

No doubt they'll change the name, but if they don't do so globally it may still leave a "nasty taste in the mouths" of those who would otherwise have been customers, but now won't touch your product with a bargepole.

[Zeuhl]

/No doubt they'll change the name/

I bet they don't

The only place it would cause any comment is NI - which is an insignificant share of their business plan.

UK? USA? It would only register with a small minority of the market

[Old_Geezer]

Oh it'll register with most in the UK. Unsure about the US, they might like it anyway. But what cost to rebadge something anyway ? Less than throwing away the market.

[Hopkirk]

You can have different names in different countries.

The Ford Cortina was the Ford Taunus in Europe.
The VW Golf was the VW Fox in the USA.

[jake-the-peg]

Quite a narrow band of offence as things go

MR2 in france was pronounced 'MRdeux' or Meurde

And isn't Pinto Spanish for 'little penis'?

[Hopkirk]

It doesn't take much to make an Irishman angry

[Zeuhl]

/But what cost to rebadge something anyway ?/

hundreds of thousands at least!

in printed collaterals, marketing campaigns, websites, videos and any cinema/TV films

They'd have to sacrifice a lot more than NI sales to make it worthwhile

Hopkirk's right, they could have a different name in UK/Ireland

Or turn it into a marketing campaign - launch a Provo model (in green obviously) and a UDF model (in orange)

[Baldric]

Got a bit of a mention yesterday

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ChatterBank/Question1222257.html

[Old_Geezer]

How could have a different name in UK/Ireland if they don't rebadge it :-)

[emmie]

why would you call a car provoke anyway, they do come up with some daft names.

[Hopkirk]

Factories can pump out vehicles with different badges.

EG the Luton van plant pumps out vans with Vauxhall and Opel on. At one time they were also pumping ot Renaults and Nissans, but I don't know if that is still true.

[Zeuhl]

Indeed OG

they'd not only need to do that (just for a fraction of the global market) but also make fundamental changes to all the brochures, POS and other sales and marketing materials.

They are usually designed and part produced centrally for translated body text/voice overs to be added in different territories

A change to the model name would screw all that up.

[emmie]

as much as i liked the Ford Ka i could see the confusion, bloke says to his friend, I have just bought a Ford, friends says what's it called, friend says it's a Ka, friends thinks he's taking the proverbial, sort of conversation that would have suited the two ronnies.

[emmie]

if you see what i mean,