Intercultural Knowledge in Marketing

How many articles have you seen enlistening "funny" marketing blunders not taking note of some local sensitivity or other? How COULD they possibly call the car Boobie, when everybody knows that in the local Thai dialect this has a double entendre...etc etc.

After all that tediousness here's a real corker, though:

Domino's Pizza, the British take away pizza franchise operation, opened in Germany and found.... that it wasn't popular. Not totally surprising, is it?


One profit warning later, the CEO maintains that stores had now got the hang of it and "understood the German consumer". Maybe they should have done a little more intercultural research before plunging into a market that - no doubt- they thought would be profitable purely on the size of its population. ("80 million Germans, Barry.. we goddagun for it!!")

FACT: In Germany, even a small village will have a local pizzeria. Well established, Italian family-run, producing top-quality pizzas of any size, description and flavour. And of course they will drive them round for free. In towns, there will be one of those every two blocks away from where you live. There is such a vast choice, such speedy reliable service, and most people will  oben very familar terms with their local pizza deliverer, having used their services for years.

Might it not have been an idea to look into this very obvious and well-known scenario before plunging in with the dubious promise of an English company offering such tantalising options as "Meateor" with a mouth watering description such as: "A slice (?) with pork meatballs, ground beef, sausage and bacon".

Appealing to the German consumer who the company claims it knows so well? Laugh out loud as they say in intercultural marketing.



FT article on the subject
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6f25159a-e3d0-11e2-b35b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2aQBIk0c1

I'm a Pronunciation Snob

I know it's wrong. And yet I can't help it. It's made worse by the fact that I hold language learning in such high esteem. I never miss an opportunity to tell people "just get on with it - doesn't matter if you're not perfect, just do it" - the usual enlightened stuff.

But. But.But. The truth is - I cannot abide bad pronunciation. Sorry, but I think in most cases it's just laziness. Treating a foreign language like your own, not making an effort with different vowel sounds, intonation, pitch - why should one nod sagely, and say "You're perfect"?

Especially as it isn't very difficult. Just listen and listen and listen. Like you would to music. In fact, listening to music sung in a different language is the best way of picking up the pronunciation. I can pronounce Italian well because I listened to "Azzurro" billions of times in my youth and took it from there. Maybe nothing to be proud of musically, but it sets you up. Listen to Beatles songs - not once or twice, but all day long til you find yourself singing along - and your English pronunciation will benefit so much! It's the next best thing to living in the country itself.

Most people make the mistake thinking it's all about picking up the current slang. In fact there is nothing sadder (or funnier) than listening to a foreigner talking street but with their homely accent firmly in place.

First set yourself the target of getting the pronunciation totally and absolutely pitch-perfect, then turn your mind to the lingo of the day!

Listen to a single word over and over again til it swirls round your head all day - you'll never forget it, and it will trigger off a "pronunciation memory bank".

And never get bogged down with too much grammar stuff - proper native pronunciation is the mainstay of learning a language -everything else can (and will) come automatically. But it is very hard to lose a foreign accent if you let it hang around. So remember when you first set out learning a new language - get the music going!