Make Sure You Catch The Mistakes

I assume that you've all heard the classic examples of translation errors like:

The Pepsi slogan 'Come alive with the Pepsi Generation' was marketed in Taiwan, but had undesired effects when it was found that it had been translated as 'Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.'

Kentucky Fried Chicken, with the slogan 'finger-lickin' good' translated it out to 'eat your fingers off.'

In Miami, a T-shirt manufacturer hoped to celebrate the Pope's arrival by selling T-shirts in Spanish. It was translated, but didn't sell. Later, they discovered that the word Pope (El Papa) was translated as (La Papa). So the shirt said 'I saw the potato'.

The Jolly Green Giant translated into Arabic means 'Intimidating Green Ogre.' That Sounds Yummy.

Clairol created a new appliance called the 'Mist Stick'. The problem arose, however, when it was marketed in Germany. The word 'mist' in German means manure. Not many women wanted to use the manure stick in their hair.

Gerber marketed much of it's baby food in Africa with pictures of little babies on the labels, just like in America. The problem...In Africa, many people can't read. So the labels have pictures showing what's inside the container. Oops...big mistake.

Frank Purdue, the man who likes to sell chicken, had a favorite saying, 'It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken'. Unfortunately, the translation was not as meaningful, but very powerful, 'It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate'.

Whether these are myths or truths we many never know. But either way, they serve as great examples of stupid mistakes marketers make.

So what happened?! Who was watching the final product?! Who cut corners?! I bet they were angry and somewhat embarrassed when these came out.

Unfortunately, there are many mistakes that we can (and sometimes do) make in the PR/marketing world.

So what exactly can you do to better the odds to favor you? If you can avoid certain mistakes early, you will certainly have a much better chance of being favorably noticed. Let's take press releases for instance. Here are some tips to keep you out of hot water:

-- One of biggest sins you can make is to not verify information. It's amazing how often something that "everybody knows is true" in an organization (the competition's product can't do x) became common knowledge after someone speculated about it in a meeting ("as far as I know, the competition's product can't do x, but I'll check and get back to you"), which gets repeated over and over until all qualifiers are removed and everyone believes that it is true. In reality, it may or may not be true.

Another place where inaccuracies creep into press releases is in information that should have been verified ("when did we first start selling in Sweden?" isn't because of deadlines.

While the second won't get you sued, the first may. That's why we recommend that all press releases get passed by legal counsel *before* being issues, certainly any with any sort of competitive claim. You'd be amazed at the things that a good lawyer will catch that you simply read through in all 39 proofreading sessions. They've kept me out of hot water many times.

-- Always always always double check the contact information on the release. I suggest actually calling the phone numbers on the release to make sure they're accurate. It's embarrassing for you and for the potential media people when the info comes out incorrect.

I still remember the first time I ever bought an 800 number. I signed up for it because I had to run it in an ad. 10 minutes later, the ad was sent off to the magazine. Unfortunately, I hadn't called the 800 number to verify it. Long story short - my ad ran to 3 million people, most of whom, I'm sure tried to call the number to order, only to find that it went to somewhere else. And the worst part? The number actually rang at one of my clients. How embarrassing!

-- Consider writing different releases for different media outlets. That way you can tailor the individual release to certain segments of your audience or the media's audience.

-- Your first paragraph is the lead. This the part that needs to be engaging and catch their attention. Because this is read first, it needs to have the 5 w's in there. Some media people have no time to read, some have less time than that. They need to have the basic information in hand to be able to make a decision about whether to pursue it or not.

While these mistakes may not be huge embarrassing sins, they certainly will keep you out of the possibilities of getting in the media arena.

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Tags: Press Releases