You believe you have the "can't lose" idea.  You even pat yourself on the back because of how brilliant you think the latest marketing campaign turned out.  You just know customers are going to love it! Be careful!  Even the biggest and "best" companies run afoul when they get too confident or do not actually test their campaign ideas on customers first.

Back a few months ago we ran six of the top "Marketing Goes Wrong" examples we could find.  This is our next installment of marketing goofs to avoid and your chance to learn from others. 

1. Holiday spirit takes a vacation.
During the run-up to Christmas, the North Shore Mall in Peabody, Mass., denied children access to Santa's lap unless their parents presented up $21 for a photo first. Or at least that seemed to be the rule until Maria Grigorian and her weeping child were turned away because the single mother couldn't afford to pay. After Grigorian tips off local TV reporters, the mall stated it always had a no-charge Santa policy and claimed the incident was a simple misunderstanding.

2. How to answer when you have no answer
"If there's a burglar in my home, maybe I send an e-mail or a text message to the police instead of making a call."
-- Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, on his VOIP service's lack of 911 access.

3. If it ain't broke, don't fix it
Several McDonald's around the country have been outsourcing drive-through functions to remote call centers staffed by "professional order-takers" with "very strong communication skills." Says CEO Jim Skinner, "If you're in L.A. and you hear a person with a North Dakota accent taking your order, you'll know what we're up to."  (And you thought outsourcing only applied to technology.)

4. You say "to-ma-toe" I say "to-ma-to"
A carmakers' lobbying group runs an ad featuring a photo of a child in a car seat with copy that states, "Autos manufactured today are virtually emission-free." When called on the claim, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers says the ad refers to emissions classified as pollutants by the EPA, not greenhouse-gas emissions, which have risen more than 13 percent since 1990. The Union of Concerned Scientists counters with an ad that shows a buckled-in baby holding a cigarette and the headline: "If today's cars are 'virtually emission-free' ... then so is this cigarette."

5. Did she think they would sell more?
Note, the literal translation of the Spanish word cajeta is "little box."
With the help of Latin pop sensation Thalia Sodi, Hershey introduces Cajeta Elegancita, a new candy bar for the Hispanic market. Though the wrapper features a picture of Sodi, apparently she neglects to fill her Hershey partners in on a subtlety of Spanish: In Mexico, "cajeta" can be used to mean "nougat." Elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world, however, it's slang for female anatomy.

6. Timing is everything
According to TravelBiz.com.au in April, 2003 the Hong Kong Tourist Board tried to either pull their ads or change their slogan. But it was too late.  The campaign was already on billboards throughout Hong Kong and in British versions of Cosmopolitan and Conde Nast Traveller.
The slogan: "Hong Kong: It will take your breath away."
(Unfortunately, this coincided with the SARS epidemic that resulted in numerous deaths. Shortness of breath is one of the main symptoms of SARS. )

7. What ARE you selling?
-Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose" into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea".
-The Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux tried to sell its goods in America but didn't help itself with this slogan, "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."
-In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.

8. The U.S. school system must have a worse reputation than we thought.
Nike had a television commercial for hiking shoes that was shot in Kenya using Samburu tribesmen. The camera closes in on the one tribesman who speaks, in native Maa. As he speaks, the Nike slogan "Just do it" appears on the screen.  An incredulous anthropologist from the University of Cincinnati, pointed out to those he knew and eventually Nike, that the Kenyan is really saying, "I don't want these. Give me big shoes." Nike's response from spokesperson Elizabeth Dolan, "We thought nobody in America would know what he said."  (From an article in Forbes magazine.)

9. Who needs research?  We know exactly what we're doing.  Just look at our past success!
Samarin is a Swedish over-the-counter remedy for upset stomachs. (Like Alka-Seltzer.) A few years back they used ads that looked like comic strips with no text. There were three pictures. The first was a man looking sick, grasping his stomach.  On the second picture he drank a glass of Samarin and on the third picture he was smiling again. The ad campaign was a success in Europe. However, when the company ran the ad in Arabic-speaking newspapers they did not do well. Probably because the people in those countries read from right to left.

Have a Marketing Goof you'd like to pass on?  Drop us a line by clicking here...

Brought to you by Samantha Rufo, President of nxtConcepts