There’ve been some really bad marketing decisions made by really wealthy companies. For example: Pepsi, when they were doing their “taste of a new generation” campaign, had it translated into Chinese and it (according to article I read waaaaaay back then) came out as “brings your ancestors back from the dead.” Not a terribly popular sentiment, as it turned out.
Microsoft also had a run in with the Chinese language: Microsoft doesn’t translate well – it came out “small and squishy.” It was, therefore a brand or label that most Chinese men were too embarrassed even to hold in their hand (this was when software was still a physical box you purchased in a physical store… believe it or not).
Or Intel, when they were searching for a new name for their new processor settled on “Pentium” which certainly made simple and easy sense as it was, in fact, their 5th major processor line. What happened though is that apparently not a single person on the board or in product development paused to ask what the next number/name in that series would be. “Sextium” as it turned out, was deemed inappropriate. They even tried to sue the consultant who gave them Pentium as a name. Here’s the kicker: “penta” is 5 in Greek, but “sex” is not 6 in Greek — that’s Latin! They could easily have gone to “Hexium,” “Heptium,” “Octium” etc… in their product names. Instead we have dozens or maybe 100’s of separate products all called (more or less) “Pentium.” Bad decision, yes, but not the one they thought they had made!(1)
You’d think such incredibly wealthy companies could have afforded a bilingual / native speaker to consult with them on such matters.
Here’s the really bad one, though. The truly awful marketing decision.
Around 1967 (plus or minus) “Detroit” (by which I mean simply the big auto makers of the time) had worked out a nifty little piece of electronics that would help to prevent collisions of the “rear end” sort. You know, running into the car in front of you. I presume it was simply an alarm that sounded, not something that applied brakes and such, as that sort of technology wasn’t really there yet at that time, but that was never divulged that I know of.
The cool news was that it was only about $20 worth of parts(2).
The bad part was that marketing (so the story went) refused the idea. They said, because of the added perceived value they’d have had to raise the price of each car so equipped by $1,000! [$1,000 in 1967 is approx $7,700 in 2020 USD.] This would make the cars unaffordble. So marketing said.
The really awful part of this is how many rear end collisions, injuries and even fatalities in all the decades since then might have been prevented or minimized by this $20 gadget that would have “had to sell for $1,000?”
Who takes the blame for that? Is there any blame for that? By what rule or calculation was that $1,000 value-added arrived at, concerning $20 worth of extra parts? Did anybody at that / those companies ever have bad nights sweating over the ethics around this one?
Bad decisions, from companies who could certainly afford to hire some outside viewpoints on each of these, yet seemingly they didn’t.(3)
You might want to start selecting the companies you hold stock with (if you have any, or if you have any managed investments that do) and buy products from on their ethics and their evident intelligence. “Small and Squishy” should certainly have known better, and so should every lawyer in Detroit. As for a board of major executives who can’t even count to ten in Latin or Greek, and probably to this day have no idea how much of their own ignorance they were displaying there… well, let’s just call that point sufficiently ground in now and move on, yes?
I wonder what the next software from Small and Squishy will be like?
(1) Proof that holding a Harvard Biz Degree doesn’t make you well educated. It used to indicate that, but the general ed portion of any advanced degree has become increasingly ineffective over the years. Of course, I am assuming that the heads of Intel held such or similar degrees — “Harvard” being to me more like saying “Xerox” when you mean copy. Substitute any business degree from any top-of-the-line school. Even if they don’t give you a grounding in the two languages the modern world inherits so very much from. Go figure…
(2) To the best of my recollection
(3) Or maybe the companies did, but the outside viewpoints [consultants] ended up only telling the companies what they wanted to hear, which outside consultants too often are wont to do, especially if they wish to ever be rehired.