Why is it that...

yogestee wrote in post #10055917
Phil,,one can never understand the thinking of the marketing gurus.. Too many long lunch breaks me thinks!!

Hahahaha
That cracked me up.
I should have known you'd come up with something logical.

Thanks to you others as well - had few giggles from some of those.
I'd forgotten about the "Kiss" series.

Still, none of it really makes sense though.
I s'pose I should have more long lunches.

Speaking of cars, one of the most famous international marketing mistakes was the Chevy Nova. It didn't sell very well in Mexico, and GM embarked on a study. The finding? No va means "doesn't go" in Spanish.

Branding across different cultures and languages is a very tricky skill.

jruberto wrote in post #10059911
Speaking of cars, one of the most famous international marketing mistakes was the Chevy Nova. It didn't sell very well in Mexico, and GM embarked on a study. The finding? No va means "doesn't go" in Spanish.

Branding across different cultures and languages is a very tricky skill.

Well it was true. Chevy Nova's couldnt go.

TheBurningCrown wrote in post #10059369
It's marketing slang.
The rebel moniker is probably due to the stereotypical North American "cowboy" figure in pop culture - everyone wants to stand out.
I always heard that the "Kiss" name for Japan was because the Rebel/XXXD line was marketed towards Japanese women (small bodies for smaller hands).

I could be wrong, but I doubt that's the case as the vast majority of women I see here using cameras (which is a LOT!) wouldn't ever buy a dSLR. It's probably more due to the general lack here of understanding the English language....I mean, where else would you have a top class hotel with a restaurant called "The Titty-Boo", have cars called "The Silvia" and "The Cederic", and sell wiping clothes like the one in the attached photo, which I took in a local shop?

MikeFairbanks wrote in post #10059381
They call it a rebel because Americans are rebels.....We're tough. We're cool. We're rebels. Either that or the Japanese know we're suckers for things that are shiny, make fancy noises, and have cool gimmicky names like Tundra, Frontier, Terminator, or in this case: rebel.

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jruberto wrote in post #10059911
Speaking of cars, one of the most famous international marketing mistakes was the Chevy Nova. It didn't sell very well in Mexico, and GM embarked on a study. The finding? No va means "doesn't go" in Spanish.

Branding across different cultures and languages is a very tricky skill.

And why did Mitsubishi name the Pajero just that.. Must have the Spanish shaking their heads and asking "What were you thinking?"

An original reason for names vs. model numbers was for avoidance of need for royalty payments to patent holders who had not been negotiated terms...for example, in the film camera days, there was a patent issue in the USA, and the feature was omitted in the USA version of that camera, and badged with name so as to differentiate from those intended for other markets.

yogestee wrote in post #10061614
And why did Mitsubishi name the Pajero just that.. Must have the Spanish shaking their heads and asking "What were you thinking?"

And that was OKed by one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world. What a long time car guy thinks of them: http://www.autoextremi​st.com/

Then there was Camaro: "Finally, the car was introduced to the press as the Camaro, considered to be a good name because nobody knew what it meant. Chevrolet produced an old French dictionary showing that the word meant "friend" or "companion", but Ford found an alternate meaning in an old Spanish dictionary-"a small, shrimp-like creature."The automotive press had a good laugh over that, and an even bigger one when one journalist found yet another meaning-"loose bowels.""