It's all in the Name

We love Magnum ice cream bars. There's one called Infinity that is so delicious, with caramel, dark chocolate, and nuts. We're going to miss these ice cream bars when we're back in the US, but there's no way we're going to find them there since they share a name with a very different sort of product in America. Just seeing the ice cream bars in stores made me giggle when we first got here, which is why we tried them in the first place. It turns out that the company did attempt to market this product in the US, but the bars just didn't sell. In marketing (and so many other things), it's all in the name.

Some stores get creative, though. Take TJ Maxx, for example. In Germany, they have renamed the stores TK Maxx because of differences in how letters in the German and English alphabet are pronounced. "Teh yoht max" just doesn't have the same ring as "tee jay max," so they changed the name to TK Maxx--proununched "teh keh max"--which is much less silly-sounding and a lot closer to to the original. Inside, the stores are exactly the same (and still have killer deals that get me in trouble every time!).

okay, maybe TK Maxx isn't exactly the same...I have never seen
dirndl dresses and lederhosen for sale in TJ Maxx

Anyway, J and I found these little differences in marketing due to lingual and cultural differences pretty interesting. This week we're traveling around Germany and Belgium, but we'll be back soon with more stories!