Brand name differences between countries

Why do companies have the same products in different countries but call them by different names? For example, in American the household cleaner Mr. Clean is called Mr. Proper here in Germany. Dawn dishwashing liquid is called Fairy. Carl's Jr is Hardee's in England. Johnson & Johnson is Penaten. And I think Sure deodorant is called Rexona but not sure. It's so frustrating when looking for my favorite things and can't find them only to find out they are called something else. Okay, the major things have the same name (Nike, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Adidas, etc.) but it's the little things that count. Does anyone have a website or a list of the product name changes? Any other products you have come across with different names? This would be helpful.

Then there is always the Mars bar here (and in UK) which we call a Milky way bar back home. I think they (or we) just do it to confuse the other

In some parts of Australia, Burger King is called Hungry Jack's, though in other parts it's called Burger King.

lagenese ( if I spelt that right) Ice cream is called ' kwality walls ' in Inida. It has the same logo at both places.

Langnese is also Walls in the UK too.

Also, Walker's crisps are called Lay's in the US. You can get both types here in specialised shops.

Yes, Sure deodorant is Rexona here.

Appropriate brands:

How annoying, yes. Long live globalisation and the homogenisation of all brand names.

Many household products are distributed under varying names by the Proctor & Gamble conglomerate - see here for a worldwide list of their products.

Identical products share different names in different geographies for marketing reasons. Some names don't work well in some geographies or languages, maybe have negative implications or meanings, or simply have local competition with similar names. I recall in some markets "Fairy" became "Dawn" but lost market share and reverted to "Fairy" again...

YL6

Yeah, Rolls Royces are nice cars, but nobody in Germany wanted to be driven around in a "Silver Mist".

The Snickers bar will forever be called Marathon to some.

@Demi - I am guessing that you are probably from Cali or somewhere in the western part of the US. Just because I noticed the Carls Jr thing and it is not limited to Europe. In Kansas it is called Hardees and when I went to CA I noticed it was called Carls Jr. just an observation that I thought was interesting.

I am from Cali and haven't been to Kansas, yet. Is Jack-in-the-box called something else there too? What about Taco Bell? Why do the companies do this? It's so damn frustrating! Aldi is called something else in Austria too but the logo is the same. It's weird. I think they would save money if they left the names alone.

I think I answered this above. It's clear, and sensible, much though you may not like it. Showem's example was a perfect example of naming issues that arise...

Or Vauxhall in the UK which is Holden in Australia and Opel pretty much everywhere else. Or the Mitsubishi Pajero which is the Mitsubishi Montero in Spain and I think Mitsubishi Shogun in the UK.

It's fairly self-evident that one would choose a name that the marketting bods think suits the particular market as has already been mentioned. I see it as amusing rather than annoying.

the chevy NOVA that was sold in the US ...would definitely need to change its name..when sold to the latin countries. As NOVA in spanish sounds like NO VA which means NO GO

or the Audi a4, when sold in the chinese speaking countries, the name will be change as in Fukinese/taiwanese it sounds like "WILL DIE"

good luck driving those cars!

This is more historical. Vauxhall, Holden and Opel were originally well known and independant automotive manufacturers in their individual geographies. They were subsequently bought out or merged and now form part of the global General Motors (GM) organisation. Economy of design and manufacture means that pretty much identical vehicles are now manufactured and sold world-wide, but each geography keeps its better known identity in the local market...

YL6

Lynx deoderant is Axe... Galaxy chocolate is Dove... but where the fuck is Irn Bru?

I don't know any Spainish, but I've been told that Pajero means wanker, I'm sure I'll be corrected if false tho.


Who cares, that shit is naaaaaaasty. It's just berocca in a can...fucking filthy shit

Thats what I thought... but I wasnt brave enough to say it..

I think the word is Pajiso...but that is mexican spainish so you could be right.

sorry...

I presume you know a few "Pajeros" then...

@Grinner

I've met more than my fair share.

It is. Don't ask too many details about how I know.

It's all about European marketing and packing really.
They can make 1 advert of "shiny happy mummy" looking after the kids in her nice middle class suburban home *PUKE* and just dub it over with varius languages.

And they can make multi-language packaging for the approriate markets.

For example if the package is in French, German and italian you call sell it in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland Austria. Stock flexibility ahoj!

I have noticed that they spell "Miracle Whip" like this: miraCEL whip. That is just weird, I think...

(edit: just wanted to point out the end spelling- not that they capitalize it all weird like that, too!)

Since when has anything to do with advertising made any sense!

Walls/Langanese Ice cream is known as 'Streets' in Australia...

I used to work for Unilever who make all sorts of consumer goods. Ranging from ice cream to cleaning products. YL6 makes good points about using brand names suitable to local markets but usually the main reason is the historical value of the brands. Unilever and P&G basically acquire companies with leading brands and over time they may have tweaked the packaging and logos to look the same but the name identifying the brand remains unchanged on the basis that consumers value the longstanding history and generational influence.
Do you know that Unilever owns Ben & Jerrys ice cream? I'm not from the States but my guess is this is one of those iconic brands that kids grow up with. Imagine it was changed to Langnese. Would it still be so popular ?
If you are in the supermarket and the pack looks the same as what you are used to but has a different name, you are most likely getting the same thing. Keep in mind that the big global manufacturers normally own about 3 brands in the same category anyway !

Actually my good ol' pal Blitz the story is that Hardees was bought out by Carls JR. In my parents town of XX, texas the hardees was changed to Carls Jr after the buyout. They were so excited to get a new returaunt in town. Yet soon they realized it was the same thing...crappy food, crappy service, and crappy colors.

Oh dear. Mitsubishi have a long history of ballsing up their car names. I did a bit of work with the Mitsubishi Firestone BTCC team in Coventry in the late 80's. They named their cars with an association to horses and horseriders, eg. Colt, Pony and Lancer. Completely bollocksed up the Stallion in Japanese dialect, so it launched as the Starion. Pajero does mean what you think it means in Spanish. Not that I speak Spanish, I just know about the private howls of derision from inside Mitsubishi UK.

Still, not as bad as Honda's mini-SUV only sold in Japan in the mid 90's... wait for it... the "Gay Boy Baker" van.

Can someone explain why Opel becomes Vauxhall in the UK? And I think it is only the UK. Its still Opel in Ireland.

As the name "Burger King" was already owned by someone when the chain opened in Australia. More recently, the name changed hands to the US Burger King corp, but I haven't been there to see if they changed from Hungry Jack. Probably not bucause everyone there already knows Hungry Jack.

The last time I was there (a year ago last February), it was still Hungry Jack's.

Hungry Jacks still sponsors the West Coast Eagles. So they're still using the name. Just guessing, like

Edit: In truth they were still around this April too. The brand is well known. Market presence ans all that. So why change.

Burger King is called "Quick" (Burger) in most of France and Benelux...

Because Vauxhall was a British company before General Motors took it over. Opel was a German company. When the two firms made different cars, both Opels and Vauxhalls were sold in Britain, but now the cars are identical they are sold under the Vauxhall name.

Burger King in the Netherlands...

Sorry, I did say "most of..."... thinking about it, maybe it's just the French speaking parts.. Maybe "Burger" means "crap food" in French...

I thought Quick was a french/belgian fastfood franchise, which had nothing to do with Burger King? The burgers are definitely not the same as the ones from Burger King.

I just noticed today that Erasco soup is at least owned by, if not the same thing as, Campbell's (little Campbell's logo on the back of the can label.)

Maybe this is a good thread to bring up that Wagner's frozen pizza TV advert with the exaggerated American family going on about how great "Vahgner's" pizza is. I love that ad, because even if they did sell that brand in the US, which to my knowledge they don't, nobody would call it "Vahgner's." It would be "Oo-aagner's!"

Best ad on German television.

Weird thing is that same name may be a premium brand in one market and a low cost in another... marketing magic.

In some cases it's due to a local brand being bought by another and using it as a channel for selling it's own products... e.g. Electrolux own Zanussi and AEG but package the same products with the local market brand.

That is my favorite commercial! It is so funny.
I love it! But Americans don't call Germany 'Deutschland'. I think the most have never even heard of the word Deutschland. Black Forest Cake or German Chocolate Cake yes, but Deutschland, no. And what's funny is nobody in Germany has heard of German Chocolate Cake! Cause it's not German Crazy brand names...

Yeah, but you can't throw a stereotypical American accent on the word Germany like you can with Doitchlaand.

In Canada and the US, there are some different names for the same products. From Kraft - the US has Macaroni and Cheese, and we have Kraft Dinner! Same stuff, but different names! Its nicknamed KD here.

I am not in marketing, but i can swear that it has something to do with the marketing of the brands, possibly to increase customer loyalty or something like that. Plus, it gives a lot of people their jobs, i guess. Can you imagine if Ford or Chrysler cut jobs in Marketing because the jobs that people had naming cars in different countries were no longer needed. This would be bad for business.

But on a more serious note, i really think that sometimes American names suggest a vulgar meaning in other languages. I cant remember the exact example, but i remember once that there was an article in Newsweek with this. A certain Ford car in America meant "crap" or something like that, in Arabic. So, naturally, they have to change the name. But with brands like Evian, etc, i dont get it. Lets just call it, "getting through the work day," for some employees in certain companies.

Arabic seems to be a sticky language for many western tradenames. Thank heavens we don't have to sell "Bush" to the Arab nations

Even just within the US there are different names. What's called "Hellmans" on the east coast is "Best Foods" on the west coast.

Of course, there's the obvious cases where the English name of a product simply won't work in another country..

Vick's (cough medicines etc..), is one good example of a name that cannot work in Germany .

It's 'Wick' here..

Which isn't a lot better...

lagnese is `streets`in Australia