Global expansion can force odd changes in brand name pronunciation

"Hyundai of Korea entered the U.S. auto market in 1986 only to find its marketing efforts stymied because of confusion surrounding the correct pronunciation of the company’s name,” writes Michael White in “A Short Course in International Marketing Blunders.” “Many people confused the name with 'Honda,' one of Hyundai’s biggest Japanese competitors. The Koreans tried mightily to get Americans to use the Korean Pronunciation (‘High-Yoon-Day’). But failing, they finally ‘bent with the wind’ in a promotional campaign that encouraged customers to say ‘Hun-Day as in Sun-Day.’”

After a good fight, Hyundai learned the sometimes annoying truth that correct pronunciation is often determined democratically. In fact, there are many times in daily life where fighting for original, “correct” pronunciation is futile and adapting our pronunciation to the will of the majority may be best.

While living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I learned no one knew what city I was referring to when I pronounced Vallejo — a name of Spanish origin — as one would in Spanish, with a softer, shorter “v” and a “y” sound for the double “l.” Anyone asking directions to this Northern California city would need to use a very gringo-American pronunciation of “Vallejo,” with harder “v” and an “l” sound because many locales are oblivious to the “correct” pronunciation.

Nevada’s state name originated from the Spanish word meaning “snow-covered;” however, when former president George W. Bush or Sen. Joe Lieberman pronounce it as one would in Spanish, the public generally assume the speakers are foolish and incorrect. Similarly, many friends of mine with Spanish or Chinese last names have reluctantly adopted the American pronunciation of their surname. As some of them say, “When in Rome…”

In the world of business, the Chinese makers of Maxipuke playing cards would have a difficult time convincing people in the United States to pronounce the moniker “maxi-pu-ke,” as intended. Ideally, every brand name would be engineered from the start as something easy to pronounce in every international market, but the impracticality of doing so, like Kodak did, stymies fledgling brands.