Throughout the years there have been a number of brands who grew into international markets that their names were not suited to.

Before the Honda Jazz was called the Honda Jazz, it was called the Honda Fit. It was only after they launched it as the Honda Fitta into European markets that they realised that “fitta” translates to mean female genitalia in Swedish.

Another car, the Cherovlet Nova sold quite poorly in Latin America because “no va” reads “won’t go” in Spanish.

Coca-Cola, which at its invention meant little in English translates roughly to “bite the wax tadpole” in Chinese. It has since been transliterated into English as “ke kou ke le”, which means something more along the lines of “happiness in the mouth.” Far more appealing.

It goes to show that sometimes the things we build can sometimes grow beyond our own sensibilities.

The world is wide and we will only every be familiar with but a tiny portion.

Brands, however, possess the innate ability to be familiar almost everywhere.