The Chevy NOVA Myth
If you have ever taken an international
marketing or international business class, it is not unlikely that you’ve heard
how Chevrolet blundered in Latin America because of poor translation. Chances
are, if you are an instructor who teaches these classes, you will have told
this story to your students.
For those of you, who don’t know: as the story
goes, a particular Chevrolet model, the Nova, supposedly did poorly in
Spanish-speaking markets in Latin America, most notably in Mexico and in
Venezuela in the 1970s. As can be read in many widely distributed international
business textbooks the reasons seems to have been that No-va roughly translates
into “doesn’t go” (i.e. “doesn’t drive”) which, of course, can’t be a very
appealing name to buyers of new cars. Well, unfortunately, none of this is
true, or at least it is highly speculative and gravely inaccurate.
As a
scholarly colleague of mine, Romie Litrell of AUT in Auckland, New Zealand has
recently pointed out on a discussion listserv of international business
scholars, there is no evidence whatsoever that there ever was such a marketing
fiasco.
Neither is there such a linear relationship between “no-va” and the
assumption that a car doesn’t function in any variation of the Spanish
language, nor is there any hard evidence of poor sales. Also, for the longest time,
there was a Mexican gasoline brand called “Nova” that seems to have done pretty
well with the same name.
To say the best, it is hugely embarrassing that
cohorts of publishers, legions of highly respected authors and tens of
thousands of instructors worldwide never seem to have questioned this urban
myth. Question is, how many more are there out there that haven’t been debunked
yet? The one thing that bothers me even more is the fact that even some of the
most respected authors and instructors rarely go beyond such simplistic
examples when they teach about cultural differences. There’s certainly more to
be said about the complexity of cross-border business than to tell jokes and
have a good laugh about ignorant multinationals that don’t even get their translations
right. Dig deeper, colleagues! Dig deeper!
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