#88 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!
January 6, 2013 @ 5:32 pm
This story is very fascinating. First I want to describe the meaning of the word nova in Spanish. No va means that it does not go, but it is written together and this is not very common for a car which does not drive. Therefore no funciona would be used. Additionally I found out that the chevrolet nova sold very well in Spain and even exceeded its sales expectations in Venezuela. It would have been impossible to sell this car in Spain without noticing such a mistake, because all brochures, advertisement and so on needed to be translated into Spanish and the native chevrolet dealers who sold this car would also have noticed this mistake.
For me when I hear something like that then I always assume that the competition has paid experts and other people to tell this story. And due to this story the competition might tried to reduce the number of sales from the chevrolet nova in other countries, because people might not want to buy a car from a company who cannot get the name right. In the economy there are a lot of examples for this unprofessional behavior. One very new example is Microsoft who paid consumers to write negative things about Android.
http://derstandard.at/1353208362770/Microsoft-belohnt-Android-Horrorgeschichten-mit-Smartphones
The more successful the company, the more people are jealous and try to reduce your success. And it is in our nature that we do not question everything which we hear from others, due to several reasons. Sometimes people want to believe it and sometimes all that counts is a good story, to get respect or a promotion. Maybe it should also illustrate us, that it is very easy to oversee the truth, even if you are an expert. All in all it can be said that the Chevrolet Nova was still successful afterwards.
January 8, 2013 @ 10:02 pm
Unfortunately myths like the one about the Chevy Nova are very common when introducing a product into the international marketplace. But before talking nonsense people should think about it and do preparation and research.
First of all, the phrase “no va” (literally “doesn’t go”) and the word “nova” are distinct entities with different pronunciations in Spanish: the former is two words and is pronounced with the accent of the second word; the latter is one word with the accent on the first syllable. Spanish people don’t translate the Chevy Nova with “doesn’t go”. It would be the same assuming that English people would refuse to buy a dinette set sold under the name “Notable” because nobody wants a dinette set that doesn’t include a table.
Furthermore “no va” would be a strange term in reference to a car as we all know that English people would describe a broken-down car by saying that it “doesn’t run” rather than it “doesn’t go”.
Moreover, as mentioned above, Pemex (a Mexican government-owned oil company) sold, and still sells, gasoline in Mexico under the name “Nova”. Due do this I think that Mexicans associate the Chevy Nova with this gasoline rather than with anything other.
The last thing, which is very funny, is that this legend assumes that very intelligent, successful and powerful GM executives launched a car into a foreign market without knowing the meaning or translation of the name. Furthermore it assumes that the GM executives might have been a little bit dumb. But when telling this story people have to think about that a big and successful company like GM would never introduce a new car into a foreign market without doing preparation and research. And even if no one of them speaks Spanish they’ve involved numerous Spanish speakers into their launching process. In fact, GM was aware of the translation and opted to retain the model name “Nova” in Spanish-speaking markets anyway, because they felt the matter to be unimportant.
November 2, 2014 @ 2:26 pm
Due to the fact that No-va and Nova is pronounced differently in Spanish,
I also think that there were other influencing factors that were responsible for the failure of Chevrolet in Latin America.
In my opinion, Chevrolet didn’t consider cultural differences enough and didn’t tailor their marketing mix to these differences.
First of all, most of the countries in Latin America have a high Power Distance, which means that there are great inequalities and income disparities. I think that Chevrolet didn’t have a clear positioning when entering the market. People in a high Power Distance, who are at a higher level in the hierarchy, like managers, want to have big cars, which show their power and wealth. Therefore, they prefer luxurious products which looks expensive and which are not available for the average consumer. But people who are at a lower level in the hierarchy prefer cars which are affordable for them and are less expensive.
Therefore, the best way for Chevrolet should have been to think about their position in the market, if their target group are the managers or the average consumers, if they want to enter the luxury segment or not. Based on this decision, Chevrolet should have built up a consistent marketing mix.
This means that Product, Price, Place and Promotion must be well-matched.
Firstly, the product itself must be adapted. If Chevrolet would like to enter the luxury segment, the car needs special features, which not all cars have. People in higher level of the hierarchy would only buy the car if they can brag about the high-tech and exclusive equipment of the car.
Next, products for the luxury segment must be more expensive, otherwise people will think that the product is not that qualitative and people of high hierarchies won’t buy the product if it is available for all people in the culture, because so they can’t show their higher status.
Furthermore the promotion strategy should also be adapted. Advertisements for luxurious good must address the peoples’ feelings. Data and facts are not that important as emotions are in the high price sector. As a marketer, you have to highlight the exclusive characteristics of the product and what the emotional value of the product is. There must be an added value for the customer. So you also have to mention why the product is better, more luxurious and more exclusive than other products.
Finally also the place, where people are able to buy the products should be considered. The product shouldn’t be available in every shop, only in selected ones, which also has the image of being luxurious and exclusive.
When thinking of the case of Chevrolet I think that the 4 P’s of the marketing mix were not be considered. An important step, which would have been helpful for Chevrolet, is to carry out a market research before entering a new market to get to know cultural differences in Latin America.
July 9, 2017 @ 1:06 pm
First of all, very good post. I have seen and heard of a few of these urban myths both in class at university and on the streets. Some of them may be true and some may have had a negative influence on sales or the reputation of the company which brought the myth to life itself. However, my personal opinion is, that these myths are actually created by authors and publishers who share the same cultural values as the aforementioned companies. Firstly, that they something to write about in general and additionally for PR reasons. Taking the Chevy Nova example in consideration: Think about how many people talked about the Nova just because of the urban myth. However, it is not even as bad as non spanish natives thought it is going to be. Therefore, for the selling company, I think it is more like a positive thing to spread myths like this one without doing proper research on the topic to spread word of mouth and brand awareness.