• American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, based on the image of courage and strength. However, in Puerto Rico the name means "killer" and was not popular on the hazardous roads in the country.
• A cologne for men pictured a pastoral scene with a man and his dog. It failed in Islamic countries dogs are considered unclean.
• A company printed the "OK" finger sign on each page of its catalogue. In many parts of Latin America that is considered an obscene gesture. Six months of work were lost because they had to reprint all the catalogues
• Managers at one American company were startled when they discovered that the brand name of the cooking oil they were marketing in a Latin American country translated into Spanish as "Jackass Oil."
• A company’s $1.6-million- a-year chief executive put $45,000 in business expenses on his secretary's credit card and then approved the claim himself. He then resigned amid the controversy but may have the last laugh -- a $3-million severance package.
• In 1978 a large insurance company in the U.S., lent $160 million to a shipping firm. As part of the deal, the insurance company got a line on eight ships. In 1986 the shipping line went into bankruptcy proceedings and started selling off assets. The Insurance Company said it was owed nearly $93 million, the value of the line, from the ships' sale. Or so the insurance company thought. A close look at the line documents disclosed that someone had omitted three little zeros, thus making $92,885,000 become $92,885!!!
• Mountain Bell Company tried to promote its telephone and services to Saudi's. Its ad portrayed an executive talking on the phone with his feet propped up on the desk, showing the soles of his shoes-- something an Arab would never do!
• FEDEX (Federal Express) wisely chose to expand overseas when it discovered the domestic market was saturated. However, the centralized or "hub and spoke" delivery system that was so successful domestically was inappropriate for overseas distribution. In addition, they failed to consider cultural differences: In Spain the workers preferred very late office hours, and in Russia the workers took truck cleaning soap home due to consumer shortages. FEDEX finally shut down over 100 European operations after $1.2 billion in losses.

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