Pere-STRIKEOUT!
I don’t know about you, but I cringed when I saw the news on Friday. Hillary Clinton met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva to begin talks aimed at “pressing the reset button” (as the Obama administration likes to say) of U.S.-Russian relations. To break the ice, she presented him with a gift – a device with a red button that was imprinted with the Russian word “peregruzka,” what the Administration thought was a translation for “reset.” Instead, as the Russian Minister pointed out, “peregruzka” actually means “overcharged” (an ironic mistake given the state of our two countries’ relations these past few years!).
In the end, both Secretary of State Clinton and Foreign Minister Lavrov got a laugh out of the incident, but what was meant to lighten the mood and pave the way for productive discussions about U.S.-Russian relations has turned into an ironic gaffe that will reinforce many negative stereotypes that people around the world have about Americans.
The right gift can go a long way in strengthening a relationship (whether it is a personal, professional, or political relationship), but the wrong gift can do just the reverse – sometimes with disastrous results. The same is also true of marketing messages, and this is actually one of the reasons we named our company “Quintain Marketing.” People always ask me why our firm is called “Quintain,” and this fiasco with the reset button seems like a great opportunity to explain it.
A quintain is actually an object that was used as a target to help train knights in jousting. It consisted of a swinging pole with a target on one end and weighted ballast on the other. When the target was hit by a charging squire, the whole apparatus would rotate. The squire’s challenge was to hit the target, but not get hit in the back and knocked off the saddle by the rotating arm.
What does this mean in marketing terms? To us, it means that it’s important not just to hit your target (with your message, your gift, etc.), but to hit it in the right way. Its not just about getting the translation right – its about making sure that your brand and your message are accurately reflected in everything you do. From the quality of the gift, to the choice of words, to the packaging, to the materials that items are made from, and the method of delivery – all of these elements form part of the picture that you are painting for your target audience and if one of them isn’t right, the whole picture will be ruined (and you will get knocked off your horse!).
Just look at what happened in Geneva – the “button gaffe” (as it is now being called) is getting more press than the bilateral discussions meant to improve relations between the U.S. and Russia!