Are you a mug or something?

As soon as England were knocked out of the World Cup, somewhat inevitably, supermarkets and other outlets discounted all the England merchandising hoping to recoup some of the now-wasted investment. Prices of mugs, teddies and even the ubiquitous flag all hit rock bottom, just as our national team have done in their dismal qualifying games.

On a visit to a supermarket on Saturday, the merchandising is still there and it seems they can’t give it away. The displays are shunted to a sorry corner but are nonetheless re-marketed as “summer essentials” – a marketer somewhere is hoping that we’ll want a St George’s flag to adorn the BBQ scene so I guess they’re pinning their hopes that we do actually get a BBQ summer then? Or perhaps they’re anticipating future demand that we will stock up for 2018 – after all, Roy said we’d be ready by then so get a bargain now!

As well as lots of merchandising going spare, one souvenir manufacturer even had to contend with a horrific marketing gaffe by mixing up the most powerful man in the world and England’s Chris Smalling. Trying to sell 2,000 mugs emblazoned with the faces of England's World Cup flops would usually be a hard task, but the hilarious mistake has apparently caught the public’s imagination.

It seems the mug with Barack Obama’s face as a defender is proving popular as a novelty item, with the BBC reporting a quarter have been sold to people in the US and that there are "not many left".

Thankfully for the poor newbie who made the mistake, and the naughtier manager who obviously didn’t proof it properly, it seems they have unconsciously tapped into something Americans perhaps love about us – our sense of humour. Marketers have long-since known that those across the Pond love our accents, the royal family and our straight-talking brashness (thanks to Simon Cowell’s brand) and now it seems they love our humour, however unintentional it was on this occasion.

International marketing has many facets – the main one is ensuring you understand and respect cultural differences. If only marketers here had thought a bit harder:-

· Postman Pat had problems in Japan – the cartoon character is drawn with three fingers – a sign he is a member of the Japanese mafia (Jakusa).

· Honda introduced their new car "Fitta" into Nordic countries in 2001. If they had taken the time to undertake some cross cultural marketing research they may have discovered that "fitta" was an old word used in vulgar language to refer to a woman's genitals in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. In the end they renamed it "Honda Jazz".


Our message to the poor soul who made the error – don’t worry. A) it could have been worse – Chris Smalling’s picture could have been put on the USA team’s mugs and B) a certain future on the US comedy circuit awaits you should your apprenticeship not work out for some reason.