From Peugeot to Marlboro, brands around the world are grappling with an unusual challenge: getting people to pronounce their names correctly.
Whether it’s high fashion handbags or high-performance cars, international customers often find it difficult to pronounce many of the world’s most popular brands.
Analysts at Business Financing looked at data from Forvo, an online pronunciation dictionary, to see which brands were listening the most.
It may come as no surprise that it is French brands that claim the top spot as the world’s least outspoken companies.
The French Société Générale is the most mispronounced brand in the world and has been listened to 2.1 million times.
Business Financing analysts looked at data from Forvo, an online pronunciation dictionary, to see which brands were listening the most
From Peugeot (pictured) to Marlboro, brands around the world are grappling with an unusual challenge: getting people to pronounce their names correctly
France has the dubious distinction of being home to four of the ten least distinctive brands in the world.
Peugeot came in second with 1.7 million listens on Forvo, more than twice as many as Porsche in third place.
Citroen, meanwhile, came in seventh with 443,000 listens, while Louis Vuitton was the tenth least pronounceable brand name with 412,000 listens.
In Britain, Burberry was the least pronounceable brand (at least among English speakers).
The clothing brand was listened to 141,000 times by people looking for the perfect British pronunciation.
Elsewhere in Europe, Swedish Ikea also scores very highly as one of the least pronounceable brands with 561,000 listens.
In fact, there’s a good chance that you’ve pronounced it wrong too.
While most Brits would pronounce furniture store with some variation of ‘Eye-key-ah’, the true Swedish pronunciation sounds more like ‘Ee-kay-uh’.
In the world of food and drink, alcohol brands prove to be the hardest to tell, even before you’ve tasted some of their products
Swedish Ikea also scores very highly as one of the least pronounceable brands with 561,000 listens
Germany’s least pronounceable brand could come as a surprise, as BMW claims the top spot.
Despite only having three letters, the name of the car brand was listened to 467,000 times.
Outside Europe, Tommy Hilfiger was the most mispronounced brand in the US, receiving almost 600,000 listens.
The name is so often confused that Tommy Hilfiger itself reportedly considered calling the brand Tommy Hill to make it easier for customers.
In Asia, Hitachi was the continent’s least vocal brand, with 303,000 listens.
France has the dubious distinction of being home to four of the ten least distinctive brands in the world
In Asia, Hitachi was the continent’s least vocal brand, with 303,000 listens
To understand this properly, it’s worth remembering that Hitachi is actually made up of two different Japanese Kanji characters: ‘hi’ meaning sun and ‘tachi’ meaning rise.
The name should sound more like ‘Hit Archie’ with an extra emphasis on the first syllable.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korean brand Samsung also caused quite a bit of confusion, with people checking the pronunciation 302,000 times.
In the world of food and drink, alcohol brands prove to be the hardest to tell, even before you’ve tasted some of their products.
The German Jagermeister was the most difficult with 256,000 listens.
Budweiser was the most difficult American brand to pronounce, with 128,000 listens, while in Britain Chivas Regal proved the most difficult with 56,000 listens.
And in fashion, while Tommy Hilfiger claims the top spot, French brands are once again proving particularly difficult.
Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Givenchy, Balenciaga and Chloe all made it into the top 10 least pronounceable fashion brands.
