There are numbers of theories about the change of the name of the cleaning brand with the bald guy called Mr Clean if you are a US resident  or Mr. Proper if you’re an Eastern Europe resident for example. The most widespread theory is that the owner of the brand  wanted to prevent parallel import of the products from countries where the prices are lower. For this reason the product was marketed with different name and different price in each country.

In the US the brand brings the name Mr. Clean. But in Europe there is a certain variety of names of which the brand could be recognised. Spain launched the product under the name “Don Limpio”.

In other Spanish speaking countries like Mexico the name is different.  There the brand is recognised as “Maestro Limpio”. In both countries the names of the brand’s products share common keyword “limpio”, which translates in English “clean”.

In another popular Romance language country the brand is called “Mr. Propre”. That’s right, we’re talking about the French people and France. Propre (translates ‘Proper”) is very fruitful definition for a brand and clearly Eastern Europe thinks the same since Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and many other countries acquired the same name for the brand, although labeled as Mr. Proper.

The case with the brand’s versatility comes extremely interesting in the UK. Since “Mr. Clean” was an already existing brand there, the products were distributed with the name “Flash” and unlike the rest of the world, the UK marketing did not involve the mascot in the visuals.

Mr. Clean‘s marketing diversification is a great example of how a brand could work equally successful in different countries with different names and mutual characteristics. It’s important to notice that in Mr. Clean’s case it’s not enough to say that the brand was adapted or translated for a foreign market. The brand’s name was totally changed in countries like France and UK. Even the TV commercials used different jingle to advertise the products. If you have the same fate of a name-changer with your own brand, comments are welcome.