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Can you pronounce “Freixenet”?

I was idling through my Google Analytics stats wondering who on Earth (other planets are available) reads this website and how they stumble across it?

Clearly many use Google, and compose some search string or other that chances upon a random thing I have written.  It amused me to see that the most commonly used search string (2.1% of total visitors) to find Confessions of a Wino in the last month was “Freixenet pronunciation”.  It proved that Google was quite clever to read my text to at least some degree semantically.  Perhaps more important, though, was the marketing lesson….or maybe not.

Does it help to have a brand that 90% of people cannot pronounce?  Does that make people go to the trouble of finding out?  Or does it just inhibit them from asking for your product, if for example, like many sparkling wines, it is behind the counter?

For the record, my mate Paul, who can speak Spanish having spent 7 years there, says it is pronounced Fresher-Nett.  And if you don’t want to ask for it, cases of 6 are available from your local Costco.  Fill your trolley…

This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous, Spain and Portugal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “Can you pronounce “Freixenet”?”

  1. Peter May Says:
    January 26th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

    I thought the back label had the pronunciation. Just checked CellarTracker & find I don’t have any bottles left. I guess that’s because I have been buying so much bargain priced Champagne recently.

  2. Alastair Bathgate Says:
    January 26th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

    Hi Peter

    I just went to check the back of a bottle and quel horreur, I’ve run out myself. Next time I try a bottle I’ll definitely read the back of the label and see what it says.

    Cheers

  3. steve Says:
    December 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 am

    i reckon it is FRESHERNET, as the x in that area is usually pronounced as a sh!!!

  4. Hokuto Says:
    December 24th, 2008 at 4:19 am

    You can hear it pronounced by a native Catalan woman at . We went through several bottles of Cordon Negro at our annual Christmas party last night. Interestingly, the pronunciation given on the back of the bottles here in Japan is close to “Fre-shi-ney,” but the Catalan woman in the above link pronounces it with a clear “t” on the end.
    Cheers!

  5. Hokuto Says:
    December 24th, 2008 at 4:22 am

    Sorry, the address got cut off due to addition of angle brackets. Here it is again: http://forvo.com/word/freixenet/

  6. Ryan Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 7:34 am

    As someone who has sold countless bottles of this to too many people, here is what I have found:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/15/AR2008071500657.html

  7. Steve Says:
    February 2nd, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    My old flatmate calls it ‘frixy-nix’. But she once puked after sinking three bottles of Boojoolay Noovoo (her pronunciation) and claimed she was haemorraging. So what does she know, eh.
    In Spain the Xmas Freixenet advert is like the Super Bowl half time slot and the Chrimbo M and S celeb fest rolled into one, apparently.

  8. RED HOT PLANCHA Says:
    June 4th, 2013 at 5:19 am

    FREZZ – JA – NET

    definately!

  9. cris Says:
    April 13th, 2015 at 7:07 am

    fray – a – nay is my pronunciation

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