What to do with your brand? - Lisa Zhou

  As Forbes Magazine knows all too well, a brand name may be one of the most important elements of marketing. Once developed, it becomes more than a simple name but a company’s calling card. With the booming of Chinese Market, many foreign brands seek to be localized to fit themselves for the Chinese consumers. However, it is never an easy job to translate a noun with Latin letters into Chinese characters with special requirements of the brand. According to my observation, there are two methods to do this job and they are actually quite common in our daily life.

 One is translated for pronunciation which is similar to the term “foreignisation” as we learned in the last lecture and it should be the safest and easiest way. Instead of transferring the meaning, it helps the consumer to remember the original name of the brand. For famous companies or products for certain professional industries or buys of luxury goods, it works very well by building up feelings of professional and mysterious. Take for example “Caterpillar” , an American corporate sells machinery and engines world carries no meaning when it had been translated into Chinese as “car, te, bi, le” (卡特彼勒). However, if a man working in construction or milling sector have no idea when he hearing “car,te,bi,le”, it would be no different announcing himself as a layman. It also explains why we often find the translation for luxury brands are using this methods such as “路易 威登”for “LOUIS VUITTON” or “卡地亞”for “CARTIER”. It stated that they would only sell goods to those who knows them and they are proud of being “original”.

 

 

   But for the companies that focus on “fast-moving” consumers, method of "domestication" or translation for meaning would be better for them to hit the market in large. One of the best example is “Coca-Cola” which has been translated into “Ke,Kou,Ke,Le” in Chinese. It not only fits the original pronunciation but the Chinese characters “可口可樂”meaning “happiness in mouth” also carry exact information that the brand wants to transfer to its potential customers.

 

  However, not all brands are as lucky as Coca-Cola when they were translated into different languages to extend their international markets. For example, The BIG MAC which supposed to be known as “ Royale avec le fromage” (the biggest with cheese) in French is once to be known as “ Gros Mec” which actually means “ big pimp” in French.

 

  Branding translation is therefore not only a translation work but also a part of marketing. What kind of image or information you would like to pass to your customers and figure out whether or not your brand name is a slang term in other languages are key issue to be consider before your brand become popular world widely.