Many internationally famous brands originate from very ordinary names, translated as Chinese must have ingenuity.
If marketing is likened to a battle, then a successful brand name is like a flag that never falls. International brands marketing on a global scale inevitably crosses various cultural barriers, such as language differences, differences in consumption habits, and religious differences.
Translating a brand as Chinese must be ingenious.
Because the cultures of Western countries are more similar, the brand of a certain country is easier to be accepted by other countries. Chinese culture is quite different from Western culture, so foreign brands must carefully consider naming issues if they want to enter the Chinese market. The complexity of the phenomenon of commodity economy has enabled the translation of Western brand names to transcend linguistic concepts and rise to the level of cultural psychology and market repositioning.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > McDonald's: multi-layered meaning </h1>
McDonald's, for example, has the English name "McDonald's," which is the all-character formation of the owner's name. Westerners are accustomed to naming companies after their last names, such as Edison, Walt Disney, and Ford. However, Chinese people usually like to name shops with festive, prosperous, auspicious and novel words, such as "Parkson", "Tianrunfa", "Hollywood", "Quanjude", "Sheraton". McDonald is a small person, he is not as good as Edison, he is a world-famous scientist, not as good as Disney, because Disney has become synonymous with "cartoon world", so if you honestly translate "McDonald's" as "McDonald's shop", it is too bland, and "McDonald's" is very successful:
First, the original pronunciation is roughly retained;
Second, it reflects the nature of the food store;
Third, it contains the educational significance of "if you want to eat wheat, you should work";
Fourth, the style is both "medium" and "foreign", which is in line with the taste of the Chinese.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" > Coca-Cola: A Brilliant Translation </h1>
As we all know, "Coca-Cola" is "CocaCola", but few people ask: What does that mean? Originally Coca and Cola were the names of the two plants, transliterated as coca tree and cola tree, the leaves of the coca tree and the seeds of the coca tree were the raw materials for the drink, and the coca leaves contained cocaine, also called cocaine (sometimes used as a general anesthetic, especially for the eyes, nose or throat, and is widely used as a drug because of its excitement and irritation). Such a boring and even a little scary name has been translated as "Coca-Cola", which is really a cocacola company's decay into magic. The success of the "Coca-Cola" translation is that:
First, the loud pronunciation of the original rhyming rhyme is retained;
Second, completely abandon the meaning of the original text, but from the feelings and benefits of drinking drinks to fight a psychological war, the means are clever;
Third, the taste of this drink is not like everyone, many people even think it is like Chinese medicine, but it calls itself "delicious", and after drinking it, it makes people happy. Good at self-praise and pleasing the public.
The above two examples are successful examples of retaining the original brand name pronunciation while changing the original meaning. Others such as the Chinese translation as "Mercedes-Benz", The new Malaysia as "Marseille" brand-name car, the original "Mercedes Benz" is the name of the car company's boss Ai's daughter, translated as "Mercedes" is to delete the complex Mercedes, concise and loud.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="28" > "Ikea" translated as "IKEA" is a trick </h1>
Another example is the "Ikea" furniture brand, even in Sweden, few people know its meaning, it is the clever Chinese translator who gave it the beautiful meaning of "IKEA". In fact, Ikea is an acronym of the brand's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, with his farm name Elmtaryd and the village name Agunnaryd.
Some brand names are only transliterated, such as "Maxwell" coffee, which is just the pronunciation of "Maxwell". Since its appeal is to the white-collar class, especially the "extroverted" white-collar workers, the name is successful. But if you want the majority of Chinese to buy it, it is not as good as "Nestlé". When Nescafe first entered the Chinese mainland, I listened to the farmers in the village: "Nescafe" coffee is "bird's nest" coffee. Even uncultured people are interested in it, and the dramatic effect of the visible name is very conducive to increasing the awareness of the brand.
The brand-name mobile phone "Nokia", the original Finnish name "Nokia", is the name of the town where the factory is located, and it is clear that the translation is more high-tech than the original, as if it is still a bit of a "commitment to Asia" flavor.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="29" > "Fösweigen" is related to Hitler </h1>
Some brand names are only paraphrased. For example, "Füsweigen" (chinese called "Volkswagen"), the original German name "Volkswagen", Vokls means People's Volkswagen, and Wagen is a car.
There is also a little-known origin of "Füsweigen": in the 1820s and 1830s, cars were very expensive and belonged only to a few rich people. After Hitler came to power, he declared that he wanted to build cars for all the working masses, and the brand of the car was called "Volkswagen", and he called on people to save some money every month, establish a "car deposit", and after a few years, every family had a car. But soon after the war broke out, the automobile factory was busy building war machines. After the war, however, Volkswagen's brand name was retained.
For example, a car factory in Munich, whose full name in German is Bayerische MotorenWerke (Bayerich Aircraft Engine Production Plant), referred to as BMW, which later not only produces aircraft engines, but also expands to off-road vehicles, motorcycles, and high-end cars. Now no one cares what BMW really means, the blue and white logo around BMW's three letters has become a sign of success and credibility. Its Chinese name "BMW" is so romantic, concise and apt.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="32" > For example, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company is known as 3M. </h1>
Westerners' requirements for brand names are relatively simple: first, simple and easy to remember; second, not to repeat; third, there will be no misunderstanding in other Chinese, and there should be no insulting meaning to religious beliefs. For safety reasons, some manufacturers simply create a new word, such as Compaq (American computer manufacturer) derived from Compact (computer term, meaning dense, pressed), the end of the word into q, constitutes a new word, it is easy to make people think of the source word, so that the company's industry characteristics are very obvious.