The national image of global brands
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DR YING FAN is principal lecturer in marketing at the University of Lincoln in England. Previously he has held positions at the Universities of Durham and Hertfordshire. Before coming to the UK in 1988, he worked in various organisations in China, including the State Economic Commission and Nixdorf Computer. His main research interests are in the area of branding and marketing communications, and cross-cultural management issues.
Abstract As the Chinese use characters based on ideograms, international brands have to choose a proper Chinese name for the market.This paper presents the findings from a detailed study of the Chinese names of 100 international brands along three dimensions: translation methods, cultural values and brand positioning.The main findings are: first, that in choosing a new name the meaning is given more emphasis than its sound, although it is still desirable to maintain phonetic links to the original. Secondly, after linguistic issues, the three most important factors affecting renaming are reflecting product benefits, brand positioning and cultural values.The translation gives an international brand not just a Chinese name, but also a distinctive local image. Finally, global brand and local image is a paradox to be addressed. In previous studies, localising an international brand is largely viewed as a passive translation process.This study has shown that renaming can be a value-added process. It provides an opportunity to recast the brand in the new market, creating a unique global-local image that enhances the original’s brand equity.
INTRODUCTION
Ying Fan Department of Marketing, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln LN6 7TS, UK Tel: 01522 886345; E-mail: [email protected]
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In the middle of the 19th century, China was forced to open its doors by gunboats from Western powers. The introduction of foreign thoughts and literature followed the development of trade and other exchanges. Translation became not only a technique but a form of art. It still remains as a mystery today that while Westerners were generally hated or feared by the people in the Middle Kingdom as ‘uncivilised barbarians’ or ‘foreign devils’, who brought to China nothing but suffering and humiliation, their countries were given glorious names in Chinese (Table 1). For example, China was forced to pay war reparations in mountains of gold and silver plus the lease of Hong Kong to Britain after the defeats in two Opium Wars. However, Britain was still given an image that it hardly deserved: ‘a heroic country blessed with good
fortune’. The same flattering translation was also used to other Western countries with one exception: Portugal, for some bizarre reason, was named as ‘Grape Tooth’ in Chinese. When China opened its doors again in 1979, it became what was called the last and largest consumer market in the world. For many international companies entering the Chinese market, the first barrier they encountered was the language. As the Chinese use characters based on ideograms and the majority of people are
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