Kathy
As a linguistic symbol, a brand name usually embodies the culture and image of its enterprise and contains the value of its goods. Choosing a good brand name is really significant for multinational corporations in selling products to international markets, especially in the current trend of economic globalization. In the article named Whetting Your Appetite, the authors mentioned that plenty of companies get international brand names wrong and their products’ name even becomes a laughing stock (Kelly and Zetzsche, 2012, p. 150). Then, what brand name should a multinational company choose when entering a foreign market?
In order to better answer this question, I would like to analyze some successful and well-known multinational brand names. For example, IKEA was originally composed of the initials of two founders, but it was named as “宜家”（yí jiā）in Chinese. This name came from a poem in 《诗经》(Shijing, also translated as the Book of Songs, the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry). The original verses are “桃之夭夭，灼灼其华。之子于归，宜其室家”，which used the fruits of the peach tree and the shady branches of the peach tree to symbolize the happy marriage. This name not only referred to the classics, but also took phonetics and semantics into consideration, which has high aesthetic value. After seeing this name, Chinese people may believe that buying furniture from IKEA can make their lives more pleasant and comfortable. There is no doubt that having a good name is one of the biggest reasons that IKEA is popular in China.
Furthermore, the naming story of Coca-Cola in China also shows the characteristics that successful multinational brand names should have. When Coca-Cola first started selling its products in China, it directly transliterated the original English name, using “蝌蚪啃蜡” （kē dǒu kěn là）(“tadpoles bite the wax”) as the brand name in China, without considering its meaning and social acceptance. Thus, every time when people saw that dark beverage, they would think about that weird image. As a result, Chinese people did not pay any attention to this product. Fortunately, Coca-Cola changed its brand name into “可口可乐”（ kě kǒu kě lè）（“allowing the mouth to rejoice”）and greatly increased its sales volume in China (Kelly and Zetzsche, 2012, p. 152).
The analysis of the above examples shows that consumers’ sociolinguistic backgrounds shape their responses to brand names. A good brand name must not only be novel and unique, but also conform to the specific sociolinguistic background of the target market, as it is influenced by a variety of sociolinguistic factors, such as values, language, culture and customs, etc (Li & Shooshtari, 2003). Some strategies, such as pun, alliteration, and metaphor can be applied in brand names to stimulate the purchasing desire of consumers better.
Therefore, with international trade continues to increase year by year, the selection of multinational brand names is becoming more and more crucial in expanding international markets and boosting consumption, which acts as the bond among international consumers and companies. Corresponding, multinational companies should keep in mind that they not only have to improve their products’ quality, but also have to create a proper and novel brand name that can attract people’s attention and get the favor of local people with specific sociolinguistic characteristics. “At the very least, a good brand name can prevent consumers from putting an item back on the shelf before they even give a try (Kelly and Zetzsche, 2012, p. 152).”
Question: Have you ever encountered any brand names that contain sociolinguistic features? Do you know any brands that have different names when facing different target markets?
References
Kelly, N., & Zetzsche, J. O. (2012). Found in translation: How language shapes our lives and transforms the world. TarcherPerigee.
Li, F., & Shooshtari, N. H. (2003). Brand naming in China: Sociolinguistic implications. Multinational Business Review.
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%AF%97%E7%BB%8F/168138
Hi Kathy, it is such an interesting topic that I have a lot to say! I think the topic covers not only the sociolinguistic theory but also psychology and advertising, though I could not name the exact theories 🙂 Like you said, brand name could change a lot when targeting to different markets, since people have their own preference in different culture zones.
Some excellent brand names I could come up with are LEGO(乐高), Benz(奔驰),Uber(优步) and Polaroid（宝丽莱/拍立得). Umm, different names when facing different markets? I am not sure, but I know people may have different understandings/translations to the same name. Also, not only the name, but also the logo, the slogan of an international company should be thought carefully to cater for the needs of more cultures.
Anna
Multinational brands need to be very careful when choosing their names. As much as a name may seem like a small issue it may ruin a brand that would be successful. Consumers may form a bad attitude towards a brand because of it name just like in the example of Coca Cola that you stated. A company may be lucky to choose a good brand name and it acts as the marketing strategy. I agree with you that consumers’ sociolinguistic backgrounds shape their responses to brand names. In some cases a brand may be forced to change its name when targeting a new market because the name may not be appealing to majority of the population in the target market.
Chaoyang Zhang