Which sign should I use to commercialize my products and services in China?
It is a fact that the number of companies from Western countries which try to find a niche in the Chinese market is increasing more and more every day. In the past years, China has been the country which has grown the most regarding the volume of trademark applications filed and, for the moment, it seems that it is going to stay so.
For those trying to enter the Chinese market it is important to get familiar with the Chinese culture and language first. This will increase the chances of being successful in the attempt or will at least reduce the chances of failing because of an unfortunate choice of the sign.
There have been curious cases in the past. A well-known one is that of Coca-cola, Ko kou ko le in Chinese, which means happiness in the mouth. The choice of these words was very appropriate because phonetically they are very similar to the original trademark and the semantic content is a positive one. It is worth mentioning that initially, the trademark applied for was Ke-kou ke-le, but Coca cola suddenly noticed that the meaning of those words in Chinese was “bite the wax tabpole” or “Mare fastened with wax”. Coca cola then reviewed thousands of Chinese characters and finally found the one first mentioned above, which was still phonetically very similar to the original mark and had a positive meaning.
It is advisable to look for a conceptual and at the same time phonetical translation that aims to adapt the original pronunciation of the trademark to Chinese language, and tries to use characters with meanings with some relation to the original trademark or with characteristics we want the product to be associated with. This seems to be the formula with a greater rate of acceptance among Chinese consumers.
Another example where a similar translation was used is that of Cola Cao. The choice of the Chinese trademark is one of the most appropriate ones for advertising purposes. Phonetically, the Chinese characters (Gao-le-gao) are very similar to the original trademark. Furthermore, the chosen characters mean “tall” (Gao) and “happy” (le), qualities that are very appropriate considering the main customers of the product: young people.
A mere phonetic translation of the trademark – which seems to be the most frequent practice – has however several inconveniences. It can be a good option when the trademark is already well known in the Chinese market but it may imply a loss of the original meaning of the trademark – if there is one – or something even worse: the mark may acquire a negative meaning.
A different option is to translate literally the mark when the original trademark has a specific meaning. This is what Apple did. The US company made a strict translation of the trademark to Chinese without considering the phonetic aspects.
There are certainly other options such as the presentation of the original trademark together with its translation in Chinese characters.
In any case, the fact is that the choice of the sign that is going to be applied for or used as a trademark is of great relevance. Even more if we are talking about the Chinese market, which differences with markets in Western countries are many, and not forgetting that there are huge commercial interests involved.
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