The Preconditions and Methods for Foreign Brand Name Translation

B. The Preconditions and Methods for Foreign Brand Name Translation 1. Preconditions for Foreign Brand Name TranslationBrand names of import commodities are created by foreign manufacturers and advertising designers, thus they inevitably contain different cultures characteristics. When they enter the Chinese market, they will mainly face Chinese consumers. Whether they can win the market share and the favor of Chinese customers depends greatly on their brand name translation. A good translation will have enormous impact, though invisible, on consumers’ mentality. (Bao Huinan 281) To work out a good translation, the following preconditions should be considered in the first place:a. The semantics association of the translation should cater to the mentality of Chinese consumers.Differences in different countries’ social systems, natural environments, religious beliefs, customs, thoughts and languages bring various semantic associations to people, creating all kinds of obstacles and difficulties for translation. (Bao Huinan 22) As Chinese people prefer those characters that contain favorable meanings like luck, happiness, success, beauty, elegance, preciousness, beneficial, healthy, energetic and those can express propitious, good and promising ideas, characters like “吉” (luck), “乐”, “喜” (happiness, joy), “佳” (fine, good), “宝” (preciousness), “美” (beauty), “雅” (elegance), “益” (beneficial), “健” (healthy), “能” (capability, energetic), “富” (rich, abundant) are usually used.“Coca-cola”, a famous beverage brand, is one typical example that cannot be neglected when talking about brand name translation. Its Chinese translation “可口可乐” is so prevailing that everybody in China knows it nowadays. “可口” means “tasty” in Chinese and “乐” means happiness, which seemingly tells the customers that drinking it brings happiness. “百事可乐”, the translation of another famous coke drink, “Pepsi-Cola” is another good example similar to “Coca-cola”. “Extra”, a chewing gum brand, is translated as “益达”, of which “益” implies that it is beneficial to people, reflecting the designer’s idea that chewing this gum will be beneficial to people’s teeth. “Hershey’s” and “Cadbury”, two chocolate brands, are translated into “好时” and “吉百利”, making use of the characters like “好”, “吉” and “利” to link customers’ thoughts with luck and good fortune. “Heineken”, a brand for beer, is translated as “喜力”, with a character “喜” meaning “happiness”. “Avon”, “Maybelline” and “Nivea”, three cosmetic brands, have very beautiful Chinese translation: “雅芳”, “美宝莲” and “妮维雅” respectively, which make use of characters like “雅”, “美” to emphasize their potential ability to beautify people. What’s more, sometimes Chinese customers like the character “龙” (dragon) very much because the image of dragon has already been embedded in their mind. Dragon, for the Chinese nation, is the symbol of power and heavenliness so they will have a special preference for this animal which does not exist. As Chen Dezhang from Beijing Foreign Studies University points out that the dragon in English and 龙 in Chinese are both imaginary animals but have very different connotations. To Chinese 龙 is something sacred and has been referred to as the ancestor of the Chinese nation. Therefore, “Denon”, a brand for Hi-Fi products, is translated as “天龙” and “Citroen”, a French-made car brand, is translated as “雪铁龙”.www.lunwenwang.com 论文网在线b. The translation of the brand name should try to reflect what the product is and its features.Before customers see the product with their own eyes, they will guess what the product is from its brand name. As soon as the product enters a market, the designed brand name should immediately indicate its target customers, therefore, the translation of the brand should also has the same effect of the original one, thus it can play an inevitable role in promoting the product in the new market. (Bao Huinan 282) To gain popularity in the Chinese market, it is essential for an import commodity to have a translated brand name that can reflect its feature so Chinese consumers can easily recognize it. “Enfagrow”, translated as “安儿宝”, is a milk powder brand. “儿”, meaning “baby”, “children” and “宝”, meaning “treasure” imply that this product is good for babies and children. “Safeguard”, a brand for soap and bathing lotion, is translated as “舒肤佳”. Here “舒” means “comfort” and “肤” means “skin”. So this translation will leave the impression to people that this soap or lotion can bring comfort to the skin. “Colgate”, a brand for toothpaste, is translated as “高露洁” with the character “洁” meaning “clean”, indicating that it can make people’s teeth clean and tidy. “Saridon”, a painkiller, translated into Chinese as “散利痛”, utilizes the character “散” (ease, dispel), “利” (be good for) and “痛” (pain) to indicate that it can ease people’s pain. “Benz” and “Porche”, two famous automobile brands, are translated as “奔驰” and “保时捷” with “奔”, “驰” and “捷” all meaning going very fast. “Reebok”, a brand for running shoes, is translated as “锐步”. “锐” (sharp, vigor) and “步” (foot) all serve to convey the features of the product. However, there are also translated brand names that cannot arouse customers’ association with the products. For example, “Mentos”, translated as “曼妥思”, “Dove”, translated as “德芙”, cannot directly reflect what they are. Actually, “Mentos” is a kind of candy and “Dove” is a famous brand for chocolate.