On translation of brand names.doc

On translation of brand namesContentsAbstract1Keywords2I. Introduction2II. Translation of Brand Names31. The Need for the Translation of Brand Name31.1 Translation of a brand name is as important as its original name.31.2 Translation servers as a medium of communication, making the translation of brand names significant in the commodity trade.32. The Preconditions and Methods for Foreign Brand Name Translation42.1 Preconditions for Foreign Brand Name Translation42.1.1 The semantics association of the translation should cater to the mentality of Chinese consumers.42.1.2 The translation of the brand name should try to reflect what the product is and its features.62.1.3 The translation of the brand name should be simple, concise, easy to remember and have fair-sounding pronunciations.72.2  Methods for Foreign Brand Name Translation82.2.1 Literal translation82.2.2 Transliteration8III. Conclusion10Abstract: Brand name is one of the effective ways to help enterprises to publicize their company identity and better sell their commodities. Starting form the aspect of translation, this paper briefly introduces the general knowledge of commodity brand names and its impact on products in the first part. And in the second part, this paper then mainly deals with the translation of brand names. In the final part, on the basis of the analysis, this paper naturally draws a conclusion concerning the cross-cultural differences in the translation of foreign brand names. Keywords: brand name , translation , cross-culturalI. Introduction With the globalization of economic development , the international trade has become into a very critical power for promoting the economy development of the whole world. The internationality of brand name becoming more and more obvious. Now, the brand name translation is inevitable if the product is expected to enter international market.Along with the acceleration of the economic globalization, especially with China's entry into the World Trade Organization, more and more Chinese have realized the importance of good brand name translations.As stated by an American scholar, “a good translation of a brand name can bring millions of dollars difference in the products sells record.” (qtd. in Bao Huinan, 273) It cannot be denied that sells records and profits are important for the manufacturer. However, a more important significance for a good brand name translation lies in the fact that the name of the product is conducive to the promoting of the product, the enhancing of its fame and competitiveness as well as the cracking down of the counterfeits.For one specific product, its brand name is of great importance. When various kinds of commodities go global, their names travel with them as well. As the trade of commodities expands, brand names of certain products have become very famous and some successful ones gradually get recognized by the whole world. A foreign brand name, no matter how much fame they enjoy globally, will be difficult for Chinese consumers to accept if it does not have an impressive translation into Chinese.The translation of brand name is a kind of intercultural communication, and it should cross the cultural boundary of the target language and conform to people's aesthetic psychology. A successful translation of the brand name should not only transfer its information concerning the commodity or service, but also transfer its cultural significance to the audience in the target culture. This applies particularly to culture-loaded brand names that have different mental associations in different cultures. According to the principle of the functional equivalence, the translated brands names should achieve a perfect linguistic unity among pronunciation, form and meaning.II. Translation of Brand NamesThis part of the paper will first explore the reason why we need to pay attention to the translation of brand names. Then, discussion on preconditions and methods to deal with the translation, combined with specific and representative examples will be followed.1. The Need for the Translation of Brand NameAttention must be paid to the translation of brand names for the following two reasons:1.1 Translation of a brand name is as important as its original name.On one hand, the original brand name is part of the value of the product itself. A strong brand name wins the reputation for the product, keeping the product alive. On the other hand, the translation of the brand name is also crucial to the survival of the commodity in a foreign market. Suppose one product became well-known in its domestic market with its original brand, which rooted deep in the local costumers mind. However, when this product goes to a foreign market, the original brand becomes so unfamiliar that few or even no people recognize it. To regain the popularity it ever had, this product, without doubts, needs to have a good translation of its brand.1.2 Translation servers as a medium of communication, making the translation of brand names significant in the commodity trade. “Language is the carrier of cultureTranslation serves as the bridge of cross-cultural communication.” (Bao Huinan 5, my translation) At present, a products brand name has become an approach for communication.Besides the original brand name, its translation also serves as a medium of communication as translation itself, dealing with different languages, is considered to be a way to communicate. In addition, translation is believed to be a way to exchange ideas and culture, to promote understanding among different countries and nations. (Xu Chongxin 83)  From all these we can see that because translation serves as a medium of communication, translation of brand names plays a very significant role in commodity trade.Therefore, from the two above-mentioned standpoints, it can be seen that attention should also be paid to brand name translations but not only the original ones. Hereto, the reason why translation of brand names worth discussing has already been justified. In the following parts, the preconditions and methods for foreign brand name translation will be explained.2. The Preconditions and Methods for Foreign Brand Name Translation2.1 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:2.1.1 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 designers idea that chewing this gum will be beneficial to peoples teeth.“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.We also should pay attention to that different countries have different cultural backgrounds, and target readers always tend to use their own cultural concept to understand the meaning. Brand name translation which ignores the target cultural background is bound to bring about misunderstandings from the target readership and produce a negative effect. A popular brand name may be a taboo word in another culture. Every nation has its own special culture. Those brand names which offend a national cultural worship will always be a chilles heel for a product.Take “红豆” for example, “红豆” is the brand name of shirt produced in Jiangsu Hongdou Group. The brand name make Chinese people think of a well-known Chinese Tang Dynasty poem, “红豆生南国,春来发几枝.愿君多采撷,此物最相思.” “红豆” will arouse the young people nice feeling in China, and it can make those who has passed their glorious youth review their 红豆 stories in the mind. The brand name benefits form its brand culture nice feeling. That is why 红豆 shirt are widely welcomed among Chinese people. However, if we translate the brand name 红豆 as Red Bean, these associative cultural meaning may be lost. And in the Western culture, red does not represent auspicious. Therefore, it is suggestive that 红豆 be translate into Love Bean. Whats more, sometimes Chinese customers like the character “龙” (loong) very much because the image of loong has already been embedded in their mind.  Loong, 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 loong in Chinese are both imaginary animals but have very different connotations. To Chinese loong is something sacred and has been referred to as the ancestor of the Chinese nation. Therefore, “Citroen”, a French-made car brand, is translated as “雪铁龙”.2.1.2 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.“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 peoples teeth clean and tidy.“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, “Dove”, translated as “德芙”, cannot directly reflect what it is. Actually, “Dove” is a famous brand for chocolate.2.1.3 The translation of the brand name should be simple, concise, easy to remember and have fair-sounding pronunciations.Besides the above-mentioned two prerequisites, a successful translation of brand name should also be very simple, concise and easy for customers to remember.  Also, a fair-sounding pronunciation is essential. Bao Huinan, again in his paper suggests that “another essential principle for the translation of import commodity brand name is that the translation should be concise and easy to memorize.” If the translation sounds too complicated and awkward, people can hardly remember it. Successful translation of brand name will be on everyones lips.“Sprite” and “Fanta”, two soft-drink brands, are translated as “雪碧” and “芬达”, both of which are very easy to remember.“柯达”, translations of “Kodak”, is a brand that Chinese consumers are very familiar with.Examples of such translations are plentiful, like: “Samsung” as “三星”, “Midea” as “美的”, “Sanyo” as “三洋”, “Toshiba” as “东芝”, “Hitachi” as “日立”, “Audi” as “奥迪”, “Buick” as “别克”, “Nike” as “耐克”, “Puma” as “彪马”, “Casio” as “卡西欧”, “Siemens” as “西门子”, “Nokia” as “诺基亚” and “Cannon” as “佳能”.  All such translations use very simple characters that are easy to pronounce and have very fair-sounding pronunciations.To conclude, these three preconditions are vital to the success of the translation. Although it is impossible to achieve all three roles at the same time, efforts should be tried to gain the best result. Sometimes, a good translation holds all these advantages. “Nike” s Chinese translation “耐克” is very short and easy to remember while “耐” means “wearable”, which is just the right word to describe clothes. Thats probably one of the reasons why “Nike” is so popular in China nowadays.2.2  Methods for Foreign Brand Name Translation Speaking of methods of translation, literal translation, free translation and transliteration are always mentioned. In brand name translation, they are also in common use. According to William Wells advertising book, he argues that it is particularly difficult for international companies to adapt to names and product slogans in Chinese. It can be seen then, translating foreign brand names is really a hard nut to crack. To achieve the best effect, sometimes some special methods are also needed.2.2.1 Literal translationLiteral translation of brand names, Bao Huinan explains, is to directly translate the literal meanings of the brand. The advantage is that it conveys the original information of the product. Although it is not feasible for every brand name to be translated literally, literal translation is still put to use by some foreign brands. In order to be able to apply this metho