Failure foreign brand

translation cases
A Transition
• While some foreign companies gain more popularities and sale more by adopting
appropriate translation methods ， others failed for some Improper translating tactics.
But in the case of some failed marketing cases, why they failed in Chinese market are
not entirely because of the translation methods but also the character they used.
• As the object of translation, Chinese characters not only carry the function of
reflecting the original pronunciation of the brand, but also reflect and restore the
imagery conveyed by the original name as much as possible
• So whether phonetic-translation or meaningful-translation （ transliteration ） is
used, the first impression the translation give should be consonant with their
products‘ character ， and this is clearly reflected in the choice of Chinese
characters and whether they are hard to memorize. To illustrate this point more
clearly ， the following examples might help.
 1.Too Simple Phonetic-
Translation ： Inaccurate Impression
• Google, from a variant of "googol“ , which is a coined word, from a 9-year-old child's original, the
original meaning refers to the natural number "10^100", this value is the number 1 followed by
1000s, it is very large,—— search engine Google company named it, to express the vision at the
time: "comb through the endless information resources on the Internet".
• Obviously ， it’s hard to paraphrase directly ， so phonetic-translation may be a better choice.
And here comes the Chinese word “ 谷歌” .It’s easy to read and remember ， but the
character“ 谷“ can refer to rice （稻谷） or valleys” （山谷）， while “ 歌“ means sing ，
so this translation is easy to create a idyllic vibe ， which is hard to be associated with an Silicon
Valley-based enterprise.
• Compared with this ，”微软“， as an abbreviation for ” 微型软
件“（ Microsoft ）， sounds simple but seems to have more technological elements inside their
products. With this direct name ， it‘s no wonder that Bill Gates conquered Chinese Market more
smoothly .
• So this failure not only remind us that the Chinese Character‘s meaning matters but also proved
that meaningful-translation is necessarily worse than phonetic-translation ， at least in IT field.
 2. Redundant Phonetic-Translation ： The
Products Are Hard To Read/Memorize
• One of the most important principles of brand translation is to make it shiny and
memorable ， but for some iconic pronunciation or some words with more abstract
parts of speech and meaning ， the deliberate translations may seem
redundant ， since the Chinese characters here have been completely reduced to
phonetic symbols without any their authentic meaning.
• Some brands like IBM 、 Galaxy series from Samsung or the e-book Kindle ， their
authentic name is already catchy enough. If insist on translating them as “ 国际商业机
器公司”（ IBM‘s full name ）、“盖乐世” or “ 点燃 / 激活”， they would
conversely appear to be meaningful redundancy, difficult to memorize, and to be
improperly worded . （ why an object as an e-book ， its name‘s pos is a verb ？）
• Therefore ， when the name of a brand is already easy to remember, contains some
special usage or is related to some unexplainable allusion ， why not just accept and
adopt its original look ？
3.Too Simple Meaningful-Translation
： The Lack Of Product Promotion

• When switching to other field like daily chemical product ， neither

simple and direct phonetic-translation nor meaningful-translation
would be desirable. Just think about it briefly and you'll see ， that if
“Head & Shoulders” is simply translated to “ 头和肩膀” rather than
“ 海飞丝”， consumers would hardly understand the specific
functions and effects of the product though the direct one Indicates
where the product should be used.
• Similarly ， when “Comfort” is translated to“ 舒适” rather than“ 金
纺”， people would only get information about its effect but not its
usage or use.
 What lead to this——Types of products
• For the daily chemical products like cosmetics, shampoo or laundry
detergent ， their functions and consumer groups are more clear and
solid ， they are daily necessities and housewives are the workhorse
consumers .So adopting literal-translation or combine the literal-translation
（ to chose proper Chinese Characters that are capable of reflecting its original
native pronunciation while convey the complete imagery ） is encouraged ， as it
gives the simple uses more vivid expressions ， thus makes them more popular.
• But for those tech digital products ， whose function are richer and more
diverse, and their consumer group is also larger and more complex ， a
translation that is too literal is hard to explain the various complex functions of
the product to various group. To avoid this embarrassing situation ， just take
meaningful translation or just keep the name was already catchy enough
like“IBM” might be easier to expand the business.