Starting a business, launching a new product or simply looking for a new start; those are a few of the reasons that lead people to seek names for their brands. Once the decision to look for a name has been made, the next obvious question is: How do you name a brand? In the past, traditionally, most companies would take their founder’s name – usually because the companies would be passed from father to son for generations. On top of…
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Globalisation is widely associated with the English language, the common language of the business world and social media, however despite English being the most used language online, it is still just one of over a thousand languages spoken in the world. Zimbabwe alone has sixteen official languages, so when we are to imagine the release of a new foreign brand in Zimbabwe, we can safely assume that on first sight the locals wouldn’t all pronounce it in the same way….
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The feeling towards the mergers and acquisitions market seems optimistic for 2014, with most investment banks reporting growing numbers of deals in the pipeline. These landmark events for firms aim to create synergies, and brand value is a crucial factor, however only around half of these attempts actually succeed. One of the most common reasons for failure is conflict between the two entities, and it’s no surprise this is linked to the biggest killer for brands – brand confusion. Clear,…
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Gianluca Billo, Managing Director of Nomen Italy, tells us about the macro naming trends in fashion in his column “Naming Trends” in the Pubbico Today. The fashion world has developed, over time, two major naming trends, identifiable with two well-defined types. The more traditional brand made ??of a name + surname (or surname only) is reminiscent of high fashion and has become a genre, a code: name and surname of the creator, designer, entrepreneur, reference to the house. Whereas…
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Does the ideal name really exist? Let’s take the example of IKEA, one of the most famous brands worldwide, easy to read and to pronounce all over the world. Is it pronounced the same way everywhere? Not really. Let’s have a closer look at the Chinese market. In China, the name IKEA (actually the sound IKEA), has been changed in order to suit their logographic language. It sounds like “Yi Jia” that recalls the occidental phonetics and means “comfortable…
Read more >It is well-known that the Chevy Nova was a failure in Spanish-speaking markets because “nova” translates as “no-go”. That’s not the kind of message you want to transmit in a car name. It may be well-known, but it’s also untrue – the translation is inaccurate and, in any case, the car was a success. But that doesn’t mean that linguistic howlers don’t occur all the time. There are three types of error to avoid. Firstly, the inadvertent use of words…
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