Why is that? Let’s look at an example. The U.S. home-sharing service Airbnb announced its Chinese name “Aibiying (爱彼迎)”. It literally means to “welcome each other with love.” Sounds nice, right? However, Chinese consumers have said “it is hard to pronounce two similar-sounding syllables one after the other” and it sounds like “to love to fulfill requests.”
When choosing a Chinese brand name, several factors need to be taken into consideration: the meaning, the sound, the tone and even the look of the Chinese characters. It requires a joint effort among marketing and PR experts, translators as well as consultants. Brand recognition is extremely important, as Chinese consumers are willing to pay a higher price due to a brand’s reputation; therefore, the Swiss Business Hub China supports Swiss companies with brand naming as the first step of a localized branding strategy.
“We are able to help you find relevant experts to choose a Chinese brand name that works.”
Register your Trade Mark in China
The best-chosen Chinese brand name will not be of use to you unless you make sure that no one else is allowed to print it on his or her products. Chinese trademark protection law follows a first-to-file principle, which means the application filed earlier successfully will first be approved. For Swiss companies planning to enter the Chinese market, it is highly recommended to register the trademark beforehand to ensure “trademark goes before marketing”.
It is important to note that the registration of a trademark in Roman characters and the registration of the trademark in Chinese should be filed separately; a registration in Roman characters does not automatically protect the same or similar Chinese version as a trademark.
For further information and instructions on how to choose a Chinese brand name, see the report in the download section.
