BRANDING

Company names, product names, and slogans are one part of the branding process.

Companies literally invest millions of dollars to launch a new product … and then may discover that its name or slogan has a very negative connotation in the target country. Some examples:

• Ford discovered that its Pinto car when introduced in Brazil was slang for “penis.”
• Puff tissues discovered that “Puff” in the UK means a fag (derogatory term for homosexual) and in Germany is a whorehouse.

Auerbach provides the cheapest insurance possible: testing or screening company names, product names, tag lines and slogans before your venture begins. With decades of experience, we have a rapid and cost-effective method to ensure that your desired name or tag line is either positive or neutral in up to ten key languages at a time.

For English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic, we normally evaluate your names in major dialects because languages are spoken differently across countries. For example, a Swedish vacuum cleaner manufacturer launched a TV commercial in the UK and Commonwealth Africa where it made perfect sense. But when the company launched same commercial in the US, the slogan “Nothing sucks like Electrolux” had a slightly different connotation.

Evaluating Chinese is a separate matter because we must consider the written language in both Simplified and Traditional characters as well as their pronunciation in key dialects in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Each region or country has its own slang and word usage that could prove offensive. Rendering product or company names into Chinese involves three possible methods.

Please contact us to discuss your needs.