Brand Matters: Is English Good Enough?
Robert C. Sprung can be reached at robert@tippingsprung.com. TippingSprung (New York City) offers brand strategy, naming, and design services with a focus on the needs of technology companies.
A recent survey takes a look at brand extensions.
By Robert C. Sprung,TippingSprung LLC
We keep hearing that “English is the world’s language.” If this were true, the job of a beauty product marketer would theoretically be much easier. We could create a single English name for our products around the world, and a single set of labels, marketing materials, and documentation.
It is true that there is little chance of a universal language like Esperanto being adopted any time soon. Meanwhile, English is probably the next best thing. Given what’s at stake—the large expense of product development, translation, and packaging—we all need to keep the issue on our radar screen. We look at general considerations as well as implications in product names.
Not All English Is the Same
There simply is no universal English. And even among those who say they speak English, one cannot assume understanding of nuance.
The first rule in using English is to keep it simple by editing to remove any regionalisms, slang, or local cultural references. Secondary meanings and puns are among the first things that should go.
It is true that many English words are ubiquitous, such as “love,” “Internet,” or “business.” But the ubiquity of these terms is also their downfall—they are unprotectable and almost impossible to make proprietary.
Many English words are given other names outside our borders. For example, the French say “tennisman”—their “English” version of “tennis player.” The German use the word “Partnerlook” (the situation when a couple wear coordinated fashions). Or consider the common Japanese terms “mass-komi” (mass communications) or “paso-kon” (personal computer). Thus, what you think is the common English version abroad might not be.
Names
When coming up with a name for international use, there are three core strategies: a name with a Latinate or similar universal root that will resonate around most of the globe (unfortunately, most of these were taken long ago); an English name that most people will relate to; or a made-up or proper name (like Altria) that will not offend people anywhere, one hopes.
Here, too, many pitfalls await the unwary. Even common English terms must be tested for appropriateness. For example, the word “sale” means “dirty” in French, while the evocative “mist” means “manure” in German.
Pronunciation of English is another key issue often overlooked. Many sounds in English don’t exist in other languages (e.g., “v” isn’t present in Chinese), while many are tongue-twisters (“th” is one example of many).
Even seemingly innocuous English names need to be tested for appropriateness. We recently came across CoE, which stood for the nautical term “center of effort.” A British colleague saw the name and immediately said, “That means Church of England.” A proper international name check will look for potential bad connotations.
Also, think twice if your name relies on wordplay. The name “Staples” uses clever wordplay, but you would be lucky if the average consumer abroad understood the pun.
Finally, once you find an English-based name that works around the world, you then have to worry about trademark protection. To cite one example in this labyrinthine field: in France, a foreign word is considered protectable as a trademark, even if that term is generic in its home market. This means that a company that goes by the name “Altria Realtors” might run into a problem because someone had reserved the word “realtors” in the French market (which would be considered purely descriptive here in the US).