| There is a sudden realization among key developers in Dubai and Middle Eastern countries that hotels and hospitality in Arabia can easily absorb a huge number of properties and tour destinations purely based on Islamic culture. These new brands will deliver all the traditional values and customs to accommodate familiar authentic experiences for Muslims traveling alone or with their families. These new brands will address how Muslim needs are met and how they want to be treated.
Lost in Global Translation?
What are customers around the world saying about the new booming Middle
Eastern
brands? What are they reading in the brand-names? Which ones are they
loving
and talking about? Which ones can they pronounce, type and remember
easily? Are
these new local brands leading the charge for global mindshare,
creating presence
of greatness, or are they seriously lost in global translation?
Currently, 99% of mega Middle Eastern projects are being branded under
Arabic-based
names, which are mostly foreign to international audiences while some
are projecting
mixed messages due to translation, and impose very serious limitations
to brand
name appreciation, prolonging high costs in obtaining global mindshare.
To appreciate this dilemma, unless you are fluent in Japanese, try to
make sense
out of a fancy scripted Japanese name with some deeply rooted cultural
message
with rich heritage. For this reason, over half a century ago, the global image-savvy
corporate Japan
developed all major brand names based on international rules of
translations,
negative connotations and pronunciations which fitted mass global
appeal, making
the names easy to talk about, spell and remember. Contrary to belief,
on global
branding, America really provided the largest battleground for
branding, as it
was the Japanese that truly laid the systematic foundation on what
makes globally
accepted and universal name-identities fit enough to conquer global
image.
Decades ahead, Japan was on the forefront of creating global brands,
like Toyota,
Minolta, Sony, Pentax, Sharp, Panasonic, Canon and hundreds of other
five star
standard names, as names originating from Japanese language would have
never
allowed such global acceptance. Surprisingly today, China is caught
into too
many local language based name-brands that seriously inhibits
internationalization
of the name-identity. Very bad for a country that’s now recognized as
the world’s
largest factory, and by now, would have easily claimed hundreds of
globally popular
names. India currently sits in the middle. Being more open to
non-local-language-naming,
it is now on its way to becoming the next global powerhouse of domestic
brands,
In order to truly benefit with these global intricacies and having a
vision to
acquiring universal name identities, one must bite the bullet first,
and be open
to a frank and candid boardroom level discussions in micro detail; a process
demanding a commanding knowledge of global business naming procedures,
corporate
nomenclature and many other different skills unheard of in the
traditional
logo-centric-slogan-happy branding process.
After all, the prime objective of any brand name is to spread its wings
and fly
in expanding markets, something only possible when names are without extra luggage.
A for Arabic Naming
Currently, in the Middle East, the traditional long branding process
ends in an Arabic name, often starting with the letter “A”, a most
intricate logo with colorful schemes, something extremely difficult to appreciate or decipher on
the global markets. Any assembly of the top 50 names and their logos
would clearly
spill out the global challenges facing this process. Does this now mean
that
we should abandon Arabic words or start discussing prospects for
depending on
the letters “B” or “C”? Not at all. It means we should be aware
that the alphabet
of each language has hidden characters, strengths, weaknesses and
related trends;
it’s not a simple question of the cut-and-paste solution of inserting
letters
into famous or already existing name brands.
Naming from the English Dictionary has also been a common problem in
the West
decades ago. At one time, there were hundreds of companies in the USA called
Dynamic, Quantum, Prism or Rainbow, as they sounded so powerful and
fresh, but
eventually died out due to worldwide name confusions.
Furthermore, global e-commerce and the use of digital branding for domain names clearly points to a
serious
need for highly-specialized skills.
It is also very important to note that despite the seeming dominance of
English,
there are some 2,700 different languages with 8,000 dialects around the
world.
Altogether, there are 12 important language families with 50 lesser
ones. Indo-European is the largest family in which English is the most important category. Based on usage by population, the following is a list of major
languages in descending order: Chinese, English, Hindustani, Russian, Spanish, Indonesian, Portuguese,
French, Arabic, Bengali, Mali and Italian.
"Nay" is yes to Greeks. The American "yeah" means "no" to the
Japanese. A simple
laugh -- "ha, ha, ha" -- means "mother" in Japanese, while "Ohio" means
good
morning. In Russia, "looks" means "opinion" and "socks" means "juice."
In France, a simple sign of "sale" means "dirty." To the British, long distance is a "trunk,"
sister a "nurse" and elevator a "lift." The Chinese word "mai" said in
a certain
style means to "buy" and in another style to "sell." When enunciated
together, "mai mai" means "business." The simplicity turns into complex marketing
challenges.
Global understandings of these issues are pre-requisite in achieving a
globally
acceptable name-identity. Recommendations:
We all better be wary of language issues; customers are no longer
simply local
to your streets; they are scattered all over the globe, local to their
own streets,
yet still somehow connected together. The next branding challenge for
the Middle
East is to acquire a deeper understanding of universal image and identity management.
Best, conduct a highly professional third-party-nomenclature-audit; businesses,
convinced that that they have the best and well known name-identity are
often
surrounded by their own people, current customer base and current
markets. The
real challenge is to measure the unknown customer base at large, new
and untapped
territories and unheard of connotations and language issues and where
the name
is either being rejected or taken as too confusingly difficult therfore
not worthy
to be remembered at all.
If the ultimate goal is to acquire globally
recognized
name identities, then name personalities are only good when they are
liked and
understood by the global audience. So why stay lost in global
translations?
Special Offer: Email your current business names plus its domain name
for comments
and a complimentary Global Name Evaluation from ABC Namebank. However,
naming
analysis is a very serious business, so please identify your title and
provide
some background details about your company and how that name is used.
Extreme confidentiality is assured. info@abcnamebank.com
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Naseem Javed is recognized as a world authority on Corporate Image and Global Cyber-Branding. Author of Naming for Power , he introduced The Laws of Corporate Naming in the 80's and also founded ABC Namebank International www.abcnamebank.com a consultancy established in Toronto and New York a quarter century ago. Currently, Naseem is on a lecture tour in Asia and can be reached at nj@njabc.com |
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