A Brief Talk on Brand Name Translation

A Brief Talk on Brand Name Translation

Abstract：Now walking on the street, we can see a variety of trademarks. Trademark is a sign that the commodity producer or operator has a notable feature in order to distinguish himself from other people's goods..。Therefore, in the commodity circulation, the trademark is the symbol of the commodity. Some trademark is just a word, some Brand Name is just a simple image pattern, and some trademark is the combination of graphics and text. With the help of trademark propaganda, a good corporate image has become an important way to tap the international market potential and promote the development of international trade.. . Brand Name translation is to transform the brand from one language into another, and to keep the original style and content.. Now more and more foreign goods are crowding into the Chinese market.. If successfully translation of English Trademarks into Chinese trademark has become a lot of businesses and translators to consider the problem, and Chinese brands if there is intention to enter the international market, must also be considered how the Chinese trademark translation has become a good English trademark.

Key word: English Brand Name ；translation method ; translation principle;

一.Introduction

Brand Name translation is the process from decoding to coding and the process of recreating and further processing. A good trademark translation may bring an enterprise huge wealth, whereas a bad one may let an enterprise suffer great loss. Therefore, an enterprise’s future is closely linked with trademark translation.

二.The Principles of Brand Name Translation

1: local cultural characteristics principle

Our coutry has a long history of cultural traditions, and brand a certain brand of literary content, both to enhance the grade of the business, but also to attract consumers deeply. Such as Johnson (baby skincare) translated as "强生"; Reebok (sports

shoes) translation as "锐步". Their common is to grasp the principle of brand translation, that is to take the local culture as the keynote of the principle.

2: taking into account the target market belief, the national tradition and customs principles

A very important problem in brand translation is to prevent the failure of wording.. . This failure is not a term referring to general wording in the language used wrongly, but refers to the inappropriate translation or expressions do not comply with the habit causes the no communication to obtain the desired effect of mistakes.For example, a agricultural product trademark of China's exports is “Dongfeng”, the original intention of the warm, vibrant wind. But the English name is EastWind.

3: simple, loud translation must conform to the target language habits, with trying to be brief, and easy to remember Translalion need to consider the psychological features of the language. Loud and flowing is associated, which requires to comply with the translation of Chinese language characteristics and the Han nationality language. Such as BWM translated as "宝马", translated by Boeing for 波音, Kdak as "柯达", these brands, with clear pronunciation fluently, writing short and easy to remember, the translation of interesting features, so can quickly obtain public recognition.

4: emboding the principle of the product attributes or characteristics

As the special name of the specific product, brand plays an important role in the publicity of the goods.. If the brand name reflects certain attributes of the product, then the consumer can quickly get informations of the type, function or target consumer of the product. Such as: McDonald 's, Kodak, Audi underscored the culture of foreign products (brand) information; Coca - cola, McComick, Dumex display the food products; rejoice, feather, head & shoulders and other all indicates the type of product, and point out the effect. The translation has the advertisement effect, but also conducive to memory.

5: Complying with principle of consumer psychology in the target market

Foreign products want to enter into the Chinese market, according to the psychological characteristics of Chinese consumers, take corresponding strategies and translate into the name of specific psychological groups. For instance, when youth pursue modern fashion, "McDonald's" and "KFC" with the translation’s names of foreign flavor are more conformed to the young Psychology of the foreign , however, "Pizza Hut"- this Chinese translated name is attracted no one

二: Methods of Brand Name Translation

The final goal of brand name translation is to achieve the brand name’s informational function．Translation of brand names need not only preserve the essence of the source language but al- so conform to the consumers’ psychology．In the process of translating brand names，choosing the translating ways is very important．Translating different brand names need to choose different ways．It depends on the own features of the brand names and the characteristics of target language．

1 Transliteration

Transliteration is translating the name according to its pronunciation．It is a usual method in translation brand names，of- ten brings customers a kind of foreign style．By transliteration，the most obvious benefit is to preserve the beauty in pronunciation of the source language brand names．For instance,Disney(迪斯尼), Cadillac (卡迪拉克),Gillette (吉列) ,Benz (奔驰) , Sony (索尼) ,Nokia (诺吉亚) , Kodak(柯达) ,Nike (耐克)etc. Transliteration has great advantage that is it just gets the pronunciations from English and put them into Chinese characters so that it can hardly create any misunderstanding background surroundings．However，it also plays an important role in translation of brand names．

2 Literal translation

Experts of different fields define literal translation in different ways．In translation of brand names，literal translation is“an often used method，being translated to the acceptors’language with the same or similar meanings，according to the

connotation of original trademark，on the condition the applied meaning be accepted eagerly by consumers in another international marks”．In a word，literal translation of brand name refers to the way to translate the source language words into the target language according to its original meaning and indication．Generally，literal translation can embody the original intention and expectation of creators of the brand，and can unify with the brand patterns．

For instance, Fair lady (贵夫人), American Stan2dard(美标), crown (皇冠), good companion (良友), beauty and health (美丽健), apple (苹果) etc, these translated names have a significant feature which is just as its name imply meaning----it’s easy to enable consumers to trigger associations, can't help bringing about goodwill for goods , in order to be conducive to product promotion.

3. Free translation

A free translation is a way of translation that cares more about the true meaning of the original text. Languages are not equivalents to each other.Therefore, a successful translation has to pay much attention to the effects. As we can see, free translation is widely used in translation of foreign brand names. It pays more attention on the tr ue meaning and the information which the brand gives us, so that people can tell what the goods is all about without any intr oduction.

4. Mixed translation

Mixed translation means to mix transliteration and literal translation together within one brand name．Actually，it is a high standard of brand name trans- lation．For example ,Goldlion (金利来) 、Safeguard ( 舒肤佳) , Truly ( 信利) , Tide ( 汰渍) , Pantene ( 潘婷)，Canon (佳能)，Coca cola (可口可乐) ,Pepsi cola (百事可乐) 、Desist (敌杀死) , Avon (雅芳) ,Arche (雅倩) ,Crest (佳洁士) ,Robust (乐百氏)等。The success of translated names is that they give full consideration

to the Chinese cultural psychological demand in the choice of words. Once looking at a brand, people will produce good mood and accepted psychology, then promote their buying motives.

5. Creative translation

Creative translation refers to the translation of brand names in which there is no intrinsic relation between the source language words and their version in the target language，and translators creatively convert the words from the source language to the target language．A typical example is America Sprite soda. The original intention of the word is "naughty ghost, the elf". Westerners think this name is fresh and interesting, so they like to buy, but the Chinese people do not agree with it. It is now translated as "雪碧", based on the homonym and additional meaning ,which let a person produce the feeling of thirst, cool.

4. Conclusion

From above analysis, we can see that can make the target readers and the original readers to get roughly the same understanding and feelings, in a great extent, requires the translator to fully consider the target readers, in-depth understanding of the cultural connotation of the target language, adhere to the social and cultural habits and cater to the public aesthetic psychology, to avoid the mistakes in the translation. Only accomplish know fairly well, we can grasp the adjustment of translation principles, to ensure the effect of translation.

a good or bad trademark may determine the international destiny of the commodity with the brand.. Translator of trademark should be aware of the country's traditional culture and consumer’s psychology, for forming the national customs through thousands years, we should give the necessary respect, meanwhile will affect the sales of exportable merchandise.

References

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2.黄彬.浅谈商标翻译[J].大庆师范学院学报,2005,第25卷第1期:P89

3.李丹, 浅谈商标翻译的原则和策略[J](辽宁对外经贸学院,辽宁大连116052)2009年第8期