Problems of Today’s Trademark Translation (II)

 

3.Suggested resolutions

The problems mentioned above suggest that trademark translation is still not satisfying. One of the most important causes of those problems, in my view, is that both translators and manufacturers have not put response of customers at the first place.

 

“A trademark has an existence separated from an actual product or service: it has a life of its own”(Randall, G., 1997, p.4). The quality of translation of a trademark will directly influence the sales of the product. In my view, translators should consider “elegance” or aesthetic factors in trademark translation; while manufacturers, especially Chinese ones, should try to internationalize their trademarks to better adapt to the market.

 

3.1 Aesthetic factors

 

A good translation is always supposed to follow the rules of “faithfulness, smoothness and elegance”, of which “faithfulness” is always regarded as the basic criterion. However, since the chief function of trademark translation is to attract foreign customers, the response of foreign customers (or receptors of translation), should be the most important criterion. In the eyes of customers, trademark translated in consideration of aesthetic factors are usually more attractive. Therefore, both “faithfulness” and “smoothness” should be subjected to “elegance” in trademark translation. “It is more important to be as beautiful as the original.” (Xu Yuanchong, 2000, p. 2). The priority of “elegance” will influence the adoption of different approaches.

 

Since the aesthetic values of customers include two parts: one is the aesthetic requirement for form and the other is the aesthetic requirement for content (Wang Xiaoxu, 1994, p.35). Therefore, an “elegant” translation of trademark should include both formal beauty and contextual beauty.

 

3.1.1 Formal beauty

 

The formal beauty of a translated trademark mainly refers to its pleasant pronunciation. Different pronunciation may arouse different psychological reactions (He Chuansheng, 1997, P.117). Many English-Chinese trademark translations sound beautiful and clear in terms of pronunciation. For instance, “派克”(“Parker”), “柯达”(“Kodak”), “夏普”(“Sharp”)and “捷安特”(“Giant”).

 

According to Nida (1982), translators should “exploit the potentiality of the target language to the greatest extent” (p.4). Chinese have its own advantages compared to English. For instance, every Chinese character is a phonetic and semantic combination. Thanks to so many homonyms in Chinese, translators have many choices of Chinese characters for one pronunciation. Thus, translators can select those Chinese characters with the most suitable meaning according to different features of products. That is the approach called semantic transliteration, which is now regarded as “the best strategy in trademark translation”. (Bao Huinan, 2001, p. 286)

 

The most successful example is “可口可乐”(“Coca-Cola”). The translated version not only imitates alliteration like the original one, but also helps to arouse favorable associations of customers. The translated version has become even more successful than the original trademark. Another example is “可伶可俐”(“Clean & Clear”), which also achieves satisfactory effects through the similar method.

 

3.1.2 Contextual beauty

 

The meaning of a trademark includes two parts: referential meaning and associative meaning (Tan zaixi, 1999, p.176). A well-translated trademark should not only sound pleasant, but also convey beautiful “referential and associative meaning” to customers.

 

A cosmetic brand “Relvon” is rendered as “露华浓”, which is cited from a famous classic Chinese Tang poem by Li Bai: “云想衣裳花想容, 春风拂槛露华浓.” The translated trademark not only sounds similar to the original trademark in pronunciation, but also indicates that the cosmetic will bring beauty and elegance to women. Another brand of detergent product called “Safeguard”, is translated into Chinese as “舒肤佳”, ingeniously indicating the feature of the product. In fact, many foreign trademarks are good examples, such as “飘柔” (“Rejoice”),　“高露洁”(“Colgate”), “奥妙” (“OMO”), “锐步”(“Reebok”), “雪碧”(“Sprite”), “潘婷”(“Pantene”), “雅芳”(“Avon”), “玉兰油”(“Oil of Olay”), “汰渍”(“Tide”), “席梦思”(“Simmons”), “奔腾”(“Pentium”), “固特异”(“Goodyear”), “佳洁士”(“Crest”) and “强生”(Johnson’s). All those translations bravely break the bound of the original meaning. They cleverly combined phonetic transcription and semantic manipulation by exploiting the advantage of Chinese characters to fit the different features of different products.

 

Some Chinese trademarks are also well translated in the similar way. “瑞鹊”, a brand of plastic utensil has its English name called “Richway”, which not only avoids possible unfavorable association aroused by literal translation, but also brings customers good blessings. Some other Chinese trademarks are also well rendered. For instance, “雅戈尔” is translated as “Youngor”, “方正”as “Founder”, “万家乐” turns to be “Macro”, “海信” as “Hisense”, “美的”as “Midea”(a clever combination of “my idea”), “华帝” as “Vantage”, “格力” is translated as “Gree” (looking similar to “agree”), “西泠” as “Serene” and “回力” as “Warrior”.

 

Sometimes, according to different aesthetic values of different translators and various product features, the same trademark can be translated into different versions. For example, the trademark “Best” have several versions like “百思特”, “百德” and “倍舒特” which are the trademarks for pagers, hot water heater and napkins respectively. “超级” (the brand of a kind of oatmeal) and “优博”(the brand of a kind of milk powder) are the different renderings of “Super”. Another example is “Welcome”, which is translated as “卫康” and “胃康”respectively for the different products of contact lens and toothpaste.

 

Sometimes, translators will change the original meaning of trademarks in translation according to Chinese psychology and logic. (Jia Wenbo, 2000, p.127). For instance, a famous French perfume called “Poison”, is rendered into Chinese as “百爱神”. “Gold Lion” is not literally translated as “金狮”, because in Chinese, “金狮” sounds the same to “金失”, which means to lose money. It is translated as “金利来”, which turns to mean to earn more money.

 

Since “meaning can never be wholly separated from expressive form” (Steiner, 1998, p.252), in trademark translation, formal beauty and contextual beauty are of equal importance. They are so closely related to each other that neither could be neglected.

 

3.2 Internationalization of Chinese trademarks

 

With globalization being the current trend, manufacturers, especially those Chinese ones, should try to internationalize their trademarks to survive in the fierce competition in the market. An internationalized trademark should be “easy to understand and pronounce in any language”. It marks a new stage in trademark translation. (Li Xiaolin, 1994, p.208). Some Chinese manufacturers have already realized the importance of internationalization of their trademarks. For instance, the English trademark of “宏基” is “Acer”, which is a new-coined word. It breaks the traditional rules in trademark translation and fully exploits the advantage of English language. Since “A” is the first letter in the alphabet, the trademark initiated by “A” often occurs in the beginning part of product list, thus can easily draw the attention of customers. “Acer” looks similar to “Ace”, so it would easily arouse the association of “outstanding” and “excellent”.

 

“Legend”(“联想”), “Serene”(西泠”), “Frestech”(“新飞”), “MAXAM”(“美加净”), “Skyworth”(“创维”), “Shinco”(“新科”) and “Gree”(“格力”) are all examples of successful trademark internalization.

 

 

Conclusion

 

The problems rising from trademark translation is worth concerning. In today’s market, trademark translation, especially translated from Chinese to English, still have a long way to go.

 

Trademark translation should be treated as an art, which requires careful study and consideration. Both translators and manufacturers should pay enough attention to it. It is a process of reproducing and recreation of the original attractiveness. Different translators’ aesthetic values and various features of the products will jointly influence the effects of trademark translation. Translators should choose different approaches flexibly in the process to achieve the best aesthetic effects and attract more customers. Semantic transliteration proves to be the best method in trademark translation.

 

Customers’ response is the only criterion to judge the quality of a trademark translation. Only those customer-oriented renderings will be accepted and remembered, and only they will be the final winners in the market.