Translating Brand Names Effectively: Brand Attitude Reversal and Perceived Brand Name Translation Relevance in an Emerging Market

ABSTRACT

This research tests the effectiveness of three brand name creation/translation approaches—phonetic, semantic, and suggestive—in influencing consumer attitude toward the brand (A_b) in an emerging market in two separate studies. The first study is an interstudy replication of a previous research in which subjects responded to English brand names translated phonetically, phonosemantically, and suggestively into the Chinese language. The result of the first study in our research reveals a brand attitude reversal when these brand names are presented as domestic brands rather than foreign brands in China. The second study is an extension of the first study to provide a formal test of semantic translation and the impact of perceived brand name translation relevance on A_b.

KEYWORDS:

• Brand attitude
• brand attitude reversal
• brand name creation
• brand name translation
• perceived brand name translation relevance

Funding

A winter Faculty Research Fellowship grant awarded to the first author by the Graduate College of Eastern Michigan University is gratefully acknowledged. We would also like to acknowledge a National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant (No. 71372076) awarded to the second author for this research.