How to Choose Your Chinese Company or Brand Name

Once you decide to enter the Chinese market as a western company or brand, you need to think of a Chinese name.

Localizing your company or brand name is complicated. You need a Chinese name as soon as you start selling on e-commerce sites and start using local social media. You also want to use WOM to promote your brand.

It involves in-depth knowledge of the local language and culture, sensitivity towards local customer attitudes and willingness to adapt the company/brand name. Gap and IBM decided to keep their short name, expecting Chinese consumers to learn them. This is not a clever way to build a brand in China.

How to choose a Chinese company/brand name:

1. Your Chinese name must tell your brand’s story.
2. Examples: BMW (bao ma) means “precious horse”; Subway sandwiches (sai bai wei) means “better than 100 tastes.”
3. The characters in the name must look good together.
4. The Chinese name must be legally available.
5. The name should work well in Mandarin, Cantonese and Shanghainese that are three dramatically different languages.
6. The name should only have positive connotations.
   LinkedIn‘s brand name in Chinese also sounds like the word for the ghost of a dead infant.
7. Make sure the name has meaning.
   McDonald’s (mai dang lao) kept its name although the Chinese characters represent wheat, should and labor.
8. Hire an expert with a solid track record to help you. 

Success!

How Net Promoter Score (NPS) Measures Customer Happiness

Companies want to know if their customers like their products and services. Net Promoter Score (NPS) tracks how likely is it that they will recommend the company’s product/service to a friend or colleague, using a 0-10 point scale, and tracking the ratio of “promoters”, “passives” and “detractors”.

• Promoters are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth. They score 9-10.

• Passives are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings. They score 7-8.

• Detractors are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth (WOM). They score 1-6.

Apple (AAPL) has some of the highest NPS scores of any sector by careful listening to what customers have to say and responding to it.

Apple made its retail stores to places where people can gather and learn, not just buy. Apple learned that customers want an ongoing relationship with Apple and not a one-off purchase transaction. Apple opens on average between three to five stores a month worldwide, using the NPS to check how effectively each store is meeting expectations.

Apple uses the NPS in its daily management of its more than 300 stores. Apple’s central NPS team analyzes customer feedback from all the stores to understand the systemic reasons for promoter’s enthusiasm or lack thereof.

Apple store employees who create promoters are recognized by store management. Each day, the “daily download” takes place, when employees review the NPS feedback and discuss how to adjust their work accordingly. Detractors are phoned by Apple store managers within 24 hours resulting in additional sales of $25m yearly.

Other companies that use the NPS are: Intuit (INTU), Philips (PHG), Southwest Airlines (LUV) and Allianz, They all use NPS to monitor customer satisfaction.

The Jia Junpeng phenomenon – clever viral marketing

“Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to eat at home” became one of the hottest catch phrases on Internet, getting cult status. It is also a testimonial of the power of viral marketing.

In July 2009, an anonymous user posted the sentence “Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to eat at home” on a World of Warcraft forum. Within 24 hours, it was viewed 1.5 million times, got over 200,000 comments and was reposted and quoted on at least 7,000 webpages. It quickly developed into a media tsunami inside and outside China.

The brain behind the phenomenon is Ao Chunhua, CEO of a small website marketing company based out in Chonqing. He hired over 800 people to register over 20,000 online IDs to flood the forums and create 100,000 replies / postings to drive traffic to World of Warcraft.

Why did it become such a success?

1. China’s youth are the driving force behind online growth. They love to social network and reach out and connect online.
   
2. The sentence “mom calling you home to eat” triggers an instant emotional response. The Chinese fondly recall childhood memories of playing outside and being called by their mother to come home to eat once dinner was ready.
   
3. The Internet is a breeding ground for creativity, ideas, and testing out of marketing strategies.
   
4. Viral marketing or word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is a highly effective way to reach out and communicate with Chinese consumers. Chinese consumers shy away from traditional media and puts emphasis on guanxi (personal relationship). A recent survey found that nearly 40% of Chinese men aged 18-34 ranked word-of-mouth marketing as their top influence for electronic purchases.
   
5. Viral marketing is also a cost-effective way of reaching target groups and building brands. As everywhere in the world, traditional advertising on television, radio, or in print is expensive.