英文论文国外品牌翻译及其接受度研究(3)
3 Theoretical Foundations for Brand Name Translation and Research Design
3.1 Culture
People are born in a particular culture and are taught to comply with it. A person’s feelings, thoughts and behaviors are shaped by his culture. People assimilate social experience of their own culture and those experiences are reflected in the language they use.
Language is the carrier of culture, as a language phenomenon, the creation and transmission of brand cannot be separated from culture. The nomenclator and the recipient of the brand standing in the two ends of the transmission chain, passing commodity information in form, are in fact transmitting a kind of cultural information. The brand culture is mainly reflected in customs and taboos, religion, psychology, class, age, gender, region, etc.
Because of differences in cultural values, economic development and other factors across states, consumers in different areas of the world can differ in their attitudes towards brands. Brand name translation and culture are closely related. Every culture is formed with its characters in different processes of history and geographical environment. These cultural differences will lead to the different understanding of language.
As a result, in addition to the principles and rules, Chinese and foreign brand translation must also focus on research and cultural factors related to the two languages , especially the ones of the target countries. In the brand translation process if lacking cultural consciousness, or not considering the corresponding conversion of the containing national culture significance, the translation is seldom possessing the cultural meaning and associative meaning, and sometimes may even produce unexpected reaction, not only leading to goods can't open market, but also hurting local people's feelings.
Among the four main translation methods, the literal translation has the least influence from the culture for its translation is the meaning of the original word. The other three are affected more by the culture when choosing a satisfied Chinese word. In the questionnaire, the option “Poison” has two choices:毒药和百爱神. 55% people chose the latter. But when we carefully analyze the result of every age group, we can found 58% women under the age of 30 chose the former. This shows that brand translation needs to consider the sub-cultural background of target customers as well as the whole cultural background.
3.2 Aesthetics
In addition to the culture of market countries and the reflection of commodity property, product names should have their own unique esthetics characteristics, so the translation of the brand should be in line with consumer preferences towards beauty as well. Aesthetic features include the formal beauty and content beauty. The beauty of form mainly refers to the phonology of brand names, while the beauty of content including the beauty of artistic conception, popular beauty, simple beauty, fancy beauty and so on.
First, we come to see the formal beauty. The formal beauty discussed here mainly focuses on women cosmetics and skincare, which examines the literal meaning of aesthetic feeling. The skincare brand “Olay” was translated into “玉兰油” after entering China. Magnolia is a very favorite flower of the Chinese people, “玉”and “兰” are two words women particularly fond of, which often used in the name for girls. “油”gives the feeling of moisture and skincare. So Olay has become one of the skincare brands that Chinese women love to buy.
The beauty of artistic conception is also a must. The Chinese name of the beverage brand “Spirit” is “雪碧”, which is both colorful and rich in connotation. In hot summer, people cannot help associating with the cold white snow and a vibrant green, making people feel cool and refreshing before drinking.
The popular beauty of commodity means the product name should be easy for the general customers to understand and be in line with the aesthetic needs and aesthetic ability of ordinary people at the same time. Only in this way can narrow the gap between goods and consumers, increasing the affinity of goods, thus stimulating their purchasing desire. For example, the furniture brand “IKEA” was translated as "宜家", meaning "suitable for household" or "bring convenience to the family". Not only expressing the product attributes, but also causing resonance of those Chinese who attach importance to family.
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