About Sinonym – Naming and branding china

Our promise is to give clients an insider’s knowledge of branding in china, a native sense of the possibilities, limitations and real-world implications, backed up by qualitative and quantitative data from a unique research system.

For foreign companies in the Chinese market, the product and brand-naming process too often brings to mind that old phrase “inscrutable Chinese” — but applied to a language rather than a person. Money is spent. Names are offered. Opinions abound. But there’s discontent, and worry. Did we pick a good Chinese name? Did we miss a crucial negative interpretation?

Sinonym’s system aims at providing peace of mind on the fact that the chosen name is full of potential and not risky. Our approach uses :

1.  A time-tested system for generating and vetting Chinese brand names

2.  A unique cross-linguistic and cross-society feedback consumer panel, through our parents company Daxue Consulting and its extensive, national-coverage level consumer panel and market survey capabilities.

3.  Language experts, professors at the best Chinese universities, giving depth to each analysis and experienced analysts with both capabilities in linguistic analysis and branding research.

Matthieu David

Matthieu David graduated from Guanghua’s MBA program in a dual degree program with Essec Business School that also awarded him an MS in Management. While at Essec, Matthieu was active in Junior Essec Conseil, the number one junior enterprise in the world in terms of revenues, date of creation and number of projects. After graduation, Matthieu started two businesses in China, one he later sold, the other is in market research which led him to naming work.

Diane Li

Diane Li, graduated from Essec Business School in France and Zhongshan University in China, has worked in Paris and in Shanghai, in investment company, international audit firm, and international school.Since 2015, Diane organizes international academic conferences and exhibitions for Chinese and international organizations.

Through her different personal and professional experiences, Diane has develop her ability to understand the needs of western companies business operations but also, their culture and expectations.

Diane’s passion for Chinese and western languages and her will to build a bridge between eastern and western culture led her to meet Matthieu in naming work.

Steve Hansen – Phonemica

Steve Hansen teaches Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Social Entrepreneurship in the international MBA program at Guanghua. He is co-founder of Phonemica, a social enterprise dedicated to archiving stories in every one of thousands of dialects of Chinese. He has lived and worked as a marketing consultant in Beijing since 2009, before which he was director of market research at Thomson Reuters in St. Paul, Minnesota. Steve hails from the small agricultural town of Benton City, Washington.