A case study in donkey name reaction So far we’ve only talked about donkey names for foreign brands , but China’s mocking netizens have never limited their targets to foreign-owned enterprises. Baidu, the 800 pound gorilla of Chinese search, was slapped with “Dùniáng” (度娘) a few years back when netizens got upset about its forum practices.* How to translate Dùniáng? It’s …
Donkey names, pube names
Speaking of donkey names, the mocking names given to famous brands in China, I forgot to mention one other coining we’d considered: Pube name Right. Ugh. Pubes. It kind of comes with the territory. The Chinese internet is famously creative with its crude metaphors. So at least one wag has combined the common internet way of referring to oneself as …
Flee your dolt name
You’ve heard us talk about donkey names, and how devious punning gets applied to pretty much every brand in China. Being known as the donkey brand hasn’t hurt Louis Vuitton, you’re thinking, so maybe this whole “naming risk” thing is a little overstated. Well, consider for a moment the Benz that’s getting dusted off this fine spring morning in some …
Welcome to Sinonym
Welcome clients old and new! Although we’re launching the business today, this naming-focused consultancy, as many of you know, is the result of years of work in market research and in China. Today I want to tell you a bit about the background that has led us to this venture how our clients benefit from our partnership with Chinese language …