From Hongda to Wumart, Brand Names In China Have Familiar, if Off-Key, Ring
SHANGHAI-- When executives at Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. failed in their bid to buy the celebrated Rover brand name for a line of cars they are rolling out this month, they quickly switched to Plan B: Call the new autos Roewe, instead.
Roewe, which Shanghai Automotive suggests should be pronounced "roe-wee," is the latest in a series of Chinese brands that bear a resemblance -- often striking -- to foreign trade names.
For the most part, the foreigners aren't amused.
Imitation may flatter, but Starbucks isn't pleased by imitators in China; the look-alike is on the right.
Starbucks Corp. last year won a lawsuit in Shanghai against a coffee-shop chain whose Chinese name is nearly identical to that of Starbucks. Honda Motor Co. won a case in the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in 2004 against a big motorcycle maker using the name Hongda.
Branding is in its infancy in China. Few Chinese companies have experience developing international brands -- unlike in the West, where a huge industry of consultants help companies pick unique names and logos and build images.
Many Chinese companies "feel safer following someone who's established rather than striking out on their own" in terms of branding, says David Wolf, chief executive officer of Wolf Group Asia, a consultancy in Beijing. "There seems to be an institutional lack of confidence."
Does Wumart Stores have a familiar ring? It could be confused with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Wumart says its English name is based on its Chinese name, Wu Mei, which means "beautiful products." Nikita Huang, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman in China, says her company "doesn't have much concern. We believe consumers know the difference."
General Motors Corp. wasn't so sanguine about the English corporate name of China's Chery Automobile Co., thinking that some might look at it and think: Chevy. GM sued Chery, alleging that the company had copied the design of its compact Chevy Spark, but the two companies reached a settlement last year. Terms of the settlement haven't been disclosed.
As it happens, Chery says, its Chery's English name is based on the sound of its Chinese name, Qirui, pronounced che-ray, which means, roughly, "unusually lucky." It sounds nothing like the Chinese name for Chevrolet, Xuefolan, and Chery continues to be the corporate name and the brand in China. But Visionary Vehicles LLC, a U.S. company aiming to bring Chery-built cars to the U.S. says that it won't use the Chery brand name there.
In some cases, Chinese companies readily concede the foreign origin of their brand names. When cellphone company China United Telecommunications Corp. launched a wireless email service in April, it dubbed it "Redberry" and said in a press release that the name would "extend the image and name of 'BlackBerry' that people are already familiar with." It has since deleted that explanation from its Web site and has declined to comment on the matter. BlackBerry's maker, Research in Motion Ltd. of Canada, declined to comment on Redberry. The Canadian company's BlackBerry service in China is available through China Mobile Communications Corp., a competitor of China Unicom.
In the Starbucks case, the local coffee chain's name adds the word Shanghai to the Chinese name of Starbucks -- Xingbake. The local chain has appealed, and the case is now before the Shanghai Municipal Higher Court. The chain's business continues to operate under the same name and to use a circular green logo that echoes that of Starbucks.
The Chinese company, Shanghai Xingbake Cafe Corp., says its brand name was the brainchild of its chairwoman, who was inspired by the character Simba in Disney's "The Lion King." Simba is transliterated in Chinese as Xinba. But the company's name uses the same characters as Starbucks, not the characters used to write Xinba.
Eden Woon, a Starbucks spokesman, said the company is "confident that it will win the appeal."
Chris Reitermann, managing director of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising in Beijing, attributes the various mimicries to inexperience and lack of originality. "A lot of Chinese companies don't put much effort into the name they choose," he says. "There's not a lot of thought behind it."
Chinese companies can also be reluctant to pay for brand-consulting services as they focus on absorbing new technologies and mastering production techniques in a rapidly growing domestic market.
"Often, Chinese executives don't feel the need to invest a lot of money" in developing brand names and images, says Neil Hudspeth, who heads the Asia operations of global branding agency Enterprise IG. "They don't like to pay for services."
That is changing, however, as Chinese consumers become more sophisticated and Chinese companies with global ambitions -- such as computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. and appliance manufacturer Qingdao Haier Co. -- ready themselves to compete in international markets.
"The appetite among consumers for brands is growing faster than corporate awareness," Mr. Hudspeth says.
Shanghai Automotive had been hoping to use the Rover brand name for its new line of vehicles, the first models of which are based on designs for the Rover 75, which the company acquired from the now defunct MG Rover Group Ltd. of Britain.
The company, whose partnerships with General Motors and Volkswagen AG make it the largest passenger-car maker in China, failed in its bid to buy the Rover name from BMW AG when Ford Motor Co., which now makes Land Rovers, exercised its right of first refusal and bought the name instead.
How, then, did Rover become Roewe? A Shanghai Automotive representative says that Roewe is based on the German word for lion, loewe (pronounced ler-veh), and "obviously wasn't meant" to be similar to Rover; the "L" of changed to an "R" to avoid duplicating the name of Spanish luxury-goods company Loewe SA. "Otherwise, it would be the same as purses, clothes and shoes," the representative says. "We definitely don't want to enter that industry."
Still, a number of branding consultants say the company will probably need to come up with another brand before it proceeds with plans to sell the car overseas. Shanghai Automotive has said it plans to begin selling the vehicles in the United Kingdom by the end of next year.
"If they are serious about launching this in Europe, they'll need a new name," says Ogilvy & Mather's Mr. Reitermann. The Shanghai Automotive representative says it has "not been confirmed yet," whether the company will use the Roewe name overseas.
中国品牌何时摆脱模仿秀？
上海汽车工业总公司(Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.)为配合本月推出的新系列车型，曾试图收购着名的英国汽车品牌罗孚(Rover)，但最终没能成功。不过他们迅速转向了补救方案：将新车型取名'Roewe'（中文名“荣威”）。
中国有许多品牌名称酷似外国知名品牌，而“荣威”只不过是这一长串名单上的最新一个。
有些情况下这种现象招来了跨国公司的指责。
品牌在中国还是新生事物。中国企业基本没有开发国际品牌的经验，而在西方，企业对品牌的追求可谓如痴如醉，这种痴迷还催生了一个庞大的咨询业，他们帮助企业设计品牌名称和标识、塑造企业形像。
而许多中国企业觉得，自己从头开始打造品牌可能没把握，他们更愿意效仿一个已经很出名的品牌。北京咨询公司Wolf Group Asia的首席执行长沃尔夫(David Wolf)说，中国人在这方面似乎一向缺乏自信。
而且中国人一直以来也缺乏对商标权的尊重。中国公司经常会借用或模仿其他中外品牌的名称。
不过品牌专家们说，现在，随着中国一些大企业──如电脑制造商联想集团(Lenovo Group Ltd.)和家电生产商青岛海尔(Qingdao Haier Co.)等──准备参与国际市场竞争，这种情况正在改变。
同时，越来越多的被中国厂家抄袭品牌名的企业将冒犯他们的人告上法庭，这也从反面迫使中国厂家创立自己的品牌。
国际汽车业对中国奇瑞汽车(Chery Automobile)的名称一直很有非议，这个品牌的英文与通用汽车(GE)旗下的传奇品牌Chevy很接近。通用曾指控奇瑞说，后者抄袭了它的紧凑型轿车Chevy Spark的车型设计。
去年，两家公司达成和解，具体条款不得而知。不过，准备进口奇瑞汽车的美国公司Visionary Vehicles LLC.表示，在美国不打算用“Chery”的叫法。这个名字在中国会继续使用。
Chery这个名字是依据“奇瑞”的中文发音而来的，这两个字的意思是“运气好得出奇”，它跟Chevy名牌的中文译名“雪佛龙”没有任何相似之处。
品牌名称的问题在中国零售业也不乏其例。比如近年迅速壮大的零售商物美商业集团(Wumart Stores Inc.)的英文名就很容易跟美国的沃尔玛连锁公司(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)搞混淆。不过，沃尔玛驻北京发言人Nikita Huang表示：公司对这个问题并不太担心，相信消费者清楚两者的区别。物美公司则表示，其英文名称是根据中文名“物美”的发音取的。“物美”在中文里的意思是“好的物品”。
不过，有些情况下，一些公司试图借用知名品牌的形像和名称的企图看起来很明显。无线通讯企业中国联通(China United Telecommunications Co.)今年4月曾推出一项无线电邮服务，取名为Redberry（红莓）。
中国联通在推出该业务的新闻稿中说，这个名字将使人们已熟知的BlackBerry（加拿大Research in Motion Ltd.旗下的品牌）的形像和名称得以进一步延伸。不过后来联通在其网站上删除了这个说明。该公司拒绝就此发表评论。
Research in Motion Ltd.拒绝就Redberry的名字发表评论。其BlackBerry在中国的业务是通过与中国移动(China Mobile Communications Corp.)合作开展的。
中国互联网公司百度(Baidu.com Inc.)新推出的一些服务似乎也有借势的做法，至少从英文名的角度来看是这样。比如Baidupedia，像Wikipedia一样，它也是一个由读者自由编辑的百科全书。还有Baidu Space，它是一个类似MySpace的供用户建个人主页的网站。
星巴克(Starbucks)在中国差一点有了一个“同门”兄弟。一家叫上海星巴克（英文名Xingbake）的公司跟它不仅中文名称关系暧昧，而且英文名发音很接近，甚至连绿色圆形标识都跟它如出一辙。
上海星巴克表示，其品牌名是公司董事长想出的，其灵感来自迪斯尼动画片《狮子王》(The Lion King)中主要角色辛巴(Simba)的名字。 英文公司名中Xinba的发音即与Simba接近。但问题是该公司中文名中包含了与Starbucks中文名完全相同的“星巴克”三个字。
星巴克为此诉诸公堂。该公司发言人伍恩(Eden Woon)表示，他们很有信心最终赢得官司。
北京奥美广告(Ogilvy & Mather Advertising)的董事总经理瑞特曼(Chris Reitermann)说，中国许多企业经营者不太在意知识产权方面的问题。不过他说，他们并非故意，只是没有经验且缺乏创意罢了。
他说，许多中国公司不会为起名字下很大功夫。他们用的名字也没有多少含义在里面。瑞特曼说，有一次，一家中国公司给其一款轿车起了个跟奥美的中文名一样的名字。“这真让我们感到荣幸，”他揶揄道。
中国公司在向品牌咨询公司支付费用方面也很吝啬。品牌不是这些公司的首要考虑。在国内市场迅速增长的商业环境下，他们更关注获得新技术、掌握新的生产工艺。
不过，随着中国消费者越来越成熟、中国企业越来越重视向海外销售产品，这种局面正在改变。瑞特曼说，消费者对品牌的要求在迅速提高，企业可能还没有充分意识到。
上海汽车希望在其新系列车型中使用罗孚品牌，该系列的第一款车型是以罗孚75为基础设计出来的。上汽此前从已倒闭的英国MG Rover Group Ltd.购买了罗孚75的知识产权。
上汽为这个新项目投入了大量资源，它计划未来4年在这个项目上投资10亿美元以上。上汽目前与通用汽车、大众汽车(Volkswagen AG)均建有合资公司，并因此成为中国最大的七座以下轿车生产厂家。
不过去年上汽打算从宝马(BMW AG)手中收购罗孚品牌的计划最后却夭折了，原因是生产路虎(Land Rover)汽车的福特公司最后行使了其优先购买权，自己买下了罗孚品牌。
上汽发言人说，公司确定新品牌名称时聘请了有跨国公司从业经历的本地咨询人员来帮助他们。
上汽发言人说，荣威英文名Roewe来源于德文单词loewe(狮子)。这个名字显然不是故意模仿Rover。
这位发言人还说，之所以将首字母L改为R，是为了避免与西班牙奢侈品公司Loewe SA.雷同。
荣威的中文意思大致是“光荣的威力”。这个中文名与Land Rover的中文名“路虎”也完全不同。不过，它与上汽和通用合资生产的别克“荣御”有点像。
通用表示，这点相似之处纯属巧合，他们并不介意。福特则拒绝发表评论。
上汽那位发言人也对外界对车型名称的过度关注表示不解。他说，最重要的不是品牌名称。重要的是产品和质量。
不过，有很多品牌咨询公司表示，上汽如果考虑到海外销售，就需要另外想一个品牌名。上汽曾表示，计划明年底之前在英国销售这个系列的车型。
上汽发言人表示，公司尚未确定在海外市场是否会用Roewe这一名字。
上汽在国内市场宣传“荣威”时重点强调它是中国自主开发的汽车品牌。有一组系列平面广告，画面依次是中国的“四大”发明：指南针、火药、造纸和印刷术，最后以荣威的标识收尾。
广告语里说：“过去，我们以科技推进世界。今天，世界科技同样为我所用”。
