Do you have to translate your company's brand name?

You've probably been thinking for a long time about what to name your brand. This is normal, since the good development of your company can depend on the success of your brand in the local market.

Customers will identify you with your brand name and will receive the various messages devised in your marketing department under this name.

The name of your brand represents you, it is your business card and therefore you should take care of it as much as possible. What do you have to keep in mind when expanding into new international markets?

1. Translation of the brand and international prestige

If you want to expand into another country or even internationally, you will need to consider whether to translate your company name or brand or not. Usually this is a task that should be done when choosing a brand name, i.e. you should also ask yourself how your brand name will be perceived abroad when you start thinking about the brand.

This article published in the magazine Innovar, Foreign Branding: Examining the Relationship between Language and International Brand Evaluations, is a good reflection on this issue. For this reason, many companies choose a name that sounds good in English, to facilitate the integration of the company's activity in an increasingly globalized world.

2. When is it necessary to translate a company's brand?

A good translation of the brand name is essential when the market to which you want to export requires it. Simply because your brand must sound "right" to the ears of foreigners and because you must avoid making a fool of yourself.

It is said that making a fool of yourself does not kill, but this is not true when it comes to marketing. To make a fool of oneself in this area means to end up being the laughing stock of an entire country. Many brands have already suffered the consequences of a bad translation.

3. Why should you translate your brand name?

To translate your brand name it is best to work with a qualified translation agency for companies like AbroadLink Translations, if you want to be sure of getting good results.

Whether or not it is necessary to translate your brand name will also depend on the sector to which your company belongs. Those companies related to luxury or fashion might choose to choose a name in French and not translate it into the other languages, since for this type of sector French is usually more elegant, although it will generally be English that gives us a brand for international use.

4. Steps to get a good translation of your brand name

Ask yourself the right questions: Does the name of my brand or company mean anything in the language I want it translated into? Is the name I want for my brand still available or has it already been registered in the target market? Is it necessary to adapt it to another alphabet and, if so, is it simple enough to transcribe?

The Latin alphabet is not perceived in the same way everywhere. There are even some markets, such as the Chinese market, where it is mandatory to transcribe the name of the company into Mandarin in order to officially register it.

But the case of China is a case apart, as is well told in The Salmon Blog. However, if you want to target the Chinese market, it is essential that you use a professional translation company as our marketing translation service to do your translations and get the best results.

A quality translation of your corporate brand will always indicate that you understand and adapt to the local culture. Customers will welcome you as one of their own if you make that little effort to take a step towards them.