Gawker has an entry in the Brand Names News category.
On Friday, The New York Times profiled some of the Chinese companies that have taken nonsensical branding to its postmodern conclusion, selling products under Western-inspired names like “Biemlfdlkk” and “Marisfrolg.”
Other brands mentioned in the article:
- Frognie Zila
- Helen Keller (a sunglasses maker)
- Chrisdien Deny
- Adidos
- Orgee
- Cnoverse
- Fuma
- Johnnie Worker Red Labial Whiskey
With ginger ale!
Of course, giving your company a meaningless, foreign-sounding name can present unique challenges when dealing with journalists.
A Biemlfdlkk saleswoman in the southern city of Guangzhou explained, “It’s a German name.” An employee at another Biemlfdlkk shop had a different explanation: “It’s the name of a French designer.”
Ah yes, Jean-Pierre Biemlfdlkk.
Non. C’est Jean-Claude.
That’s, uh, some curious Whiskey they’re bottling over there.
I’m sure you’re not doing this, but it’s not unusual for we sophisticated Westerners to sneer at such foolishness…I just wonder how many of the sneerers have tattoos of “really deep & meaningful” Chinese characters?
From the names I see there, some seem to be obvious brand knock-offs, and that’s nothing new.
Please, please tell me there are “Johnnie Worker Red Labial Whiskey” T-shirts out there that I can buy.
My life is not complete without one.
Getting a tattoo is not quite the same as setting up in business. If you’re happy for your business to be a figure of fun OK, but I think if I was trying to sell into a market speaking a different language to my own I might take a wee bit more care than “Johnnie Worker Red Labial Whiskey” so I didn’t make the basic mistake of spelling “Scotch” whisky with an e!
Everyone is pushing for a niche close enough to catch some of the limelight off the big names.
As I understand it a whole lot of average Chinese consumers associate quality with foreign made products, and foreign with being covered in a language they can’t read, pronounce, or understand. Ironically I sometime feel the same way when I visit the Asian food store. I was wondering which product was more completely authentic and I ended up with the package with the least comprehensible language on it. When I got home I noticed the tiny writing that said it was a product made in the US. How the hell it ended up in that store, with all those indecipherable characters on it I may never know. It was a good product, and sufficiently authentic that nobody complained.
And then there are the cultural differences. For a time there China was associating everything with the glory of the worker’s party and revolution. So you got a whole lot of ‘Glorious Struggle’ this, and ‘Red Star’ that. It was so ubiquitous an association that the Chinese were not phased by it. Westerners however were sometimes more selective. Despite being a very reliable and economically priced brand Red Star sanitary napkins never caught on outside China. Go figure.
resident_alien @4,
Maybe you can work some image magic based in this picture: http://www.engrish.com/2008/12/this-stuff-is-nasty/ (I don’t have the skillz, but someone else might.)
Then slap it on a t-shirt. Your life will be complete.
“Johnnie Worker Red Labial Whiskey”…
(Blinks…)
Right. Erm… I’m not actually sure they’re trying to imply consuming this stuff might or might not do anything to anyone’s body…
… Still. I figure anywhere this is marketed, the appropriate medical regulatory agency should probably insist upon one of those ‘claims neither verified nor endorsed’ things on the label.
Scr…Archivist @7 : I am actually tempted to do that! Thanx!
I’d better trademark the name of my company, Tdbbihgwsoubgsyg Enterprises, before it’s too late!