{"id":1176,"date":"2020-08-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motionpoint.com\/?post_type=blog&p=1176"},"modified":"2022-04-13T09:01:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T13:01:45","slug":"whats-your-brand-transliteration-strategy","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.motionpoint.com\/blog\/whats-your-brand-transliteration-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Brand is Everything. Can Transliteration Put Your Best Face Forward?"},"template":"","blog_categories":[5,107],"resource_categories":[37,34,30,35,33,21,23,22,17,18],"targeted_localized_audience":[],"document_categories":[],"class_list":["post-1176","blog","type-blog","status-publish","hentry","blog_categories-international-business-strategies","blog_categories-translation-technology","resource_categories-content-type-blog-post","resource_categories-business-goal-brand-experience","resource_categories-business-goal","resource_categories-content-type","resource_categories-business-goal-global-expansion","resource_categories-topic-international-marketing","resource_categories-role-marketer","resource_categories-role","resource_categories-topic","resource_categories-topic-website-translation"],"acf":{"blog_short_description":"As your company expands into markets that use non-Latin alphabets, it's crucial to balance brand clarity with consistency.","news_inline_styles":"","blog_video_id":"","article_body":"

First impressions are everything. How you localize your brand name\u2014a linguistic transformation known as \u201cbrand transliteration\u201d\u2014may be the most important decision you make when entering several key global markets. <\/p>\n

Why Is Brand Transliteration So Important? <\/h2>\n

As Western companies expand into markets such as China, India, Japan, South Korea and Russia, they often target customers whose primary written language doesn\u2019t use the Latin alphabet.<\/p>\n

Localizing a brand name into local languages and alphabets is key to getting consumers to embrace your brand. Why? It signals that you\u2019re serious about the market, and not carelessly tossing products or services into a culture you don\u2019t understand. Instead, you\u2019re approaching valued customers with respect, seriousness and warmth.<\/p>\n

Transliteration<\/a> doesn\u2019t just affect human perception of your brand\u2014it\u2019s also vital to SEO in international markets. Plus, in some cases it\u2019s not optional\u2014countries such as China and the Gulf States legally require businesses to transliterate their brand names.<\/p>\n

How Does Brand Transliteration Work?<\/h2>\n

Translation converts meaning from one language into another, while transliteration converts words from one script into another\u2014such as from the Latin characters used to write English to Chinese h\u00e0nz\u00ec characters\u2014and often attempts to preserve the sound<\/i> of the word or phrase. It also aspires to capture the spirit, if not the precise meaning, of the original word or phrase.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not as simple as it sounds. Transliterating a brand name presents both potential pitfalls and a wealth of creative opportunity. <\/p>\n

It may result in a name that is meaningless, and therefore confusing or difficult to remember. In a worst-case scenario, the transliterated name may resemble a word in the target language that\u2019s negative or even offensive. <\/p>\n

Getting Transliteration Right<\/h2>\n

Great transliteration<\/a> is about much more than avoiding mishaps. A transliterated brand name that\u2019s just a meaningless collection of syllables might not hurt your company, but it\u2019s not going to help, either. <\/p>\n

A great transliteration combines phonetic similarity to your brand name with a locally resonant, evocative concept related to the nature of your brand, considering:<\/p>\n