technology, internet, business and marketing. rebranding; Linguistic Research

How Linguistic Research Can Save Your Rebranding Strategy

by Chad Richardson

Rebranding can be critical to a company’s survival. Many company’s understand the audience is changing, competition is more fierce, and going global is a must.

So, your company is going through a rebranding process in preparation to launch your company’s services or products to the worldwide market. You’ve spent countless hours and dollars to pick the right name, look, and tone of the brand. The team finally comes together with high fives and pats on the back. It looks wonderful and sounds so beautiful to the ear. We’ve got a winner! But, do you?

It may be appealing to North American English native speakers but have you considered how that new brand name will sound and look to consumers located in other parts of the world? What if your new brand name sounded quite offensive in a foreign target market? Do you think that would negatively affect your sales? You better believe it!

This is where Linguistic Research can be beneficial. The objective would be to ensure that the name chosen would not be offensive in other languages. First, the client would need to identify what worldwide regions they are targeting and, with guidance, the list of associated target languages. The language teams would then be engaged for the in-depth research. This would involve researching similar words, whether written or phonetic, to understand if they could be construed as offensive or misleading as well as understand what the meaning of those similar written or sounding words are.

To avoid corporate embarrassment, it’s best to include Linguistic Research for your worldwide brand naming endeavors. To avoid offending your target consumers take the time upfront to understand your worldwide audiences.

For more information on taking your company global, contact Keylingo.

Related Articles

Why Generic Machine Translation Fails Enterprise Scale

Generic machine translation (MT) engines frequently fall short when enterprise teams attempt to deploy global content at scale because they fail to preserve specialized corporate tone or distinct target audience requirements. Standard MT outputs lack the direct controls needed to differentiate between communication intended for technical experts versus broad consumer bases, creating friction in international…

Why are CAT tools vital for enterprise cost control?

In a traditional localization workflow, every document – whether a product manual, marketing campaign, or legal contract – is treated as a completely new artifact. This leads to redundant expenditures, inconsistent brand voice, and long post-delivery revision cycles. CAT tools transform translation from a transactional expense into an accruing digital asset. By embedding these platforms…

E-Commerce Transcreation for Global Growth

Discover why deep cultural localization and e-commerce transcreation are essential for engaging the booming middle-class markets across Asia and beyond. Key Takeaways: The global consumer class has surpassed 4 billion, with Asia now holding a massive 50% share of the middle class. To capture market share in these emerging hubs, brands must pivot from generic,…

here
for you

We’d love to learn more about your translation and localization needs.