Culture and Brand Naming in China: The Case of “Si”

If you have ever made a visit to China, you may have wondered why so many buildings do not have a 4th floor. Outsiders may call it superstitious, but in China many things are the way they are due to a strong cultural belief, with certain practices followed in order to avoid negative connotations or invite luck. A significant element that has made Chinese culture particularly unique is the richness of the Chinese language, which presents both challenges and opportunities for foreign brands.

The influential word “si”
In the Chinese language, meaning is not only attached to one character, but also influences other words with similar pronunciations. For instance, Chinese words that are read either “si” or “shi” are often considered as possessing a meaning of bad luck, since “si” in Chinese means death. The sound "shi" is slightly different from “si” in Mandarin, however in some dialects, such as Shanghainese and Cantonese, the sounds are similar and can both carry negative connotations. This also explains the aforementioned lack of the 4th floors in buildings. 

The character of "death"  The pronunciation in Chinese: "si"

What does this mean for brand naming?
From a branding perspective, companies who want to make their names known in China potentially run the risk of alienating their customers if are not aware of simple yet critical cultural connotations that have strong impact on the way Chinese consumers interpret the world around them. The question arises: Should the S (si) sound be avoided entirely, or can brands still employ characters that have the S (si) pronunciation yet avoid deadly connotations?
Let’s look at two strategies that brands who use the S (si) sound in their alphabetical names have called on to address the “si” issue successfully when creating their Chinese brand names.

Strategy 1: Eliminate the S (si) sound completely
In China, McDonald’s, is transliterated into 麦当劳 (Màidāngláo).麦 (mài) is a general term for wheat, barley, oats, rye, etc. 当 (dāng) means to serve as, or to be used as.劳 (láo) means to work or to labor. As a collective unit of words, the transliteration is consistent with the company brand essence. By choosing not to include the S (si) sound in its Chinese name, McDonald’s not only avoided the risk of creating negativity in the mind of the consumers, but also created a name that is memorable and easy to pronounce by its wider range of target audiences.

Strategy 2: Use a character with empty meaning for the S (si) sound
A foreign name with S ( si ) sounds can be successfully transliterated using Chinese characters with empty meanings. The Chinese language is a progressive evolving system of codes and characters, which allows for the use of characters from ancient Chinese that are not usually used in the modern world anymore to help transliterate foreign words. In brand naming, employing those characters ( in this article it is referred as a filler word ) with a S ( si ) sound can assist companies in detaching potential negative meaning from their name, as a consequence, prevent “lost in translation” mishaps from occurring.
For instance, Lexus as a brand in China is 雷克萨斯 ( Léi kè sà sī ). 雷 ( Léi ) means thunder. 克 ( kè ) is to overcome with victory. 萨 (sà ) is a filler sound that appears in many words like 萨萨 (sà sà), the sound the leaves make when it’s windy, or in transliterated names of foreign cities. 斯 ( sī ) is also noted as the filler word that was retrieved from ancient Chinese to primarily serve as a word that was transliterated from other languages. For instance斯 ( sī ) is seen in Las Vegas’拉斯维加斯 (Lāsīwéijiāsī ) and Russia’s俄罗斯 ( éluósī ). As emphasized previously, the word 斯 ( sī ) does not evoke any negative meaning due to the fact that it is regarded as an empty word, and even with the same pronunciation “si”, it has no association with the word death ( si ).

Another example goes to automaker Skoda. The brand name is transliterated into斯柯达 ( Sī kēdá ). Just like with Lexus’斯 ( sī ), this 斯 ( sī ) plays a filler role as well, providing a sound without inducing any sort of meaning.柯 (kē ) appropriately means axel handle. 达 ( dá ) maintains a variety of meanings, including lasting.

Conclusion
As illustrated above, there are solutions that can be used to avoid difficulties encountered by foreign brand names with S (si) sounds in creating Chinese names. All in all, the solution comes from not underestimating the power of cultural belief and associated meaning prevalent in this unique Chinese market and carefully formulating the right strategy for brand identity creation. A culturally informed approach will guide the brand through the creation steps and help it to create a verbal identity that communicates the core messaging and essence of the brand without unintentionally harming its image.  

Note: Pinyin is the alphabetic representation of the sounds of Chinese language