Labbrand successfully created the Chinese name for Colgate Optic White, conveying advanced and whitening attributes to Chinese consumers.

BRIGHT SMILES

Founded in 1806, Colgate-Palmolive is a global consumer products company manufactures and markets oral care, personal care, home care and pet nutrition products under internationally recognized brand names such as Colgate, Irish Spring, Sanex and Speed Stick. Colgate-Palmolive operates in more than 200 countries and entered the Chinese market in 1992.
 

LIGHT THE WORLD

Colgate® Optic White™ is Colgate-Palmolive’s new personal oral care brand specialized in whitening. It is convenient and effective to achieve whiter teeth in as early as one week and results continue to improve over time. To prepare for the launch of this product in China, Colgate needed a Chinese name that was in accordance with the attributes of the new brand and echoed with the original English name “Optic White”. Colgate wanted to convey emotional interpretation of whitening, beauty and efficiency that went beyond functions and descriptions. We needed to explore the emotional aspects of the key attributes to strengthen the ‘advanced’ or ‘breakthrough’ characteristics and take a rather technical and digital approach. 

WHITENING IN THE SPEED OF LIGHT

To help best connect Optic White™ with Chinese consumers, we created the Chinese name 光感白 [guāng gǎn bái] to effectively communicate the main brand attributes.

This name can be translated into “the sense of light”, which is simple, direct and easily linked with toothpaste at first glance. 光感 [guāng gǎn] evokes a bright and shiny feel. Consumers also associate this phrase with the speed of light, enhancing the immediate efficacy of whitening teeth. 白 [bái] means “white” and emphasizes the outcome of Optic White. The dot in the middle brings a unique, fashionable, and modern feel to the name. The creation process was assisted by linguistic checks in six main Chinese dialects and two research focus groups in Shanghai and Guangzhou for consumer insights.

The Chinese name 光感白 created by Labbrand successfully highlights the attributes of Optic White while conveying the sense of high-tech and speed.