The Potential of Cultural Memes in Cross-cultural Branding Practices: Toward the Chinese Market.

Abstract

Nowadays, international markets have become increasingly competitive and international sales are crucial for most companies. In particular, the Chinese market is a very attractive for foreign companies. Consequently, companies need a means to effectively distinguish from their competitors and one of the main tools that can support companies in the competitive market is the brand name. However, comparing the market environment and branding practices of Western countries with Chinese ones, we notice important differences both in language and in the way Chinese consumers conceive the market and the brand. In order to overcome these differences, marketers should first of all understand the peculiar linguistic and cultural aspects influencing brand naming practices, and then translate their brands into an effective Chinese version. Different translation strategies have been extensively applied by companies entering the Chinese market, but marketers can also consider to apply a memetic approach to the translation process. This research aims to review the literature concerning memes and memetics and suggest an alternative approach to traditional brand translation practices, that would provide marketers with a useful tool to take advantage of the characteristic of memes. This would allow them to transfer more easily from one culture to the other one the intended messages carried in the brand name; thus, the brand name would conform better to the target culture and target consumers.