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从“G250”飞机改名说起 《南华早报》近期以整版篇幅报道了快速发展的中国私人航空市场，其中重点关注了二手私人飞机市场的出现。 谈到喷气机，买二手货并不意味着买到的一定就是旧飞机。近年来，很多订购了私人飞机的买家因为无力支付尾款，不得不借助二手市场处置不良资产。 但更有意思的是，坊间有消息称，某国际知名私人飞机制造企业专为中国市场重新命名了其新款顶级机型。 尽管说湾流航空公司并未公开承认这次更名与中国市场有关，但多位业内消息人士均向《南华早报》证实，该决策出台的背景确实如此。 2008年，湾流G250远途宽体私人客机曾在一片喧闹造势声中登场。 当年这一产品的推出恰好赶上了中国大陆私人客机市场的兴起，貌似利好，但也有不尽如人意的一面。据称，湾流公司从中国多个业内渠道得到反馈，说飞机的型号“G250”在中文和中国文化里的寓意及联想都不太好。 在普通话中，“250”有“愚蠢”之意，如果说一个人“250（二百五）”，也就是说他“傻”。这种说法源于中国古代文化，与当年使用的铜钱吊子有关。那时每吊钱有一百枚，相当于一个标准的价值单位。半吊钱（半吊子）也就是500枚，后来演变成暗指某人或者某事不符合标准，而如果再减去一半——只剩下250（二百五）——那就意味着一个人或者一件事真的很“缺”。 换句话说，这种表达方式由来已久，并不是什么昙花一现的流行俗语。市场营销人员必须留意这类事情，在选择品牌或型号名称时一定要与所有主要目标市场的定位策略保持一致。 湾流公司在推出G250三年以后决定将其更名为G280，一定投入了不少资金。相关的推广资料、使用手册和全世界的航管文件都要重新制作。 虽然多有破费，但他们的决定是正确的。因为很难想象有哪位成功的中国企业家会斥巨资搭乘私人“二百五”专机飞来飞去。 这让我想起上世纪八十年代北京一家新饭店的相似遭遇。那时候，来北京的外国游客和商人都下榻在北京饭店、友谊宾馆或者民族饭店，国际化的酒店品牌和管理还没有大规模地进入中国市场。 所以，北京长安街要新开一家本土酒店就颇受人关注。这家酒店就在民族饭店西侧，名为复兴饭店——这个名字在外国人中引起了一片哗然。 对完全不懂汉语拼音的纯外国人来说，“复兴”（Fuxing）听起来很像是英语中一个以“F”开头的四字母单词，用在酒店名称上甚是有些滑稽可笑。 当年国际媒体纷纷就此事予以评论报道，很快酒店的名字就在我们不知情的情况下被换掉了。 有趣的是，我记得“复兴饭店”，却不记得它改名后的新名字。也许哪位热心读者能自告奋勇帮我查出来？ 由此可见：品牌和型号的命名一定要认真调研，必须将多重的地理、文化和语言因素都考虑进去。 |
Brands, Positioning and Cultural Sensitivity The South China Morning Post recently ran a full-page report on the rapid growth of the private aviation market in China. focusing on the emergence of the second-hand market for private jets. In the case of jets, buying second-hand does not necessarily mean buying a used aircraft. In recent years, there have been significant numbers of private jets ordered which buyers are unable to settle the final payments on; which then enter the re-sale market as distressed assets. More interesting, however, was a sidebar story which described how one of the leading global private jet makers changed the name of one of its top new aircraft models just for the sake of the China market. Although Gulfstream Aerospace has not publicly confirmed a link between the name change and the China market, various industry sources told the SCMP that this is in fact the background to the decision. The Gulfstream G250 long-range, large-cabin private jet was unveiled in 2008 amid much marketing fanfare. The good news was that the product launch in 2008 paralleled the emergence of the mainland's private jet market, but, in another way, that was also the bad news. Gulfstream reportedly got feedback from a variety of industry sources in China that the new model's designation, G250, had unfortunate and undesirable associations in the Chinese language and culture. "250" in Putonghua can mean "stupid", so to describe someone as "250" is like calling them a dummy or imbecile. The origins of this expression date from ancient Chinese culture and derive from the use in those days of strings of copper coins. A string of 1,000 coins had a standard measure of value. Half that many coins, 500, eventually came to connote something or someone sub-standard, and half again -- "250" -- came to mean something or someone severely lacking. In other words, this expression has been around a long time. It's not one of those slang expressions that come and go quickly with some passing fad. This is the type of thing marketers need to pay attention to when choosing brand and model names to be consistent with their positioning strategy, including all key national target markets. Gulfstream must have gone to considerable expense when, three years after the G250's launch, they decided to rename it the G280. Marketing materials, user manuals, and aviation regulatory filings around the world must all have needed redoing. Regardless of the expenses involved, they made a smart business decision. It's hard to imagine any super successful Chinese entrepreneur wanting to spend large amounts of money to be flown around on his own personal "250". It brings to mind a similar issue which confronted a new hotel in Beijing in the early 1980s. For many years, foreign tourists and business visitors to Beijing stayed either at the Beijing Hotel, the Friendship Hotel, or the Minzu Hotel. This was before the large-scale advent of international hotel brands and management into China. So, there was quite a bit of attention paid to the opening of another new local hotel on Changan Street in Beijing, to the west of the Minzu Hotel. It's name -- the Fuxing Hotel -- created a lot of chuckles among foreigners. For the typical non-Chinese who does not know the hanyu pinyin system of romanizing Chinese characters, "fuxing" reads like a verb form derived from the English four-letter word beginning with "f"; and therefore a funny-sounding name for a hotel. This was commented on in various international media reports in those days, and before we knew it, the new hotel's name was changed. The funny thing is, I remember the name "Fuxing", but I can't remember what that hotel's name was changed to. Perhaps some reader will volunteer to help provide that information? Moral: it's important to do careful research into brand names and model names, and this needs to include multiple geographies, cultures, and languages. |
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