Just looking at it, its almost instinct to have your first
pronunciation guess babble out something like "Weee". It gives one
a confidence from the beginning that they are saying it right,
instills a feeling of unity, and most importantly from a web 2.0
start-up companies perspective, a guy in China can say it just as
easily as another in the States.
I began to think, this is a way that the marketing world is
changing. Most folks realize that almost any product must now
appeal to a global market, including software services. There has
been effort to make games, adds, commercials, etc. appealing to
people of any culture. However, it seems that the naming of a
product is often overlooked. With China having over 1.3 billion
potential customers, a product named "Wii" is sure to have more of
a positive public relations response than one named "Play Station."
Talking to other Asians about this, a prime example was brought up.
The well known, and internationally loved Coca-Cola, which in China
was found to be almost impossible to say. The company changed its
marketing approach and tried a new phonetic pitch, writing it out
as "ko-ka ko-la", to soon have the hard realization that this
translates to "bite the wax tadpole". Hmm.. Most likely not what
they had intended.
What will define the next generation of successful global web
services? No idea. But a name that everyone can say, relate to
positively on some level, and maintain a diet free from tadpoles
can't hurt.


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