China branding What’s in the name of Western casino operators

MGM 美高梅 translates as “pretty, tall plum blossom”

When the subsidiaries of Western casino operators entered the Macau market after the gaming liberalization of the mid-2000s, they gave a great deal of consideration to how they would translate their brand names into written Chinese and spoken Cantonese.
Whether the operator carried the name of its founder-CEO, relied on its Las Vegas reputation, or a history of production and distribution of American media, those entering Macau a decade ago needed to translate their brand names while staying as true to their original meaning as possible.
This is sometimes crucial to a brand’s success in a new market, because its name must shoulder the reputation of the organization; acting as a valuable asset or in some cases a liability.
Macau’s Western casino operators have been successful in striking a balance between a like-for-like literal translation of their brand names, while preserving their pronunciations.
Wynn 永利 can be translated literally as “profitable forever,” but the way it is pronounced in Cantonese also resembles the English pronunciation (Weng Lei). Interestingly – and perhaps coincidentally – the first character in Wynn 永bears a historical connection to the character for water 水, alluding to the water fountain shows outside its Macau-based resorts.
Sands’ most recent Macau property, The Parisian Macao, which opened its doors to the public yesterday, also preserved the literal translation of its name, as well as an approximate pronunciation of its China subsidiary.

Sands 金沙 translates literally as “golden sands”

Sands 金沙, which translates literally as “golden sands”, is pronounced in Cantonese as “gum sa”. Its two most notable Cotai properties, The Venetian 威尼斯人 and The Parisian 巴黎人, translate the same way in Chinese as they do in English.
MGM 美高梅, whose name was already familiar to the Chinese due to the early success of its media division, gave greater priority to the closeness of its Cantonese pronunciation, “mei go mui”, than to the literal translation of its composite characters.
Translated as, “pretty, tall plum blossom”, which refers to the popular Asian flower, the name taps into the species’ cultural significance for parts of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
Melco Crown Entertainment 新濠博亞娛(樂) and its properties have put less emphasis on the closeness of the pronunciation and more attention to the meaning behind the literal translation. “New wealthy gaming Asia,” as the name translates, can also be understood as “making Asia wealthy”. Specifically, the middle character in the operator’s name 博 can mean “wealth”, “plentiful”, “win” or “gain”.

Lost in translation

While Macau’s casino operators seem to have stuck the balance quite well, not all Western brands have been as fortunate when entering the Chinese market.
When Coca Cola originally entered mainland China, it opted for a close phonetic equivalent of the brand, similar to how it is pronounced in English. Retailers in China had already produced a phonetic mimic of Coca Cola, albeit with a humorous literal translation of the brand, “Bite the Wax Tadpole”, much to the displeasure of the company’s marketing executives. The name was quickly revised.
However, today the Chinese name for Coca Cola 可口可乐 is regarded as an exemplary benchmark for other companies. In Mandarin it is pronounced, “Ko Kou Ko Le” – staying about as true as one can get to the English equivalent, while its far more palatable translation reads, “to permit a mouth to be able to rejoice”.
Other examples of successful brands that have made the transition to the Chinese market are Reebok (“quick steps”), Heineken (“happiness power”) and Colgate (“revealing superior cleanliness”). DB