Keep the Vietnamese name, transliterate, or choose a new one: a selection process

A wood workshop in Bình Dương had just signed its first export contract to Germany. The owner called Sinh Vũ with one question: "I use my current name at home. Keep it or change it?"

The question seems simple, but behind it are three options with very different consequences. And most businesses decide by instinct, not by an evaluation framework.

Brand assets: take inventory first

Before debating whether to change or keep, you need to know what you already have.

Jenni Romaniuk (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute) measures brand equity with two metrics: Fame and Uniqueness.

A strong asset is one that many people know AND that is tied only to your brand, no one else's.

For a brand name, ask yourself these two questions before doing anything else:

• In the domestic market, when this name is mentioned, what percentage of your target customers recognize it immediately?
• In the export market, does anyone know this name yet, or is it a blank page?

If the page is still completely blank in the new market, the cost of keeping the old name or creating a new one is almost the same. You lose nothing by changing.

Conversely, if international customers already know this name, changing it means throwing away an asset you already have.

Three options and when each fits

No option is absolutely superior. Each one suits a specific situation.

Option 1: Keep the Vietnamese name. This suits cases where the name is short (under three syllables), has no negative sound in the target market's language, and the brand wants to use its Vietnamese origin as a deliberate point of difference.

Trung Nguyên Coffee keeps its Vietnamese name in many markets and turns "Trung Nguyên" into a signal of origin.

Their customer segment is people familiar with Vietnamese coffee, where origin is the main reason to buy.

Option 2: Transliterate. This suits cases where the original name sounds close to a word with a positive meaning in the target market's language, or where the brand wants to keep a link to the original name but drop the tone marks so foreigners can read it.

Note: transliteration is not a safe middle ground. Once the diacritics are removed, a name can carry a negative or even comical meaning in the target market.

The essential check is to ask a native speaker to read the transliterated name aloud and give you their first natural reaction.

Option 3: Create a new name. This suits cases where the Vietnamese name is hard for foreigners to pronounce, where the brand wants a completely different positioning in the export market, or where the goal is to build a global brand not tied to a Vietnamese origin.

Four questions to score yourself

Sinh Vũ uses these four questions when working with exporting businesses. Each question is scored from 1 to 3. The total score helps determine which option fits best.

Question 1: Can buyers in the target market read and remember this name? Ask two to three native speakers to read the brand name aloud for the first time, with no explanation beforehand.

If they say it correctly and still remember it after a day: 3 points. Say it incorrectly but remember it: 2 points. Say it incorrectly and forget it: 1 point.

Question 2: Does the name have a bad or funny meaning in the target market's language? Check both the accented and unaccented forms, in both pronunciation and spelling. No issue: 3 points. Neutral: 2 points.

There is a problem: 1 point.

Question 3: Is Vietnamese origin an asset or a barrier with your target customer segment? For coffee, natural wood, handicrafts and silk: it is usually an asset.

For software, technology devices and financial services: usually neutral, or needs further checking. Asset: 3 points. Neutral: 2 points. Barrier: 1 point.

Question 4: Does the brand plan to run one unified identity system globally? If so: a higher score for the single-name option.

If you accept two names by market: a higher score for the new-name option.

The phonetics trap: a mandatory check

A brand name is not only read, it is heard. And the sound of a name carries its own message, independent of the meaning of the word.

Lexicon Branding, the company that has named many major brands in the US, has studied the relationship between sound and perception: the "v" sound suggests vitality, "b" suggests reliability, "z" suggests attention, and "x" suggests innovation.

Vietnamese has a complex tonal system. When diacritics are dropped in transliteration, the name loses its most important phonetic layer. "Phở" becoming "Pho" works, because "Pho" is already familiar in many markets.

But most business names are not that lucky.

The most common trap is a Vietnamese name that, once stripped of diacritics, matches a word with a bad meaning in the local language.

The Japanese beverage company once sold "Pocari Sweat" successfully in many Asian countries, but it failed in some Western markets because the word "Sweat" carries a negative feeling.

Vietnamese businesses can end up in a similar situation if they don't check carefully.

A brand name is an asset: it needs to be pronounceable, protectable, and able to scale over time.

Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap

Brand architecture when running two names

Some businesses choose to use two names in parallel: a Vietnamese name for the domestic market and a new name for the export market. This is not a wrong decision, but you need to understand the cost clearly.

David Aaker calls this the "sub-brand tax": every additional brand means more maintenance budget, more separate guidelines, and a greater risk of identity drift over time.

This model fits when the two markets have entirely different customer groups with no overlap.

Not suitable when the business has limited resources, or when customers in both markets can reach each other through social media.

Name protection: do it before you announce

Whichever option you choose, trademark registration in the target market must be completed BEFORE the name goes public.

International trademark registration through the Madrid system (administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO) allows you to file once and gain protection in multiple member countries.

You need to work with an intellectual property representative who has experience in the target market, to avoid conflicts with previously registered trademarks.

A beautiful name that can't be registered is a name you have to drop.

Sinh Vũ has seen cases where a business printed its packaging and only then discovered that the name clashed with an existing trademark in the target market, forcing a complete redo.