Why did "Lexus" change its foreign name?

Although it has become a fact that Toyota has changed the name of "Lexus" to "Lexus", this move has both advantages and disadvantages. How to use supporting measures to eliminate the negative impact and expand the positive effect of the new brand name is the key to whether Toyota can guarantee the success of the new brand name.

Disadvantages of changing the brand name

"Ten years of sharpening a sword", the "Lexus" brand, which has just turned ten years in the Chinese market, was immediately renamed "Lexus". Whether in terms of brand investment, brand equity, or market culture, naming rules, and the original intention of changing the name, this move is all worrying.

Renaming is a loss and waste of a brand with ten years of market experience. In any case, it has formed its own unique brand positioning and brand equity. Suddenly changing its name is equivalent to losing these assets in vain, let alone ten years. Over the years, the company has invested huge financial resources to build its brand.

"Electromagnetic Music" from Jiangsu Taihu General Electronics Co., Ltd. believes that the Lexus brand has formed its own unique positioning in the process of establishing itself in the Chinese market. Just like BMW equals youth, Mercedes-Benz equals status and status, Volvo equals safety, Ferrari equals speed, and Lexus equals success.

Guangdong Foshan Xingxing Refrigeration Equipment Engineering Co., Ltd. believes that the cultural connotation that consumers can fully associate with the name change will be diluted, and the loss of its intangible assets will be greater. He also believes that Toyota has made a huge investment in establishing the Lexus brand in the Chinese market, and changing the name means that these investments will be wasted, and the establishment of a new brand also requires huge investment, and the waste is obvious.

The old name is more in line with Chinese culture

"Lexus" doesn't have much Chinese meaning, while Lexus has the meaning of "Top Gun" or "Lingyun Zhi", and it is related to the Chinese culture which is implicit, profound and ambitious. match.

The "trepo" of Shenzhen Konka Information Network Co., Ltd. believes that the title of Lexus is similar to the image of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other Chinese people. A roadmap for success that the culture has consistently advocated for aggressive behavior. Toyota changed it into a foreign thing, and it might be successful, but it is far from the cornerstone of Chinese culture.

The old name is more in line with the rules of brand naming. Some users of the CEConline website believe that a good brand name needs to have the following characteristics: 1. Taking into account the culture and customs of the local market; 2. It can evoke infinite associations among consumers; 3. Simple and easy to remember, generally no more than three words. Comparing Lexus and "Lexus" by this standard, the former is better than the latter.

"At least I'm alive" from Guangdong Kelon Electric Co., Ltd. believes that there are two ways for foreign companies to enter the Chinese market in the choice of brand names. One is the literal translation, so that consumers can know at a glance that it is a foreign brand, such as Bentley, Rolls-Royce and other car names. The second is free translation, such as BMW, Procter & Gamble's Rejoice and other products. However, most brands will pay attention to localization when translating their names. This is the general trend, and classic translations emerge in an endless stream, such as Mercedes-Benz, Samsung and other brands.

Either way, it needs to evoke infinite associations in people. "Hometown's Cow" points out that the richer this association, the better. The essence of language is the expression of meaning and information, and the brand name should use language to express the information that the brand needs to convey to consumers. On the land of China, only the Chinese language can convey information that the Chinese can understand and associate, and it is obvious to use the transliteration of a foreign brand that has no information to the Chinese as the brand name in the Chinese market. It does not meet the functional requirements of the above-mentioned brand information.

"Lexus" is difficult for consumers to generate rich associations. In addition to the reason why it has no practical significance, it is also difficult to remember. According to the "Autumn Harvest Plan" of Guangzhou Zhongyida Automobile Trading Co., Ltd., "Lexus" is not easy to speak and remember. In brand marketing, easy to speak and easy to remember are two important links.

Both "Hunan Laogao" from a company and "Abamo Ritchie" from Bond West Consulting believe that Chinese names should not exceed three characters. "Hunan Lao Gao" pointed out that Chinese people don't like names with four characters or more, Coca-Cola is Coke and Pepsi is Pepsi. It's much better to just take 3 words, or better to use the closer "Lei Chi (Chi)". The point of view of "Abamore Region" is that Motorola has changed its name to moto, and Toyota has changed from simplicity to complexity. What is Lexus? At first glance, I thought it was an American place name.

The original intention of changing the name is debatable. Toyota's original intention to change "Lexus" to "Lexus" has two points: "1. No matter where in the world, as long as it is a Toyota product, the pronunciation should be similar, which is convenient for Toyota product appellation. To this end, Toyota stipulates that all products use transliteration. 2. The new Chinese transliteration is more reminiscent of the LEXUS brand to better match the company's LEXUS brand global image."

However, in Tianjin Gome Electric Co., Ltd. According to the company's "Silver", neither of these reasons is very strong. He believes that the first reason "to facilitate the unification of Toyota product names" has no practical market significance. Due to the huge differences in culture and habits all over the world, a company must consider adopting different strategies when promoting its products in a certain region, otherwise there will be huge negative effects. The possibility of unifying the appellation with cultural tolerance is slim.

As for the second reason, "Silver" thinks there is also a suspicion of "behind the scenes". Under the premise of determining the target that needs to change the title, it cannot be said that the re-establishment of the local advantages of the company's products will not be successful. But the answer to the question of which Lexus or "Lexus" is more reminiscent of the "L" car is obvious, at least for now. Even to a large extent, in the Chinese car market, seeing "L" can easily make people think of its car brand, not "Lexus".

"Yin Tianqiu" of Zhijie Technology Co., Ltd. also pointed out that it is meaningless to call the same name on a global scale. Except for Toyota's own convenience, it has no value to customers. They are more concerned about quality. and service.

While this name change has its drawbacks, it also has many merits. What's more, some users of CEConline's website, like Toyota, think it's time for the brand to change its name.

"Lexus" has been unable to keep up with the market. Commissioned by Hong Kong's "World Ranking Magazine", the China Social Research Institute once conducted a survey on nearly 1,000 people in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The top ten international famous brands are Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Toyota, Buick, Rolls-Royce, Ford, Volvo, Honda, and Cadillac. Among the luxury car brands, the top ten famous brands in the public's mind are Mercedes-Benz and BMW. , Buick, Hongqi, Audi, Guangzhou Honda, Volvo, Toyota, Citroen, Opel. In these two investigations, Ling Zhi did not appear.

A company's "Xu Bin" cited the above survey results, indicating that Lexus' ten-year brand building was a failure. He believes that if there is no new brand appearance, and only blindly nostalgic about the so-called brand meaning, then the sales have already been abandoned. Sales and customer recognition are the guarantee of a brand. Therefore, if Toyota wants to restart the construction and marketing of the LEXUS brand, then Lexus's abandonment should be a more sensible choice.

"My Heart is Flying" from Guangdong Foshan Global Co., Ltd. also thinks it's time to change the brand name. He pointed out that the current positioning of Lexus is the quality of Mercedes-Benz cars, the price of mid-to-high-end cars, and the connotation of its brand promotion is economical and affordable. Such brand positioning does not meet the requirements of high-end cars, and the brand positioning has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it must be renamed in the long run. In addition, the impact of the cancellation of the Lexus brand on consumers is not wide, because the sales volume of Lexus has only exceeded 10,000 units in ten years, and the annual sales volume is only 1,200 units, and there are still a certain number of vehicles to be eliminated each year.

The new name takes advantage of consumers' psychology According to some users of the CEConline website, the foreign name "Lexus" still takes into account the curiosity of Chinese consumers who admire Western brands and look forward to new things.

"BlackJero" from Zhongshen Software Co., Ltd. believes that Lexus and Lexus, the first intuitive feeling of the two names is that one is a Chinese name and the other is a foreign name. In China, although it is very open now, as long as it is linked to a foreign name, it will be very different, and it may represent nobility in the eyes of the Chinese. Since Toyota has the ambition to win the market, it is also very valuable to do something that can attract the attention of the public.

"Xu Bin" understands this. He pointed out that Chinese people still have a foreign-oriented mentality towards foreign brands. Since Lexus has been submerged in the eyes of many Chinese characters, and among high-end cars, Chinese people seem to pay more attention to accepting German and American cars. It is more conducive to avoid the concept of Japanese cars if the name of the place of origin cannot be understood, so when promoting LEXUS, the advantages should outweigh the disadvantages.

"Ku Rongzun" of Zhejiang Zijingang Tape Co., Ltd. and "risely" of Shanghai Boan Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. both believe that the new name does take advantage of consumers' curiosity for new things.

"Kurong Zun" pointed out that the change to Lexus also has great benefits, "a brand new name gives us new expectations: is Toyota doing something new on this car?"

"risely" thinks , Lexus has been in the car industry for a long time, and even people are familiar with Munai, and now changing its name will arouse people's interest in this car again. He pointed out that, in fact, consumers have the passion to explore new things, "so I think the product also needs to be passionately operated to attract more customers."

The supporting measures must keep up with

In fact, "Mercedes-Benz" is not called "Mercedes-Benz" in Hong Kong, but "Pingzhi". "Rainforest Tea" from China Development Bank Zhengzhou Branch believes that this is like the comparison between Lexus and Lexus. It can be seen that the difference in brand names is not a fatal flaw for market leaders such as Mercedes-Benz and Toyota. Strong market competitiveness.

"My heart is flying" further explained that the name of the product does not determine the sales prospects of the product. The key is the recognition of the brand by future sellers. Efforts are made to develop services and new products. In other words, only supporting measures can ensure that the new name is well-received.

Marketing Communication In "at least I'm alive", the failure of Lexus was not due to its name, but its market positioning and advertising investment did not correspond to its quality. The lesson learned is that effective market communication is undoubtedly crucial to the rapid market acceptance of "Lexus".

"kiss cat" from Beijing Fusi Huaxing Computer Technology Co., Ltd. believes that changing the name from "Lexus" to the seemingly unrelated "Lexus" requires adequate marketing to achieve new recognition among users.

"Dududu" of Changan Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. suggested that Toyota: start Lexus by holding a grand event; give all users who have purchased Lexus an exquisite souvenir, thank them for their support of Lexus, the souvenir will prove They are the last "Lexus" users in the Chinese market.

Excellent service In addition to effective market communication, the "Autumn Harvest Plan" believes that it is right and feasible for Toyota to "establish an independent sales and service network". Low-end, mid-end and high-end customers have different needs, interests and preferences. High-end decoration, prime location, five-star service and even beautiful sales girls can just meet the various needs of high-end customers.

"Tong Yu" from Freescale Semiconductor (China) Co., Ltd. agrees: "I very much agree that Toyota will open franchised dealerships to improve product service and improve product value, but what Toyota needs to consider is how To innovate the product and make it a real 'purple cow', obviously this cannot be achieved by changing the name alone."

"Xu Bin" pointed out that the establishment of an independent franchise store can further establish the high-end positioning of the brand. Toyota's move is actually an effort to promote the new brand. Since the positioning is high-end, then reflecting the noble status of customers and allowing customers to enjoy high-end services is to experience the performance of brand value everywhere in the marketing process. This is a necessary investment.

This article was compiled by Stephen Chen. For more case studies and online discussions, please visit the CEConlines website (www.cec.globalsources.com).