Brand in Arabic
Gulf Marketing Review, June 2005When my daughter Hind was born and I started receiving the usual congratulating calls, the most common question was: “Did you name her after Profit Mohammed’s wife, your mother in law, India the country or for the actual Arabic meaning of the word, which means “a hundred Camel”?
If you were from the in-laws side, I would certainly try to score with you by expressing my deep admiration for my mother-in-law. I’m sure you can guess my answer to the other categories. But the reality is; I just liked the simplicity and the sound of it! …… HIND. It could also be written well in English and I could save my daughter countless embarrassing situations that I had to go through when other tongues attempted to pronounce my name, Faeq. They either pretended to not have heard the F word or the more social ones would raise their eyebrows with a big smile and request me to help them rehearse it. But the biggest embarrassment would be if they tried to read it themselves! Oh God, don’t get me started.
Developing a name for a brand is a science and an art that I have spent years experimenting with and admit that I’m barely touching the surface. My focus in this article is to share with you observations and experiences with building brand names in Arabic.
We Arabs are brand conscious. We comprehend and relate to brands well on an emotional level. We know how to “feel” Nike, “enjoy” Sony and “smell” Starbucks without having to ask: “What does the name “Nike” mean? But when it comes to developing our own brand names, there is, what seems to be, a universal law or quest for literal meaning in brand names with little regard to the risk of falling in the generic name category and losing on brand differentiation. Take Etisalat for example, which stands for “Communications”! Can you believe it! A communications company that is called “Communications”! There is also “Tijari” = “Commerce related”, “Eemar” = “Architectural development” and many more.
“Thuraya”, on the other hand, is a great brand name for a satellite communications company. It means a starry sky or a star cluster and also means a chandelier. It is inspiring, relevant without being direct, and sounds like Arabic.
I’m an Arab and my natural tendency when hearing a name of a person for the first time is to ask: “What does John mean?”. This question may sound strange coming from a native English speaker. Is this a cultural thing?
It could be and I honestly think there is nothing wrong with it. In fact it is desirable as this could be a cultural attribute that will help us add an element of authenticity in Arabic brands. But we need to tweak our methodology a little in order to maintain brand differentiation and avoid falling in the “common or generic name” trap.
One of our greatest assets as Arabs is our beautiful language. Our Bedouin fathers celebrated every small detail of their desert world to an enormous depth. Almost every creature, object or feeling has scores of names.
Take "Love" for example as demonstrated by Tamim al-Barghouti, a Palestinian poet and author, “Love has 77 names, each of which has a slight but crucial difference from the other. Hawa means light liking but also transfers an element of error, bias and irrationality. As the old pre-Islamic proverb goes: "Hawa is the downside of reason."
“Then you have ishq, which comes from entanglement, like two pieces of wood and ivory in a work of arabesque, the two lovers are inseparable yet still independent and distinct. Then there is hayam, which comes from wandering thirsty in the desert, and fitna, which means love, infatuation, passionate desire, but also means civil war and illusion.”
“There is izaz, which is the kind of love that gives both lovers power and dignity, and sakan, which also means home and tranquility, the Quran uses this word to describe the relation between married couples. The highest stage of love is, paradoxically, fanaa, which means non-existence. This is the stage where the lovers lose their independent existences and actually become one another. This stage is usually used by Sufis in reference to divine love and the unity of existence.”
A British friend pointed out another attribute of the language to me. She said that she liked the language because the words sounded like their meaning. This may need to be validated by research, but if it is true then it also comprises an asset of the language that can help in establishing brand tone.
Another exciting aspect of the language is the distinction between feminine and masculine nouns. Almost all nouns in Arabic are either feminine or masculine. Take “Sayyarah” which is Car in Arabic, it is a feminine noun. “Qitar” on the other hand, which is the word for Train, is masculine. All native Arab speakers can identify a feminine from a masculine noun instinctually. Even when it comes to nouns from other languages such as “Telephone”, which is commonly used as an Arabic noun, is masculine in Arabic. Don’t ask me why and how, it just is! This also is a great asset for brand personification.
Adherence to meaningful Arabic brand names, however, should not become a rule. We should let our imagination run freely through all these assets and invent proper names that sound like Arabic. We all know the story of Reuben Mattus, the young entrepreneur from New York with a passion for quality and a vision for creating the finest ice cream, who called his new brand Häagen-Dazs, to convey an aura of the old-world traditions and craftsmanship. The name is meaningless but it sounds and even looks European. Arabic, too, has a range of very distinct letters, such as Kha, Dhah, Qha which can be used to create proper Arabic nouns.
With this wealth of words, meanings and sounds from the Arabic language, a wave of authentic Arabic brand names can be developed. Brand names with the brand attributes embedded in the name itself; WOW! The trick is to dig for more specific meaning that distinguishes a generic word. Most of these names are from Classic Arabic and seldom used in Modern Standard Arabic or local dialects. We also need to motivate a wave for abstraction of Arabic brand names, where meaning is infused into newly constructed Arabic nouns that communicate at an emotional level, which stimulates the imagination and does not restrict brand expression.
To start building great brands, which can compete globally, we need to emphasize authenticity. In a world where globalization is blending all cultural colors, it is our responsibility as Arab brand developers to offer choice to global consumers who are starving for diversity and authenticity. Do we dare not invent any more, even if it is just a name?
Well, I will start with myself and call my next son “Khamboosh”. You will not find this noun in any Arabic dictionary, but I “feel” that it stands for “Smart, funny, quick and lovable Arab boy who is not afraid of being himself and making mistakes”.
Fa’eq Al’olaiwat
Principal and Chief Brand Architect