Brand-name : “a trade or proprietory name” (OED); otherwise “a
name which must not under any circumstances be translated into Welsh”.
“It can’t be translated because it is a brand name”: this is
the all-too-familiar protest of those who have perhaps had a bright idea but
haven’t included the fact that their business or presence is in Wales in their plans before
launching the said idea on the public. Cue, questions as to where the Welsh
identity of the “brand” is to be found; response, wriggling, occasionally
leading to a reversal (which very often turns out to be quite painless, after
all), but sometimes determined refusal to consider the Welsh language (more
likely if the parent company is not based in Wales and orders, or not-so-bright
ideas, have come from elsewhere).
Although I have mainly worked in the public sector I must
put my hand up here and confess to a family background in PR and advertising,
so although it is at one or even two removes I do know a little bit about what
a brand name is supposed to be and some of the principles of successful
marketing. The name must be memorable, easy to associate with the product, and
fairly simple. Over time a good brand name will become well-known. An
unsuccessful name might close doors (such as names which work in one language
but not in another, for instance – the reason why we never saw that refreshing
drink Pschitt! for sale on this side of La Manche, at least not under that name.
“Pour vous, cher ange, Pschitt orange”, its
early slogan, would have been a challenge to English marketing in translation …)
I am talking here in terms of business because that
essentially is where terms like brand truly belong. A brand is not the same
thing as the public image of a public sector operation, although business
language, terms and ideology creep in there all the time. It certainly is not
the correct term for a room with a functional name in a building. It is also not the correct
term for an advertising slogan or campaign. A business is free not to translate
its advertising (although it may be losing a trick by not doing so), but a
government agency does have to provide Welsh language versions of its public
information. Some slogans are easier to translate than others, and in some
cases something may be lost or gained in translation (slogans are the product
of a creative mind, after all) but there is no reason for not making the
attempt. So, Cardiff Council’s brilliant “Tidy Text” can be and is translated
into Welsh (but loses the joke in the process), whereas “Gwener y gwario
gwirion” is a witty, and alliterative, improvement on “Black Friday”, although
perhaps not quite conveying the meaning which businesses want!
Two examples of “brand name” oddity spring to mind at once.
The Royal Mint, formerly in the Tower of London but based in
Llantrisant in Wales since 1968, would surely count as most people’s idea of a
public body. It recently opened its doors to the public, and you can go there
for the Royal Mint Experience, during which you can enjoy the Royal Tea
Experience. In Welsh (once you have found the Welsh version of the website) you
are invited to enjoy the “profiad y te brenhinol”, but it is part of something
translated as “Profiad y Royal Mint” – a strange and distracting hybrid. (The
Welsh name has slipped in in a few places, for further confusion). “Profiad y
Royal Mint” appears on all the yellow directional road signs. Next to the name “Royal Mint” a little ®
appears, so it seems that this is now considered a “brand name” – yet the Welsh
name “Y Bathdy Brenhinol” has existed for years, and is easily found elsewhere
both on the Internet and in print. It’s not as if anyone would have to pay for
a special creative translation, as the Welsh name is already known and
established. If one really has to treat a name as a brand name (I’m not
convinced, but so it seems to be), isn’t it possible to have two? It’s not as
if anyone else can claim to be either “Y Bathdy Brenhinol” or “The Royal Mint”,
after all! (the current penalty for counterfeiting money is 10 years’
imprisonment).
Another recent example, this one from the private sector and
apparently unresolvable, involves Marks & Spencer, or M & S, which
appears to have undergone a recent rebranding exercise. Out with the green, in
with the black and white; out with the full name, too, in lots of places; more
contentiously, in with the weird new coinage “foodhall” (one word), which
indicates, if I have understood correctly, the smaller, mainly food outlets,
which also sell such things as flowers, newspapers and magazines, and a small
selection of kitchen and bathroom consumables, but no clothes or household items.
This is problematic even without the Welsh question. Clearly the words “food
hall”, which are more correct in English, could not be a “brand name” because,
well, they are just words – in this case words which have been used for the
same concept by other well-known stores for many years. Where there is a larger M & S,
that is with the clothes and shoes and so on, the words “food hall” appear on
the store guidance signs, and in Wales they are translated as “neuadd fwyd”
along with the other names of different departments in the shop. However, it
appears that a “foodhall” is not the same as a “food hall”, and that we are
being asked to regard “foodhall” as a brand (let’s for the sake of argument
think of these shops as M & S with no knickers). When M & S opened its
new “foodhall” in Aberystwyth, the council objected to the lack of Welsh, but
was told that “foodhall” was an untranslatable brand name. Several people
pointed out on Twitter and elsewhere that the large shops do translate the two
words. Ah, but the two words are not a brand name, you see. Clear? Well, no,
obviously not, since once you get into having to explain the difference between
two words (named department in a bigger store) and one word made out of two
words run together (the no-knickers shops) you have obviously failed to get the
concept across to the customers, and the name isn’t meeting the requirement of
being simple and easily understood. It doesn’t work particularly well in
English, because you either have to pronounce it as two words (in which case
you have moved away from the brand name) or make something up – should it rhyme
with Goodall? Should it have an Old Norse slant and become the Fuđhall?
I haven’t managed to come up with a creative solution, so
perhaps it’s just as well I didn’t follow other family members into this field,
but I can’t believe that there isn’t something which would work better than
this, both for clarity, better English, and, of course with a Welsh version too: or,
if the idea of a Welsh brand is unacceptable, another clearer name or word which would
work for everyone, including in Aberystwyth where the % of people who speak
Welsh is higher than those who do not. Many years ago my grandfather actually
worked for Marks and Spencer in just this type of work. I wonder what he might have
suggested?
Welsh has official status in Wales, which does not affect
the status of English but does mean that Welsh should not be treated less
favourably. The law is weak in the area of private enterprise, stronger in the
case of public bodies (but in these days of semi-privatisation and arms-length
agencies, what exactly counts as a public body?)
Private companies have more freedom to ignore the language,
but might like to consider how excluding Welsh from their “brand” comes across
to their potential Welsh customers. Basically, if you are saying that your
“brand name” cannot or must not be in Welsh, you are really saying that you
would rather people didn’t speak Welsh, and you perhaps cannot even comprehend
that they might be thinking in Welsh.
