Vietnam - Giving foreign names to Vietnamese products now in fashion

The fashion products available on the shelves at big shopping malls are the Vietnamese products which bear foreign names. The high rise buildings in the central areas of big cities also have foreign names. Naming products with foreign names have become in fashion.


It’s the fashion in fashion and real estate sectors

A lot of new brands have been launched into the market recently by Vietnamese manufacturers. The noteworthy thing here is that they all bear foreign names. The Viet Tien Garment Corporation, for example, has launched San Sciaro, Manhattan, TT-up brands, targeting different classes of consumers in the society. Meanwhile, the Nha Be Garment Corporation has Mattana and Novelty, and the Phu Nhuan Jewelry Company has Jemma brand, targeting high end customers.

Many other brands have been bearing foreign names since the day of their establishment, such as Nino Maxx, Blue Exchange and Foci. The 100 percent Vietnamese shoes maker Biti’s has also entered the high class fashion market with shoe brand Gosto.

The tendency of giving foreign names to products can be seen most clearly in the real estate sector. At first, foreign names were used for office buildings for lease, when the real estate developers said the buildings needed foreign names to attract foreign clients.

After that, housing projects’ developers also like foreign names. The words “Plaza”, “Tower” or “Center” were used to show the main functions of the buildings. After that, “Times”, “Garden”, “City”, “Square”, “Riverside”, “Park” have also been used.

There are different ways of creating foreign names to Vietnamese products. Some names are short, impressive and easy to remember, while others are really very difficult to be understood which need the explanations from the brand owners.

San Sciaro, for example, has the word “San” – the name of an Italian noble family, while Sciaro is a self-modified word. “San Sciaro” sounds like the name of the San Siro stadium of AC Milan Football Club, which can remind the Italian style, the fashion capital of the world.

As for “Gosto” of Biti’s, this includes “Go To” in English, and “S” means the shape of Vietnam country. Therefore, “Gosto” means bringing Vietnam to the world.

The project “Splendora” has been created by “Splendid” in English and suffix “ora” which means “yellow” in Latin. Meanwhile, Goldora Villa has been introduced as the villas for the upper class customers. This is the combination of “Gold” in English and “Ora” and Latin.

Why not Vietnamese names?

Garment and footwear manufacturers and traders all believe that in order to popularize their brands, it is necessary to choose foreign names which are easy to remember. They said that Italian-styled names prove to be the most favorite, because in people’s mind, Italian products always lead the world in the fashion or jewelry sectors.

As for real estate projects, as explained by a real estate developer, foreign names not only help show the functions of the buildings, but also show the “class” of the products. The foreign names always mean the high end products which have high sale prices.

The global integration and internationalization tendency has also been cited to explain the westernization of Vietnamese products. According to Tran Anh Tuan, Director of The Pathfinder, a consultancy firm, in general, fine art products have purely Vietnamese names implying the source of origin of the products, while fashion or real estate products need foreign names to satisfy the commercial demand of the market.

As for real estate products, it would be more difficult to attract tenants, because foreigners, the main targeted clients, would have problems with the spelling with Vietnamese names.

Pham Thi My Hanh, Director of CAO Fashion said she dares not use a Vietnamese name, because she cannot see the potentials with Vietnamese names, when Vietnamese customers still favored foreign products.

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