Pirelli tires B2B naming

project at futurebrand milan

cHALLENGE

Create a new B2B brand name for the industrial arm of the Italian tire company Pirelli, currently named Aeolus. The new name must also function in the Chinese market due to the upcoming acquisition by a Chinese holding company.

SOLUTION

Use a two pronged approach- doing extensive research on best practices of translated company names within the Chinese market and determining the brand values of the existing Aeolus brand to create distinct naming territories to brief the naming expert on.

Pirelli eventually chose http://www.prometeon.com/en-ww/company/ 

researching THE CHINESE MARKET

Western brands fall under 4 major categories in terms of best practices:

1. ) BRANDS WITH NO TRANSLATIONS

The major advantage of this approach is global consistency but this method is only recommended if the international name is short and easy to pronounce for Chinese people or the brand is already well established in China.

2.) BRANDS WITH PURELY PHONETIC TRANSLATIONS

These exotic names project an imported image, which is usually positive in China. On the other hand, the words themselves mean nothing in this combination and do not convey the company values, also making it more difficult to be remembered. 

3.) BRANDS WITH PHONETIC TRANSLATION AND CHINESE MEANING

While the pronunciations of the Western name are taken into account, the Chinese characters also convey certain meaning, usually related to the brand values.          Such names are easy to remember, communicate brand attributes and maintain global consistency with the similar pronunciation. These are very memorable but also challenging to create.

4.) BRANDS WITH COMBINATION PHONETIC TRANSLATION AND CHINESE MEANING

Some companies combine two or more translation methods in one name and use a mix of semantic and phonetic words. These Chinese names can be easily remembered and, at the same time, phonetically resemble the original names. They are not common because most western brand names cannot be translated easily.

DEFINING BRAND VALUES

In their own words:

Considering also the current name "Aeolus", it is evocative due to its basis in Greek mythology and suggests power since it is the ruler of the winds

What should be the purpose of an industrial tire brand, as perceived by consumers and businesses?

Based on the existing company name and the brand promises, we identified 4 major values:

• Power
• Performance
• Quality
• Dynamic

KEY NAMING TERRITORIES

1.) Create a name that incorporates the values of the brands it represents: 

a. Power, with Experience to back it up:

Combining the historic technical expertise of the brands under Aeolus with the key imagery of powerfully propelling tires, these naming options promise consumers time tested and high capacity products.

• DEZRA
• OBERON
• PRESIDION
• PROMETEON

b. Quality, while keeping up with  Innovation:

Pledging to consumers a brand that stands for continuously evolving technical excellence, these naming options offer both a reassurance and a guarantee of the superiority of the product.

• IDEAXI
• INNOVIS
• PROXIVE
• TEKEDRA

2.) Creating a name that honors the original mythology based name but incorporates the purpose of the company

Paying homage to the company’s original concept from Greek Mythology but additionally imbuing the brand name with values important to the industry, these options present unique storytelling and can be more memorable.

• KRATOS
• FALACER
• SOTER
• TALOS
• PALATUA