Wednesday, December 1, 2010

ベネフィーク, Benefique, is from my Japanese Cosmetic product's brand name. As I see it, katagana is often, but not always, used for transcription of Japanese company names.For an example, TOYOTA is presented as トヨタ. Katagana is used for emphasis, especially on signs, advertisements and billboards.

Why such brand's name in katagana has an effect of emphasis? My possible guess will be the publicity and marketing strategy of Japanese companies. Cretainly, the figure of katakana has much more impact than hiragana or kanji
katakana is simple  and angular.They do stand out. As the world becomes more and more globalized its easy to understand why companies want their name to be as simple as possible.We have Dell, Walmart, IBM, Intel, etc., all names with very few syllables and very easy to adopt to other languages.For some reason, the bold, simple and angular characters seem to pop out more. Perhaps this is why they are used more effectively to draw attention to signs and what not. 

.As these companies try to be more international as well as targeting international market, it is necessary for them to create a feeling for all kinds of customers of anywhere to recognize their brand. If written in katagana, first of all, the store's name or the brand will stand out for your eye catching in the street when shopping. Secondly, as usage of katagana is often related to loanwords, which reminds others of foreign or international oriented, it is better for the company to impress its customers of its large scale and its high quality.

Another example is a Loanword written in katagana, タンメン,soup noodle, from M2M Convenience Store. This example seems to be a little bit ambiguous. First of all, this word is actually originated from Kanji word or Chinese word, 汤面,as it sounds almost the same accent and means the exact the same thing. Probably this word/thing came from China long time ago and borrowed by Japanese. However why is it written in katagana instead of Kanji since it is from China? 

Here one possible answer is katakana words, which are ラーメン, ステーキ and so on, mean that they are not purely foreign origin foods. Foreign origin foods written in katakana are often changed into Japanese taste.  It definitely seems possible that Japanese  might sometimes use Katakana instead of Kanji when the products have similar counterparts in China that they want to distinguish themselves from.Also, the adaptation of food names into katakana (rather than using the kanji for example) suggests the acculturation of the food to fit the tastes of Japanese people.In addition, the katagana writing of it is simpler than its kanji version. Fewer strokes and simpler structure might help people to recognize. 

In general, katagana writing form has an effect of emphasis in terms of its presenting medium, targeting audience and culture meaning. 



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