In the food industry, a catchy brand name often becomes an intangible asset for a food company. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Want Want... Behind these brands are little-known stories. As a food industry professional, how much do you know about the origins of these brand names?
- Nestlé Named after the founder Nestlé's brand name is very straightforward, seemingly effortless. However, Nestlé is taken from the name of its founder, Henri Nestlé. In German, Nestle means "little bird's nest," which inherently carries a sense of warmth; in English, it also has connotations of "comfortable settling down" and "nestling." Due to the specific meaning of the name, it naturally connects with the English word "Nest" (bird's nest), using the nest pattern as the brand logo, which evokes images of a baby bird waiting to be fed, a loving mother, and healthy, nutritious Nestlé products.
Thus, the world-renowned Nestlé company was born in 1867. It's clear that the easily derived "Nestlé" brand not only has rich connotations but also fully meets the basic requirements of trademark positioning.
- Dove Born from love The Dove chocolate logo is formed from the letters of "DOVE," which expand to "DO YOU LOVE ME—Do you love me?" The font is chocolate-colored, as if drizzled with sweet chocolate sauce, exuding sweetness. The design of the Dove logo focuses on its meaning and its well-known tragic love story.
In the early 20th century, a sad love story took place in Luxembourg between Basha and Leon. Due to royal privilege struggles, they missed each other. To commemorate this love, Leon painstakingly developed the unique and mellow Dove chocolate, with "DOVE" firmly engraved on every piece. Today, Dove chocolate has dozens of flavors, and every kind of love can be interpreted and entrusted in this chocolate kingdom.
- Coca-Cola Chinese name coined by a Shanghai scholar "Coca-Cola" has always been considered the best-translated name in the world, being both "可口" (delicious) and "可乐" (joyful), not only preserving the English sound but also having more meaning than the original. This Chinese name was coined by a Shanghai scholar.
In the 1920s, Coca-Cola was already produced in Shanghai, initially translated into a strange Chinese name, "蝌蝌啃蜡" (which sounds like "keke kenla"), and its acceptance was naturally poor. So Coca-Cola's export company publicly advertised a reward of £350 for a better translation. Jiang Yi, a Shanghai professor then in England, won the prize with "可口可乐," beating all other competitors.
Pepsi From pepsin Do you know how Pepsi got its name? Because the inventor, Bradham, believed his drink could aid digestion and relieve dyspepsia symptoms, he took the root "peps" from the word "dyspepsia," meaning digestion. However, some say Pepsi comes from the word "pepsin" (gastric enzyme). Although it's undecided which word it came from, the meaning of "aiding digestion" is consistent. So could Pepsi's slogan also be said as "Pepsi, bring 'good appetite' home"?
Want Want Loves dogs, compares himself to a dog The father of Want Want, Tsai Eng-meng, started his business at 19 and ended up losing over 100 million. At that time, he was disheartened and labeled a "prodigal son." One night, in a deep sleep, Tsai dreamed of a dog barking at him, as if calling him. Before dawn, Tsai jumped up and went to the local temple dedicated to the spiritual dog, the Eight Kings Temple, to pray.
Finally, Tsai found an opportunity in the rice cracker business. It took over two years to obtain the rice cracker manufacturing technology from the "father of rice crackers" in Japan, Masakazu Hara. Thus, Yilan Food Factory became the Want Want Food Factory. After Tsai's rice cracker business prospered, worshippers at the Eight Kings Temple became numerous.
Even now, on China Want Want's homepage, among the few corporate stories in the company culture section, two are related to dogs, with Tsai Eng-meng's story with his pet dog "Heipi" prominently featured. He once compared himself to the "confident and brave" spirit of the little dog Heipi to motivate himself, feeling that "Want Want" had a good meaning.
Oreo A brand with rich meanings Oreo was born in 1912 and quickly became the best-selling sandwich cookie in the United States. It is Kraft Foods' superstar and the king of cookies, synonymous with chocolate-flavored sandwich cookies worldwide. There are several theories about the meaning of the Oreo name: some say "Or" means gold in French, as early Oreo packaging was gold; another theory suggests it comes from the Greek word "Oros," meaning hill, because the original Oreo was mound-shaped, and the Greek word "Oreos" means beautiful. Others say "re" refers to the cream in the middle, and the two "O"s represent the two layers of chocolate cookies on the outside. Since the cookie is black on the outside and white on the inside, Oreo also refers to a black person who accepts white ideology.
7UP Represents the 7 ingredients of the drink This drink was developed in 1929 by Charles Leiper Grigg, who had just won a contest for the best-tasting lemon drink. But he initially named it "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda"—too hard to remember. Later, Britvic, the UK and Ireland distributor for 7UP, gave it the simpler name "7UP," representing the 7 main ingredients in the drink.
RIO Cocktail Abbreviation of Rio de Janeiro RIO is an abbreviation of the famous Brazilian city "Rio de Janeiro." It represents youthful fashion and coolness, embodying unruliness and individuality, rebellion and flamboyance, frankness and innocence, independence and self.
Minute Maid A creative brand name born from brainstorming Minute Maid is a brand launched by The Coca-Cola Company in April 2004. In fact, Minute Maid is a juice brand that Coca-Cola has used globally for many years, dating back to April 15, 1946, when the first batch of frozen concentrated orange juice was shipped from Florida, marking the birth of the modern juice manufacturing industry. Coca-Cola hoped to introduce this global brand with the new juice. But the problem was that Minute Maid had different product positioning in different global markets, each with culturally specific local translations. How to translate an English name born over 50 years ago into Chinese and appropriately express the brand meaning? The Coca-Cola marketing director was stumped.
Just when he was stuck, during an internal brainstorming session, he suggested looking for inspiration in the phone directory listing all employee names. On the phone list, the name "Lin Bangyuan" caught his eye in an unprecedented way. When Lin Bangyuan was born in 1964, Hong Kong was short of water, so his father deliberately included the character "源" (source) in his name, meaning abundance and continuous flow. Now, this "源" character was applied to the Chinese translation of Minute Maid—thus "美汁源" was born, which is catchy and close to the English pronunciation.
Wahaha Named after a Xinjiang folk song Initially, when Wahaha Group cooperated with relevant universities to develop the niche product of children's nutritional liquid, they publicly solicited product names through the media and organized experts to conduct research and论证 from market, psychology, communication, sociology, and linguistics perspectives. Influenced by traditional naming habits for nutritional liquids, people's thinking revolved around names like "素" (element), "精" (essence), or "宝" (treasure), and no one noticed the three characters "娃哈哈" from a Xinjiang folk song. However, factory director Zong Qinghou favored these three characters. His reasons were threefold: First, the vowel "a" in "娃哈哈" is the earliest and easiest sound for children to make, easy to imitate, and the pronunciation is loud, harmonious, easy to remember, and easy to accept. Second, literally, "哈哈" is the sound of laughter and joy for people of all skin colors. Third, the children's song of the same name, with its cheerful and lively melody and strong ethnic color, has been sung across the Tianshan Mountains and the Yangtze River, connecting such a widely spread folk song with the product trademark helps people become familiar with it, remember it, and recall it, thereby increasing its visibility.
Master Kong Healthy and professional The owner of "Master Kong" is not surnamed "Kong," but is Wei Ying-chiao and his brothers, directors of Ting Hsin International Group. "Master Kong" was a brand created by Ting Hsin in 1992 to enter the mainland market. "Kang" represents health and sounds resounding; "Shifu" (master) is the most common respectful term in the mainland, signifying professionalism and good craftsmanship, while also feeling very approachable. Combined with the smiling, honest-looking "fat chef" image, it is a very appealing brand. Thus, Ting Hsin Group settled on "Master Kong" as the product name.
Wanglaoji Founder's childhood name Wanglaoji herbal tea is a famous Chinese herbal tea, created around 1830 during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty by Wang Zebang (childhood name Aji) from Heshan, Guangdong. Wang Zebang was originally a farmer. When a plague broke out, he took his wife and children to the mountains to avoid it. On the way, he met a Taoist priest who taught him a prescription. Wang Zebang brewed tea according to the prescription and helped treat the sick. In 1851, during the reign of Xianfeng, Wang Zebang was appointed as a royal physician. The following year, he opened the "Wanglaoji Herbal Tea Shop" on Jingyuan Street, Shisanhang Road, Guangzhou, specializing in bowl-served herbal tea. After liberation in 1949, the Wanglaoji United Pharmaceutical Factory was established, and on March 4, 2004, it was renamed Guangzhou Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Six Walnuts A lucky number Many people interpret "六个核桃" as "six walnuts," thinking it's named because the drink contains six walnuts, but that's not the case. In fact, the name's origin is not that simple. The "six" borrows from the traditional Chinese culture of smoothness, meaning "六六大顺" (everything goes smoothly), which is auspicious and pleasing; "walnut" refers to the main ingredient, as Chinese people have long recognized the nutritional value of walnuts, and putting the ingredient directly in the name helps consumers understand intuitively; the middle "个" is a simple measure word. "Six Walnuts" combines the connotation of smoothness with direct product attributes, simple yet profound, very impressive.
Jinmailang Evokes golden wheat waves In the mid-to-late 1990s, Hualong had established its dominance in the rural market across China, but in the urban market, Hualong instant noodles were still a blank. Hualong's senior management realized they must break into the high-end market to complete the strategic transformation and brand upgrade from a regional low-end brand to a national brand.
During an inspection trip to Japan, Hualong's president Fan Xianguo discovered a very popular instant noodle brand called "Mou Mou Lang." At that time, Japanese and Korean products were seen as symbols of status and prestige. Influenced by Japanese and Korean dramas and cartoons, the term "Lang" (like Xigua Taro, Xizhiliang, etc.) became fashionable and popular among teenagers, who were the main consumers of urban instant noodles. Therefore, everyone agreed to name the new product "Mou Mou Lang."
National authoritative flour quality inspection reports showed that Hebei flour was always the best in China, and Hualong's flour was the best in Hebei. Therefore, Hualong had to directly express the advantage of flour in the product name. Hualong recalled many memories about "wheat" and finally focused on the golden wheat waves, "Jinmai" (golden wheat). But after deliberation, they felt the character "Jin" (gold) was a bit rustic, so they changed "Jinmai" to "Jinmai" (今麦) and called it "Jinmailang." Thus, a stylish, lively, and highly associative brand was born.
Three Squirrels Three is an easy number to remember Where does the name "Three Squirrels" come from? This is a question many people ask when they first see Three Squirrels, but the answer is surprising: there is no profound meaning; it's simply because "three" is an easy number to remember, and squirrels are a direct association with nuts.
Huiyuan Gathering talents from all over, wealth from all directions "Huiyuan" is a combination of the first characters of the couplet "汇聚五洲英才,源通四海财富" (Gathering talents from five continents, wealth from four seas), implying gathering talent, resources, and wealth. "Huiyuan" is the company name, and both characters have the water radical; Huiyuan mainly produces juice drinks, and drinks belong to water, so the company name matches the product attributes, implying prosperity and long history.
Xizhiliang Transliteration of "strong" "Xizhiliang" sounds like a Japanese brand name at first, but this cheerful name actually comes from the transliteration of the English word "strong." It's said that the speaker had no intention, but the listener took it to heart. Who would have thought that a casual "tease" would name the jelly kingdom 20 years later?
In the early days of entrepreneurship, the Li brothers named their product "strong," hoping their company would grow stronger and that children, the main consumers, would be healthy and strong. But using an English name directly would limit the development of the company and product to some extent, as the average English level was not high at the time. If consumers couldn't easily pronounce the name, it would hinder market promotion. So the brand name became the first stumbling block for the Li brothers.
His son kept saying "strong" every day, which puzzled his mother who didn't understand English. "You're not married yet, where did you get a 'Xizhiliang' (which sounds like 'daughter-in-law')?" she asked casually. This question immediately woke him from his dream. Xizhiliang, stylish yet with Chinese flavor, was exactly the name he had been seeking.
- Mengniu Inner Mongolia's cow One day in early 1999, at the Bayan Tal Hotel in Hohhot, Niu Gensheng, Sun Yubin, Yang Wenjun, Qiu Lianjun, Bai Jun, Deng Jiuqiang, Sun Xianhong, and others held a secret meeting. The purpose was to name the company. Many discussions had been held before. To give the new company a name that could speak for itself, they repeatedly used brainstorming.
Following the principle of "think simply to succeed," Sun Xianhong said, "Look at 'Aoniu' (Australian cow), it's simple, just 'Australian cow.'" This sparked an idea, and someone blurted out, "Then let's call it 'Mengniu' (Inner Mongolia cow)!" And that's how the name was used.
- Morshynska A longevity village that produces yogurt At the beginning of the 20th century, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, Metchnikoff, through extensive research, believed that the longevity of Bulgarians was due to their long-term and large consumption of yogurt, and Bulgarian strains became known to the world. However, in a valley in the Rhodopes Mountains in southern Bulgaria, there is a small village called Momchilovtsi, where villagers have a tradition passed down through generations: drinking yogurt made at home in mountain huts every day.
In 2009, Bright Dairy brought the original probiotics from Morshynska to China and developed the first room-temperature yogurt in China—Bright Morshynska Yogurt.
Xiaoshile Homophone for "digestion" The product name "Xiaoshile" takes the homophone of "消食" (digestion) as "消时" (time to relax), and "Xiaoshile" accurately conveys the product's selling point of aiding digestion while also conveying a relaxed and happy product experience. "Small bloating—Xiaoshile, big fish and meat—Xiaoshile, happy gatherings—Xiaoshile, holiday gifts—Xiaoshile..."
XS Beverage Abbreviation of "excess" The XS brand was founded in 2001 in Laguna Beach, California, USA, by co-founder David Vanderveen, a former Amway distributor. It mainly sells sugar-free drinks with excellent taste and rich in vitamin B.
XS comes from the English word "excess," meaning "more." XS means to boost your vitality for those who love challenges and dare to realize themselves, and also gives you an unexpectedly great taste!
- Dongpeng Special Drink The roc bird that flies thousands of miles In 1998, Dongpeng Special Drink was developed and named by the Shenzhen Laiyingda Dongpeng Special Beverage Co., Ltd. team, with the current chairman of Dongpeng Beverage Group, Lin Muqin, personally participating.
Dongpeng, as the name suggests, is the great roc of the East, inspired by Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering," which says: "In the Northern Sea, there is a fish called Kun. Its size is unknown, thousands of miles. It transforms into a bird called Peng. Peng's back is unknown, thousands of miles. When it flies in anger, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky. It strikes the water for three thousand miles, and rides the whirlwind up to ninety thousand miles."
Dongpeng named the company after the great roc that "strikes the water for three thousand miles and rides the whirlwind up to ninety thousand miles," implying that the company aims high and has a bright future, hoping that through the hard work of the "Peng" people, the company can fly thousands of miles. Dongpeng Beverage was established in Shenzhen, which is also known as Pengcheng (Roc City), so Dongpeng also carries the meaning of Guangdong's Pengcheng.
Eros Transliteration of Cupid Eros is the transliteration of the English word "Eros," who is considered the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, a beautiful youth holding a bow and arrow. His Roman name, Cupid, is most well-known. Eros is inspired by "Live For Fun," mixing life's fun with trendy fashion. The pink and silver-gray packaging, along with the name meaning Cupid, makes it a vibrant drink exclusively for the younger generation.
Dali Harmony and benefiting all Dali Group, headquartered in Quanzhou, founded its first production plant in September 1989, and in 1998, it expanded beyond the province by opening its first branch in Chengdu. Since then, Dali Group has steadily and firmly moved towards the whole country, investing and building factories across the nation, entering the fast lane of development. Currently, it has 19 companies including Fujian Dali and Chengdu Dali, 29 food and beverage production bases, over 39,000 employees, and an annual output value exceeding 10 billion yuan, making it the largest wholly-owned national brand food production leading enterprise. Chairman Xu Shihui has long advocated the core concept of "达和谐、利众生" (Achieve harmony, benefit all beings) in the enterprise. While growing bigger and stronger, the company always remembers its social responsibility as a national enterprise and actively participates in various charitable and public welfare undertakings.
Xiangpiaopiao The fragrant smell of milk tea In the winter of 2003, Jiang Jianqi was thinking about where to steer his company, but he only determined that he wanted to do "drinks." It wasn't until the Spring Festival of 2004 that a milk tea shop with a line of over 500 meters waiting to buy their milk tea gave him inspiration. His business intuition told him, "If there's such a long line, there must be something big!"
Jiang Jianqi had a flash of inspiration: "If we make street milk tea convenient, people won't have to queue!" He immediately invited the Hangzhou Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology to research the milk tea formula and then asked a design company to design the packaging. Six months later, the fragrant smell of milk tea wafting from the lab led Jiang Jianqi to think of the brand name: "Let's call our milk tea Xiangpiaopiao!"
Special Forces The quality of special forces In 2014, TV dramas like "Special Forces" and "Fire-Blade Blue" were airing, and at that time, Susa launched a raw coconut juice named "Special Forces." Regarding whether it was following the trend, Mr. Liu from Susa Group said, "The reason we named it 'Special Forces' is not to borrow someone else's fame, but to use this name to strictly demand ourselves. The product must be like special forces, with solid product skills and strength."
Qiaqia Homophone of "qiaqia" (just right) In 1998, the Anhui provincial government invited a group of entrepreneurs to go on an inspection tour outside the province. Chen Xianbao went along but spent his time buying snacks and eating. As he ate, he identified the pain points of roasted sunflower seeds: they dirty your hands and cause heatiness (上火) if you eat too much.
Other people's troubles are one's own opportunities. Chen Xianbao soon discovered a new type of sunflower seed with clean shells that didn't dirty hands and were flavorful, which amazed him. He carefully studied the production process and found that they were first soaked, peeled, flavored, and then roasted. Chen Xianbao had a sudden idea: if he changed from roasting to boiling the seeds, wouldn't the heatiness problem be solved?
After repeated experiments, Chen Xianbao found that "boiled" seeds were indeed clean and tasty. He continuously improved by blending various spices and beneficial Chinese herbs, then steaming and boiling, resulting in a savory and non-heaty snack. So he promoted "boiled seeds" as a specialty, marking the packaging with "百煮入味香" (boiled a hundred times for flavor), and it quickly won consumer favor.
Such a good fragrant seed deserved a catchy name. Chen Xianbao racked his brains without success. One day, passing by a square, he was attracted by a group dancing the cha-cha. He had a flash of inspiration and settled on the dynamic and unrestrained name "Qiaqia." He chose the character "洽" with the water radical to match the "boiled seed" positioning. The name is catchy and sounds similar to the sound of cracking seeds.
- Häagen-Dazs No meaning at all In the 1920s, a Polish immigrant named Reuben Mattus in New York began making and selling ice cream products. Later, his business grew, but he lacked a catchy name to attract American consumers, as Americans at the time preferred buying products imported from Europe. Mattus's wife happened to think of the name "Häagen-Dazs," but the name has no meaning at all.
Source: Food Business
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