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Please change the name. If you want your company to be successful in the West, your name and brand will give you major problems. Of course, if you have a superior product, you will be successful anyways, but you will have a lot of problems starting up. Why dont you save yourself some problems?

Even your Chinese name Jiao is much better than GONOW, that is a horrible English brand name.

If you need some suggestions, you can ask us.
 

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"Go now" must now go!

fm.illuminatus said:
... I would never buy a car called "gonow" just as much as I would never buy milk named "gooddrink" or a computer named "fastfun". A purely chinese name would go over much better with American consumers. "Honda" is purely Japanese, and consumers associate the car with the country it came from, something they are comfortable with. But to try and come up with a cheesy American name for a chinese car... american consumers have a sense for knock-offs and crap products (because we have all been raised in a consumer driven society) and any cheesy name instantly says "knock-off" or "cheap". A company that won't spend the money on marketing to make a decent (and unique) name for it's product probably doesn't have a very good product. At least that's the prevailing attitude here in the states, and a concept to which I fully agree.
I agree, they should keep a (more)Chinese name, but they will become the butt of jokes if they keep a name like Gonow. Even if a Chinese name (ex: Dongfeng) might sound wierd today, eventually, it will sound as normal as Toyota, Honda, or Nissan(though Toyota originally debuted as "Toyopet" in the US). I think quality is more important. The Koreans are only now starting to be accepted as quality and reliable vehicles, because the first cars imported were crap(e.g.-Hyundai Excel). If you wait until you can have quality vehicles (with a good name), it will be a lot easier than starting with a vehicle that other manufacturers might have offered last in 1995 (no offense). I know people might now laugh at "Made in China", but in the 50's , "Made in Japan", though it might be hard to believe, was a joke and reguarded as 'something that fell apart just by looking at it'. Nowadays,
"Made in Japan" is reguarded as high-quality and well made. Anyway, if you want to avoid the pain of being perceived as a crap car, you should make sure that your quality and reliability are up to par with the competition, and also is cheaper. With the price of Chinese labor, you can acheive better quality for less, use it to your advantage.
 

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what's in a name-everything!

as a junior member, i don't know if i should even interrupt this most interesting of discussions. but, coming from actual experience w/marketing chinese trucks in a foreign country, in this case the philippines-w/ch is dominated by japanese car brands, & western (american) pop culture, i have to agree w/ those who put a premium on the right-sounding name brand. yuejin, foton, & great wall, brands we represent are easy on the ears, as well as evoke the "chineseness" of the products. we did not have too much negative reactions from the names, although people keep mistaking foton for the malaysian brand proton, & keep asking what yuejin means (leap forward), i think is a loose translation, pls. correct me if i'm wrong here. now, great wall-thats the right name for a chinese brand! i'm surprised that no one has thought of name brands w/ instant recognition as chinese, e.g. yangtze, shaolin, phoenix, red dragon, leaping tiger, etc. etc. its tough enough in this day & age to do battle against the giants of the auto industry to be hampered additionally w/ a name that evokes chuckles and snide remarks.

my two-cents worth.:)
 

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chinoy54 said:
as a junior member, i don't know if i should even interrupt this most interesting of discussions. but, coming from actual experience w/marketing chinese trucks in a foreign country, in this case the philippines-w/ch is dominated by japanese car brands, & western (american) pop culture, i have to agree w/ those who put a premium on the right-sounding name brand. yuejin, foton, & great wall, brands we represent are easy on the ears, as well as evoke the "chineseness" of the products. we did not have too much negative reactions from the names, although people keep mistaking foton for the malaysian brand proton, & keep asking what yuejin means (leap forward), i think is a loose translation, pls. correct me if i'm wrong here. now, great wall-thats the right name for a chinese brand! i'm surprised that no one has thought of name brands w/ instant recognition as chinese, e.g. yangtze, shaolin, phoenix, red dragon, leaping tiger, etc. etc. its tough enough in this day & age to do battle against the giants of the auto industry to be hampered additionally w/ a name that evokes chuckles and snide remarks.

my two-cents worth.:)
In the Philippines the word Gonow rhymes with the word "Gunaw",its meaning in english is "destroyed":nono:

The Chinese brands in the Philippines are the likes of Foton,Yuejin,Changan/Chana,Wuling and Great Wall,Fuqi and Gonow under one banner name called Nexus Automotive...
 

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It's better than Brillance naming a car the BS6 (BS is short for Bullshit).

Then again, Kia sells fine in the United States (KIA is a US military acronym that stands for Killed In Action; as in "5 US soliders were KIA today in Bagdad").

And GM named an SUV after a blowjob. Sooooo...
 

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chinoy54 said:
as a junior member, i don't know if i should even interrupt this most interesting of discussions. but, coming from actual experience w/marketing chinese trucks in a foreign country, in this case the philippines-w/ch is dominated by japanese car brands, & western (american) pop culture, i have to agree w/ those who put a premium on the right-sounding name brand. yuejin, foton, & great wall, brands we represent are easy on the ears, as well as evoke the "chineseness" of the products. we did not have too much negative reactions from the names, although people keep mistaking foton for the malaysian brand proton, & keep asking what yuejin means (leap forward), i think is a loose translation, pls. correct me if i'm wrong here. now, great wall-thats the right name for a chinese brand! i'm surprised that no one has thought of name brands w/ instant recognition as chinese, e.g. yangtze, shaolin, phoenix, red dragon, leaping tiger, etc. etc. its tough enough in this day & age to do battle against the giants of the auto industry to be hampered additionally w/ a name that evokes chuckles and snide remarks.

my two-cents worth.:)
The best Chinese-y name from a Chinese automaker is Great Wall.

Then again, they may want to downplay thier Chineseness. A lot of people in the United States think "cheap plastic crap from Walmart" when they see "Made In China".
 

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chinoy54 said:
I'm surprised that no one has thought of name brands w/ instant recognition as chinese, e.g. yangtze, shaolin, phoenix, red dragon, leaping tiger, etc. etc.
Oh, yes they have. Yangzi is a huge conglomerate that makes everything from floorboards to buses. Shaolin is a bus company. There are also two separate bus manufacturers, both called Jin Long (not red, but Golden Dragon).

But you're right - something grand and Chinese-sounding is far better than Gonow. May as well be called Pissoff or Getout!
 

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Agree with you. "GoNow" sounds really strange to me, even for a native Chinese speaker like me.

edge said:
I would seriously consider changing the name "Gonow". It sounds very tacky and cheesy, especially in the West. It won't be taken seriously by Americans. I think many Chinese companies still have a poor understanding of the Western consumer, hence the many ridiculous English names such as Chery, Geely and Gonow.. etc.

You need something more marketable and catchy. If you need help, I can try some suggestions.
 

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Go now ! Go now ! Go now !

I said this all the time when I had a Rover SD1 !


--------------------

so what's the pronunciation of Zhejiang - zeng dong ? zeng feng ? zhen jang ? zhen jyang ? zee jyang ? zee jang ?
why aren't chinese words translated _phonetically_ ?

What's wrong with something like "China Star" or "Lee", "Wong" etc..
 

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First thank you every body care GONOW company and its name.

For the name I think many western people think the GONOW is not good name. I accept this idea.

But you should know when TOYOTO first come the world,many people also think it is a bad name, now no one thing the name has some problem.

What do you think?


You know if in future GONOW car enter each country and in market there are many GONOW car,at that time may be no one think it is a bad name,it is my idea.
 
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