We’ve written several articles regarding Xiaomi releasing ‘European’ models to cater to the Euro market. There are some false rumors going around that the Xiaomi Hongmi is coming with WCDMA frequencies that will allow it to use 3G in all countries. This is absolutely not true. The MT6582 Xiaomi Hongmi comes with 900/2100. 3G will not operate in 90% of the Americas. This means North, Central and South. The Hongmi unfortunately doesn’t have 850MHz 2G either, which further reduces its useability in the Americas.
Regardless, for European marketing, the current name of the phone – Hongmi (which means Red Rice) will be changed to ‘Redmi’. What this means, we still are unsure. So maybe someone fluent in Chinese can comment.
Marketing towards Westerners is certainly something the Chinese need to work on. Recently I was on the Elan homepage. One of the biggest manufacturer’s of touchpads in the world. Their website hasn’t been updated since 2008, and it shows. It never ceases to amaze me, the lack of effort and thought most Asians put into ‘polish’, even when it’s an internationally recognized brand. Though much lesser known, Amoi also comes to mind – their homepage also hasn’t been updated since 2008.
One example of a name that never fails to put a smile in my brain is the recently released ‘Monkey King 2’: The Monkey King AKA “Sun Wukong….is a main character in the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West authored by Wu Cheng’en. Wukong is also found in many later stories and adaptations. In the novel, he is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices….Sun Wukong possesses an immense amount of strength; he is able to lift his 13,500 jīn (7,960 kilograms (17,550 lb)) staff with ease. He is also extremely fast, able to travel 108,000 li (54,000 kilometres (34,000 mi)) in one somersault. Sun knows 72 transformations, which allow him to transform into various animals and objects” – From Wikipedia
So while the name may give some of us a bit of a chuckle. It’s clear the Monkey King is a very serious historical figure and legend in China. Someone at THL was smart enough to rename the Monkey King 2 to Iron Man. Which, when thinking about it, is somewhat more amusing than the original name. Not the name ‘Iron Man’ itself, but the fact that some bright Chinese fellow thought it was a clever marketing move.
It bears thinking that perhaps some of our well loved China brands could benefit from hiring a Westerner to do some of their Western marketing and naming. If not humble enough to hire a foreigner, perhaps instead of trying to cater to what they believe the Western way of thinking may be, stick with something Asian and exotic sounding. The brand itself – Xiaomi, holds a great ring to it. Several minutes of thought would no doubt bear some excellent combinations.
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