Langchao (浪潮), an IT company in China, has adopted the “English” name of “Inspur” (a marketing-speak portmanteau of “inspire” and “spur”). The switch is apparently part of a trend, with some Chinese marketing departments coming to prefer even invented English to real Mandarin. Such are the demands of the international market, it seems.

Sun Peishu, Inspur’s president and chief executive officer, said when he met foreign customers, he found it was often difficult and inconvenient for them to pronounce the names of his company and brand.

“That is a big handicap for us, if our customers can not even pronounce our name,” said Sun.

So the company decided to scrap the name Langchao, which had been in use for 23 years, since its foundation.

In the past years, more and more Chinese companies are changing their names from Chinese pinyin to English as the first step towards the global expansion.

Compare the earlier logo with the new one.

original logo

• Chinese characters written in a calligraphic style
• no Pinyin
• I think that’s supposed to be a wave in the triangle. (“Làngcháo” is the Mandarin word for (1) tide; wave (2) tendency (3) major social movement.)

new logo

• “English” name comes first
• Chinese characters written in a non-calligraphic style

sources:

• Langchao aims globally as Inspur, China Daily, April 19, 2006
• Làngcháo jítuán fābù pǐnpái xīn biāozhì zhuāntí (浪潮集团发布品牌新标识专题), April 18, 2006