How important is a good name?
name is a symbolic symbol, fixing the inner meaning. American marketing guru Al Rees once said: "From a long-term perspective, the most important thing for a brand is the name." Taking a good name in
shopping mall will play an important role in both brand image and business success, and will establish the overall cultural image of a company.
How to use a good name to give shopping mall spiritual connotation is a major issue that business operators must not take it lightly. In today's economic integration, the Chinese commercial real estate community is exploring this.
01 The times have changed, and shopping mall naming habits are also changing. The "Implementation Rules for the Regulations on Place Name Management" issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs stipulates that in principle, standard place names consist of two parts: proper names and general names. The common name is the category of things, which clearly distinguishes them from other things, reflecting the essential demand of the geographical attributes (category) of the so-called geographical entity is to gather people. The proper name indicates the characteristics and characteristics of things and express personalized attitudes.
In the past 20 years of the development of shopping malls in my country, from exploration to growth to fanaticism, the growth of shopping malls has accompanied rapid changes in economic development, technological progress, and people's cognition. The demand for innovation and change is getting higher and higher, which is also reflected in the change of shopping mall naming habits. We have counted the shopping malls that opened in three different development cycles, and from this dimension, the impact of changes in the times on the name of shopping malls.
According to statistics, the "plaza" in the general name of shopping malls and the "new" in the proper name have always topped the list in different periods, but the proportion has changed to varying degrees. The emergence of other common terms also reflects the changes in developers' values and consumer demands.
Germination period (1996-1999): During this period, the number of shopping malls opened in my country is relatively small, and the common terms are only four types: "plaza", "center", "shopping center" and "city". However, there are fewer morphemes for proper nouns, and they are concentrated in words such as "new", "big", "beautiful", "century", "sunshine", and "east". But it can be seen that shopping malls in the bud have begun to convey "new" values through their names.
Growth Period (2000-2010): With the occurrence of major events such as my country's participation in the WTO organization, successful bid for the Olympic Games, and holding APEC conferences in 2001, shopping malls' internationalization awareness has become increasingly stronger, and it has left the mark of the times in its name. Around 2000, international words or English suffixes such as "International" and "Mall" began to appear in shopping mall names. The frequency of "big" in proper noun words has begun to rise, and the shopping center model has begun to evolve towards large-scale and one-stop shopping. At this stage, shopping malls began to enter a period of growth, and diversified words such as "fashion" and "wealth" began to appear, and changing naming became one of the differentiated strategies of shopping malls in the early stages of competition.
, and common nouns also have richer expressions since this period. For example, 6.8% of shopping malls opened during this period have "return", 2.8% have "world", 2.2% have "Mall", etc.
Mature period (2011 to present): The largest number of shopping openings in the mature period. In 2015, the growth rate of shopping malls reached an unprecedented high. In the following years, the growth rate gradually slowed down, and shopping malls shifted from incremental to stock era. During this period, shopping malls entered a period of fierce competition between dragons and tigers, and the diversity of naming words continued to improve.
The proportion of "center" and "plaza" in the common noun terms have both decreased, and the proportion of "new", "big" and "international" in the proper names has also decreased significantly. More innovative, flexible and diverse vocabulary emerged, and new English terms such as "Park", "Live", and "Space" have begun to be adopted, conveying the values of commercial projects with a more unique positioning and meeting people's higher expectations and requirements for shopping malls.
Whether it is a diverse and interesting sense of life or a forward-looking personality, naming the shopping mall is the first step to linking customers and the first imprint left in people's hearts. Names cannot be judged by good or bad, but there are some naming rules that need to be followed.First, you must be able to show the attributes of the project, and at the same time you can amplify its characteristics for expression; second, the name should be able to stimulate associations and allow people to perceive rich subjective information from the text; finally, it must start from the perspective of consumers and conform to the tone of the project to cause spontaneous dissemination.
Good impressions and memories start with an appropriate name. Names are super symbols that spread attraction, conveying values, visions, and even becoming permanent spiritual wealth.
02 How to name a shopping mall?
1. It should be short and clear.
is easy to communicate information with consumers, facilitate consumers' memory, and at the same time it can arouse public's imagination, with richer meanings, and the number of words in the name also has a certain impact on the degree of recognition. The smaller the number of words, the higher the degree of recognition, that is, the shorter the name, the more communication it is.
2. It should conform to your own corporate philosophy and service purpose
This will help shape the corporate image. In addition, the naming of shopping malls should also have its own uniqueness. A unique name can avoid similarity to the company name to prevent confusing public memory and deepening its impression.
3. You should have extraordinary courage
Names need to be impactful and courageous, shocking, loud and easy to talk about.
4. Naming should also be full of the sense of the times
The name with a sense of the times is distinctive, in line with the trend of the times, and can be quickly accepted by the public. It also needs to consider the universality of various places.
Next, let’s take a look at the origin of several more representative shopping mall names. And dig deep into the stories and meanings behind it. Whether you are a commercial real estate person or a melon-eating crowd, I hope you can get something.
03 Those shopping malls with "names with deep meaning"
1, COCO PARK
City: Shenzhen
Developer: Shenzhen Xinghe Group
COCO's C represents Creative, "creative", O represents Original, which means "original". COCO's four simple and bright letter combinations are also very eye-catching. Park is an English word park. The catchy pronunciation can give people a feeling of leisure and enjoying life. In addition to COCO Park, Xinghe Group has another product line, COCO City.
Interesting comments: Everyone should note that this is not a park opened by Coco Lee's family~ (Coco Lee's English name is Coco)
2, in99
City: Chengdu
Developer: Yintai Land
in 99 Echoes with Beijing Yintai Center in 01, Hangzhou Hubin Yintai in 77, Beijing Wangfujing Yintai in 88. These names are divided into two parts: in and number.
First of all, "in" represents not only the new high-end commercial brand released by Intime in 2014. Secondly, in addition to being homophonic with Intime's "yin", in finally, in also has good meanings such as "popular and fashionable" in English, which is exactly in line with the characteristics of shopping malls guiding trends. The following numbers refer to the last two digits of the mall’s neighborhood number in the city where the mall is located. For example, the door number in 99 in Chengdu Yintai Center is exactly 1199.
Interesting comments: in 99 This name is enough to in~
3, M+
City: Wuhan
Developer: Changjiang Industrial Real Estate
M+ is a commercial project developed by Changjiang Industrial Real Estate under Li Ka-shing. The name seems concise, but it has profound meaning. First of all, M represents a series of words related to project positioning (all start with M), and the use of single English letters is also to better cater to young people's independent and simple personality.
And "+" means adding and adding value, which means adding modern and trendy atmosphere to Wuhan. The intersection of "+" is like a shopping center gathering customer flow from all directions, providing customers with more choices.
Interesting comment: It is indeed a subtle meaning!
4, KK ONE
City: Shenzhen
Developer: Jingji Group
KK is actually the abbreviation of Kingkey, the English name of Kingkey, and ONE borrowed one from NO. 1, hoping to make the market performance first.In addition, KK MALL has another product line under KK ONE. If you know KK ONE, this name is better understood, which is MALL under KK.
Interesting Comment: This name is simple enough and easy to read. But some people mistakenly believe that this is Wang Kai's industry.
5, K11
City: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other
Developer: Hong Kong New World
K means Kingdom (territory), and 11 is the ranking of K in the alphabet.
Some people also said: That is just the plot number of the developer’s first project in Tsim Sha Tsui!
Someone else said: K is the lucky number of the big boss, and it ranks 11th in the 26 letters, and this name was born on the plane.
Interesting comment: I remembered a sentence: Brother has long since left the world, but the legend of brother is still circulating in the world.
6, The ONE
City: Hong Kong, Chengdu
Developer: Chinese Real Estate Group
occupies a front-line market position in Hong Kong and has even become a must-visit tourist coordinate for mainland tourists. The ONE shopping center developed by Chinese Real Estate has also entered Chengdu.
Rumors have been made that the name The ONE is a confession of Chinese property owners Liu Luanxiong to his confidante Li Jiaxin. Although Li Jiaxin has married someone else to become Xu Tai, Liu Luanxiong still remains affectionate with him, following the full-page advertisement for Li Jiaxin in Hong Kong newspapers in 2006 under the name "The ONE". In 2009, the new building was named after the name "The ONE" and gave a gift to Li Jiaxin's upcoming birthday.
Interesting comment: The romance of the rich is indeed rich and willful.
7, Apm
City: Beijing
Developer: Sun Hung Kai
Xindong'an Market located in , Wangfujing , was renamed "Beijing ampm" in 2008. Let’s analyze the elements in the name “Beijing apm”. There is no need to say much about the word “Beijing”, but what does “apm” mean?
We all know that am and pm are the abbreviations of "day" and "night" in English. "apm" is the fusion of the two, which echoes the concept of night leisure advocated by shopping malls.
"apm" is positioned as a shopping mall with long-term business hours, allowing customers to no longer be bound by time and to shop and relax. The length of the three letters is not difficult to remember, and this creative word is in line with the psychology of young people who like to accept new things nowadays.
Interesting comment: This is the rhythm of staying up late to buy things!
8, SKP
City: Beijing
Developer: Beijing Hualian Group
In 2006, Taiwan Shin Kong Mitsukoshi and Beijing local brand Hualian jointly established the Beijing Xinguang World project with a 50% shareholding model. Since the mall was mainly operated by Taiwan Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, the name of the mall was named Shin Kong World at that time.
At the beginning of 2014, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi's management team withdrew from Shin Kong World, Hualian began to be responsible for the operation of the mall, and the "de-Shin Kong"ization was gradually put on the agenda, and the name change of the mall was one of the important measures. In fact, "SKP" is the English abbreviation of Shin Kong Place.
Interesting Comment: What about the promised de-new Guanghua? The names of shopping malls above
are almost all in English and numbers. Let’s take a look at a few Chinese ones~
9, Swire li
City: Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and other
Developers: Swire Group
Swire Group from Hong Kong is a veteran British-funded foreign company. It was engaged in trade with China during the Qing Dynasty. So where did its Chinese name "Swire Group" come from? It is said that this is an interesting story about the British mistakenly identifying Chinese characters.
There are rumors that John Senmei Shi Huaiya, the son of Swire Group founder, has always wanted to find a Chinese name for Swire Group. Once during the Lunar New Year, when he was sailing through a village by boat, he found that the two words "Daji" were hung in front of each household in the village, so he believed that "Daji" must be a "good" name.However, because he was not familiar with Chinese, he mistakenly wrote "Daji" as "Saigu", so the Chinese name of Swire became "Saigu".
Interesting Comment: I wonder if it was written too much at that time by those "good luck" or Mr. Shi Huaiya's high myopia? However, sometimes things in the world are so wonderful, and a legend is achieved by accident.
10, Joy City
City: Beijing, Shanghai and many other cities
Developer: COFCO Land
The name of Joy City also looks very dull. After all, XX City is one of the most common nomenclatures for shopping malls, but the source of this concept is really quite high-end.
It is said that Ning Gaoning, chairman of COFCO Group Co., Ltd., read the Analects of Confucius at night and read "The nearest one is happy, and the far one comes", he suddenly got inspiration, which was interpreted as "creating joy and joy, making the people around him feel happy, and attracting guests from afar", thus having the word "joy".
And this building is another "complex" of a city, that is, a micro city. Finally, I decided to name it "Joy City". The English name "JoyCity" is translated directly from the Chinese name. "Joy" represents joy, and "City" represents city. Both words are within four letters in length, and are also commonly used words in life, making them easy for people to remember and disseminate.
Interesting Comment: It is good to read more of the Analects of Confucius, and it is profound and profound.
11, Vientiane City
City: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and many other cities
Developer: China Resources Land
The term Vientiane was originally a Taoist term, which was defined as all things or scenes inside and outside the universe. The Vientiane City developed by China Resources Land integrates many functions such as retail, catering, entertainment, office, hotel, and residence. It also wants to convey a colorful business model, all-encompassing and everything. It can also be seen from their slogans: a city covers everything.
Interesting comment: Don’t understand it as ten thousand elephants in this city.
12, Hanguang Department Store
City: Beijing
Developer: Beijing Hanguang Department Store
On June 16, 2013, Beijing Zhongyou Department Store was officially renamed Beijing Hanguang Department Store, starting again with a brand new local department store image. The new name of Hanguang Department Store is taken from the name of the late former chairman of Zhongyou Department Store, Mr. Wang Hanguang. In order to express his commemoration and tribute to the founder, the company decided to name the new brand after him, striving to pass on his honest and diligent spirit.
"Han Guang" is not only a commemoration and tribute, but also a inheritance of spirit and power. The pioneering and enterprising spirit of the successors' direction. On Father's Day, Zhongyou Department Store was officially renamed Hanguang Department Store. Thank you Mr. Wang Hanguang, who is like a good teacher and kind father, laying the foundation and guiding the direction.
Interesting Comment: I have to say that commercial real estate people are quite emotional in many aspects.
13, Juntai Department Store
City: Beijing
Developer: Beijing Juntai Department Store
The name of this Juntai Department Store is profound.
, represents honor. Tai, the character has a high meaning, large, extreme and the most meaning. The connotation expresses the attempt to pursue the supreme and ultimate. In ancient texts, "Tai" is connected with "Tai", which means peace and tranquility. "Shuowen Jiezi" Explanation: Tai, it is slippery, and it sounds loudly from the water. It is a metaphor for the company's origins and expectations of vigorous development, sustainable operation, endless stream of vision and pioneering and enterprising spirit, and the company's spirit of carrying forward the past and opening up the future.
Interesting Comment: Did you mistook this as Taijun Department Store? Please raise your hand!
14, Raffles Square
City: Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu and many other cities
Developer: CapitaLand Group
Raffles Square is a commercial real estate project developed by Singapore developer Singapore developer . The Chinese name "Raffles Square" is transliterated from its English name "Raffles City", and the word "Raffles" has a lot of origin.
1815 After the fall of Napoleon's government, the United Kingdom promised to return Java to the Dutch royal family at the Vienna meeting, in exchange for allowing Britain to retain a commercial stronghold in Bingguru in Sumatra . Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffle, an administrative official of the British East Indies, was sent to Bingguru as acting governor in 1818. In view of the Netherlands' re-control of the East Indies and the implementation of a monopoly business policy, and Bingguru's location deviates from the main channel, Bingguru decided to find another stronghold.
With his profound knowledge of Orientalism and outstanding eloquence, he convinced the Marquis of Hastings, the Governor of India, to act immediately, and on February 29, 1819, a free trade port, today's Singapore, was established on a small island at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula.
He has made considerable efforts in the development, construction, legal system and long-term planning blueprint of Singapore, and has made immortal achievements, so that Singapore can develop from a backward small fishing village to one of the important business ports in the world. Perhaps in honor of the Singapore creator, "Raffles" was also used by Singapore developers to naming the project.
Interesting Comment: A person has created a prosperous country, and this name is very memorable.
15, Wangfujing Department Store
City: Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, etc.
Developer: Beijing Wangfujing Department Store (Group) Co., Ltd.
To talk about the name of Wangfujing Department Store, you need to explore the origin of the name of Wangfujing Street .
Wangfujing Street was named in 1915. After Kublai Khan established his capital in Beijing in the Yuan Dynasty, it became lively and was called "Ting Street". When the Ming Chengzu , ten royal palaces were built in this area, and they were renamed Ten Princes Palace or Ten Princes Palace Street. After the Ming Dynasty was destroyed, the royal palace was also abandoned, and people called it the royal palace street. In the late Qing Dynasty, this place began to flourish. Many vendors and shops appeared on both sides of the street, and there was also a "official hall", which became a famous city in the area.
1915, when the Ministry of Interior of the Beiyang Government drew the "Detailed Picture of Beijing", it divided the street into three sections: the North Street is called Wangfu Street, the middle section is called Bamangtou, and the southern section is called Wangfujing Street because there is a sweet well. Later, the entire street was gradually called Wangfujing.
Interesting Comment: A name is often a piece of history.
04 Summary: A good name is a good start
Shopping center is a composite commercial real estate. Since large commercial real estate has many characteristics that are different from residential properties, it also shows uniqueness in property marketing.
A good name can leave a deep impression on consumers, and can even shine in their minds when they want to go shopping, so the name can indirectly improve sales performance.
However, naming a shopping mall brand is not easy, and it is not something that leaders think of randomly. It is a process of transforming market, positioning, image, emotion, value, etc. into marketing forces and starting market positioning and competition.
Product homogeneity is becoming increasingly serious today. Looking for breakthroughs and innovation has become an important business strategy, building a brand and building a localized brand in China has also awakened. The naming of shopping malls is a stepping stone to build brands and expand the market. The role it plays irreplaceable, and the intangible value it generates is difficult to describe and understand in words.
A good name is a good start, and it will lead the company to soar into a wider sky.
Of course, a good name is important, but it is not omnipotent. The most important thing is to improve operational management capabilities and take multiple approaches in experience, services, products, etc. to be invincible in fierce market competition.
