A new brand called AUDI has been launched in China but no, it’s not a fake brand using the name of the well known German automaker. The new brand is being jointly launched with Audi’s partner, SAIC, as a brand that will offer products with Audi DNA and tailored for China.
Instead of the famous 4 rings that represented the merger of Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer in 1932 to form Auto Union AG, there is the name AUDI spelled in 4 capital letters. This is intended to provide a connection and, at the same time, differentiation, from the Audi brand that was the first foreign premium brands in China.
“By launching this new brand for electric and intelligent models in China, Audi is breaking new ground to tap into new and more tech-savvy customer segments,” said Gernot Dollner, CEO of Audi.
The company stresses that AUDI ‘is shaped 100% by the Audi DNA and embodies ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ in the era of electric intelligent connected vehicles’.
Having brand names that are similar to company names is not something new and many companies do this. The better known examples are Volkswagen, Ford and Toyota which are brand names that are also the names of the companies. However, many companies have used their corporate name as a brand name right from the start, eg Proton, Honda, BMW, etc.
In some cases, company names have been changed when the brand names have become too familiar to consumers over many decades of advertising. This has been the case with a few Japanese companies which had Japanese names originally and then changed to their brand names as their corporate name.
Mazda Motor Corporation, for example, was known as Toyo Kogyo Co. Ltd (Toyo Kogyo Cork Co. Ltd from 1920 – 1926) from 1927 to 1984. Likewise, Fuji Heavy Industries changed its name to Subaru Corporation in 2017. In both cases, the switch to the brand name was beneficial as it was easier for the company to be recognised.
Senior executives in Nissan had a personal experience of the disadvantage of having the company name very different from the popular and highly recognisable Datsun brand name. During the early 1980s when they began their expansion in Europe, they visited banks to get financing for investments.
When they said they were from Nissan Motor Company, it seemed that the reception was not so warm as Nissan was not well known outside Japan. Then they mentioned that their company is the one that makes Datsun cars and right away, the responses changed and they were welcome for business discussions.
However, Nissan made the decision not to change the company name to ‘Datsun’ but instead change the brand name for its products to ‘Nissan’. This took place around the mid-1980s and Datsun dealers all over the world had to make the change. In the US, it is believed that the whole exercise cost US$500 million (changing signs and other things).
Perodua also found that its corporate name was at risk of losing recognition some years after launching its first car, the Kancil. Malaysians used ‘Kancil’ so extensively that it seemed to overshadow the Perodua name. Noticing this, the automaker began a campaign to promote the ‘Perodua’ name more and by the time the next models were launched, people knew the manufacturer’s name was Perodua and not Kancil.