The "Golden Arch" was raved. Do you really understand it?

Recently, McDonald's (China) changed its name to "Golden Arch", and the network players quickly started the "spit" mode. Various paragraphs quickly occupied the important position of many websites, and continued to screen in the circle of friends. With laughing and teasing, the connotation, appearance and development history of the brand have spread wildly, creating a communication effect that many large-scale advertisements can't match.

Some media speculated that this name change was a well-prepared brand promotion activity.

According to the research of the sea lion, this name change is not like a well-prepared plan in advance, and it is probably just a "misunderstanding" caused by a pronunciation.

On this recent Sunday, my son said he wanted to eat McDonald's children's meal. Before arriving at the McDonald's store, the big golden "M" arch first came into view. Sit in your seat, open McDonald's official WeChat service number and prepare to order. The service number first popped up with a push: "The logo of McDonald's is" Golden Arch ".

Under the big golden arch, see another article like this. Suddenly, I feel that it is probably wrong for the media and marketing circles to think that renaming "Golden Arch" is a well-planned marketing activity recently.

When I was sitting in my office the other day, I was watching jokes on the Internet, and I was more concerned with the marketing idea and planning ideas behind this name change. When you approach the Golden Arch and face the smiling face of Uncle McDonald, you will naturally think that the Golden Arch is McDonald's and McDonald's is the Golden Arch.

opening this official tweet confirms my guess. The article mentioned, "In order to make you recognize McDonald's at a glance, the sign of' Golden Arches' is all over the world, and every corner is ready to meet you", "The double parabola of Golden Arches' golden jump has long been synonymous with McDonald's."

This statement is clear enough. This time, the name change is to better preserve the genes of McDonald's and maximize the inheritance of the brand.

Of course, merchants rarely say that they are engaged in marketing in their copywriting, so it is difficult for us to judge exactly what the original intention of using this name is.

Therefore, it is necessary for us to try to explore the "real body" of McDonald's name through several speculations about the name circulated in the media.

there is a saying, which I call "translation": the golden arches of McDonald's have a famous nickname in the west-Golden Arches, which translates into "Golden Arches".

There is another saying, which I call "Marketing Theory": It is roughly said that McDonald's took the advice of American psychologist Louis Cheskin in the late 195s and 196s and used the Golden Arch as its Logo. Cheskin said that the golden arch is a marketing strategy that allows customers to think of a pair of nourishing breasts when they see this sign-and then they are hungry.

the third statement, which I call "the cultural theory", is that according to research, thomas l. friedman put forward the "golden arch theory of conflict prevention", arguing that no two countries with McDonald's stores will go to war with each other. As a symbol of successful cultural integration of multinational corporations, Golden Arch is used to refer to McDonald's in academic works.

the fourth statement, which I call "begging for color", is that some people analyze the name as "superior", which means getting rich and "to the taste of middle-aged leaders in China".

If we look carefully, the first three statements are actually discussed from different aspects: why the Golden Arch is McDonald's, and the rich, historical, cultural and marketing connotations that this logo may contain.

the fourth statement is more like a joke. Although it is difficult to rule out this possibility, we really don't see any "attempt" of the management to make the name spread all over China as soon as it is born.

By querying the enterprise information credit publicity system of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, we can see that the name change was completed as early as October 12th. It has been more than 1 days since it was revealed by the media, and the official Weibo of the company will respond on the 25th, and the article "The symbol of McDonald's is" Golden Arch "was pushed on WeChat more than half a month later on October 31st.

From these facts, we can generally infer that Golden Arch Company is not fully prepared for the sudden "explosion". It is more like a "victim" of MengMeng.

So how did such a natural, profound, full of inheritance and even some serious name get "teased" by everyone and set off the internet? How do netizens associate it with "local flavor", "time-honored Chinese brand" and "dirt falling"?

In order to clarify this issue, we need to read this sentence in the official WeChat of McDonald's again, "The symbol of' Golden Arches' is all over the world ... The double parabola of Golden Arches has long been synonymous with McDonald's".

please pay attention to this statement, which has a core detail: probably, in the view of McDonald's China management team, "golden arch" is a noun. Specifically, the golden arch refers to the golden big "M" of each McDonald's store. No matter what the meaning of this big "M" is, the Golden Arch has a specific "physical object".

The reason why people think it is fun and amusing is that most of them regard this noun as a phrase describing action and state.

In the traditional culture of China, there is a golden pig arch. On the surface, it means that a pig made of gold arches your door. Everyone can make up for it by themselves. What a happy scene it is.

Even if there is no golden pig, the door is full of gold, which reveals how eager the owner is to get rich. Thinking of these will inevitably make people feel "very rustic" and "very rural".

But can't the decision makers of Golden Arch Company see such a simple truth? Aren't they afraid of being misunderstood? Not afraid of damaging the brand image?

Controversial and ambiguous brand image communication is the taboo of brand planning, and no one dares to make such a joke with such a large market value company easily. Even if you want to win lottery, you can't have a hard time with money.

in that case, how did this name finally be decided as the name of the new company?

When I was sitting in a McDonald's restaurant, I was chatting softly about the "Golden Arch". Suddenly I realized a little grammar problem. This seemingly insignificant grammatical problem is expected to uncover all these mysteries.

Readers who are reading this article, please pay attention to it. When you make this sound when talking to people, do you mean "golden arch" or "golden arch"?

maybe, you are just like me. Writing on the paper is a "golden arch", and reading it is a "golden arch".

Yes, the only difference in oral expression is that there is an extra consonant. This Er Hua sound may be the real behind-the-scenes "pusher" of this hot word.

Speaking of which, let's make up the lessons for those who haven't specially studied Modern Chinese Studies! See what's the difference between having a "son" and not having a "son".

Shao Jingmin, editor-in-chief of the 12th Five-Year Plan textbook of the Ministry of Education, General Theory of Modern Chinese (Third Edition), has this statement on page 35: "In Putonghua, some words are often spoken with the suffix' er' to express some semantic color or related functions". Er Hua has the function of distinguishing part of speech and meaning. For example, in the book, simply saying "Gai" is a verb, and with the consonant, "Gai" becomes a noun. Here, the consonant makes the verb nominalized.

at this point, the fog gradually dissipated. A highly probable guess is that when the top management of Golden Arch Company discussed this plan, they all thought and said "Golden Arch", but when they were in industrial and commercial registration, they habitually put the expression in writing and removed the consonant, which became the "Golden Arch" now.

This may be a bit circuitous. Let's wash our faces and simply say: If you read it from your mouth during discussion or chat, "Golden Arch" is a standard noun, which refers to the big "M" of McDonald's; And if you look at it on a computer, a mobile phone and other written media, "golden arch" is a verb phrase that describes action. The reason why it is full of joy and great communication is because it is an action rather than a simple physical reference.

from this point of view, if you heard about the name change while chatting with your neighbors, rather than reading an online article, you probably wouldn't feel so happy at all. Because, what you probably think of is only the golden M all over McDonald's stores.

It is very likely that a small Er Hua sound has made this classic case in the marketing field.

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