The Quanjude Roast Duck in Beijing wants to quack - in a language understandable to foreign ears.

The time-honored brand yesterday joined 30 other household names in Beijing in a campaign to get better recognition abroad by bidding for slogans and brand names in foreign languages.

Promoted by the Beijing Time-Honored Brands Association, those "stamps of the old Beijing", but popular with overseas consumers want titles and slogans in English, French, Russian, Spanish, German, Japanese and Korean.

"Though fond with our products, overseas consumers can barely pronounce our Chinese names, much less memorizing them, which forms the major obstacle for our expansion to foreign market," Yin Zhong, a spokesman with the association, said.

For instance, an overseas visitor might get lost in a sea of roast duck products while he actually was advised to enjoy the Quanjude brand.

"Foreign consumers account for about 30 percent of the total guest volume, but few of them can spell our name," Shi Bingfeng, deputy general manager with the duck specialty chain, said.

The campaign is to last until September 25, and the public is encouraged to participate.

Contracts will be signed with translators, and entries will be given full intellectual property rights protection.

Billions of yuan have been allocated to promote and revitalize the craftsmanship and traditional culture embodied in hundreds of time-honored brands ranging from cuisines to traditional medicine.

Experts also see the campaign as an opportunity to promote trans-cultural communication, ahead of a flood of overseas visitors expected to visit Beijing for the Olympics.

(China Daily 08/07/2007 page1)