Client: Founded in 1889, Paul is a French bakery chain that offers country-style and fancy breads made by traditional methods throughout its 330 stores in France.

Case: As Paul began opening bakeries in Shanghai, they wanted a compelling Chinese name.Qualities that Paul wanted to express were the French gourmet lifestyle, authentic traditions, and high quality products. 

Solution: 保罗贝香 (bǎo luō bèi xiāng)

The name Paul is translated to 保baó 罗luó in Chinese. This maintains the brand’s European identity and serves as a strong tie to its original brand name. However, in order to ensure legal registration of the name, a four character name was needed. A four character name also has a balanced phonetic structure.

The 贝(bèi) used in the name means valuable, and 香 (xiāng) is used to express “fragrant” and “savory”. 香 also evokes romantic images of international destinations, such as Hong Kong (香xiāng 港gǎng—“Fragrant Harbor”) and Champs-Elysées (香xiāng 谢xiè 丽lì 舍shè).

Bèi and xiāng are homophonic syllables which can be expressed with multiple characters: bèi can also be written as 焙 (to bake) and xiāng to 箱 (box). Combined, the two characters translate to oven, further reinforcing the idea of a traditional bakery.

These four characters convey the ideas of quality, taste and tradition. They also evoke distinct imagery of European lifestyle. The name is easy to pronounce, remember, and has a pleasant sound in Chinese Mandarin and the other main dialects. In May of 2007, Paul successfully launched their retail stores in Shanghai using this name.