FCUK and Chinese Branding

It's the holiday season. Let's have a fun break and mess around a bit with some letters of the alphabet.

Would you think FCUK is a French or a British enterprise ? Once I tell you FC is French Connection, you will straightaway conversely deduce that it is British, from the remaining letters UK for United Kingdom, of course.

The Japanese brand UNIQLO was forged in a comedy of errors mixed up in communication between 2 non-English speaking and writing Asian countries. Not the least surprising.

Once upon a time, Hong Kong (HK) was the centre of the universe for "Rag Trade". Inevitably, HK holds the distinction in some way for the birth of names of both FCUK and UNIQLO. 

FCUK  was hatched from the fax exchanges between its London and HK offices from the fax header "FCUK to FCHK". Someone noticed that FCUK is suggestively catchy and the rest was history.

The Japanese thought HK was better at English with HK's British connections and left it to HK to handle the nitty-gritties of an English brand name. Japan wanted the first 3 letters of of the 2 words "unique" and "clothing"which should have been UNICLO. Instead, HK botched it up in the misplaced selection of letters of the alphabets and the brand was stuck with UNIQLO, but retained its pronunciation as "uni - clo" as the Japanese intended. 

In this spirit of letter-play, I, as a Chinaman would like to brand my anecdotes to enlighten the understanding of the Chinese Culture and Way with the acronym FACYUO.

In my efforts to produce a somewhat FCUK styled suggestive effect and reenact our Asian tendency to "fcuk up" Anglo-American alphabets as in the case of UNIQLO, I am confident my brand would do nicely positioned in two words in the form of FAC YUO. Pronounce it any which way you fancy !

Remember, we Chinese are, at the moment, weak in Brand Building as pointed out in my post Opening Doors to Chinese Minds and also we are inclined to be hyperbolic as per post Trump Knows China? How Much? part 2. So, please bear with FAC YUO for the time being.

As a start, my FAC YUOs will cover Chinese eating affairs at the more representative lower tier of Chinese food stalls. The Haute Cuisine variety of Chinese dining has caught up with and closely imitated Western standards and would be of no didactic value in these anecdotes.

So, LOOK OUT for and ENJOY my FAC YUOs in this holiday season !!!