Lenovo - Name

Name

"Lenovo" is a portmanteau of "Le-" (from Legend) and "novo", Latin ablative for "new". The Chinese name (simplified Chinese: 联想; traditional Chinese: 聯想; pinyin: liánxiǎng) means "association" (as in "word association") or "connected thinking" but can also imply creativity.

For the first 19 years of its existence the company's English name was "Legend" (in Chinese 联想 Lianxiang). In 2002, Yang Yuanqing came to the conclusion that the company would have to abandon the use of the Legend brand name in order to develop outside of China, as the "Legend" name was already in use by a large number of other businesses worldwide, and its ubiquitous nature made it impossible to register in most markets.

In April 2003, the company publicly announced its new name, "Lenovo", with a large media campaign involving huge outdoor billboards and primetime television advertisements. Lenovo spent 18 million RMB on television advertisements, which were broadcast daily for eight weeks. The billboard advertisements featured the Lenovo logo against blue sky with copy that read, "Transcendence depends on how you think." By the end of 2003, Lenovo had spent a total of 200 million RMB on the rebranding.