4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Hi everyone. Thank you all for your ideas. I was very happy to see so many different ideas as it goes to prove that it is indeed a tricky concept to put a handle on. I have chosen Kevin's as I agree with his feeling about the term and I think the ideas of conceptual content of a brand is pretty much what the Chinese is all about. However, these words can be used in a certain context but not in others (might sound reasonable in an academic treatise but not in a business report). Bin Li's sugestion of connotation and implied meaning are valid, But I feel that there is some distance between 内涵 and connotation, as it seems that connotation is what something represents and the ideas it arouses in people's minds, whereas 内涵is not only those representations and ideas but in fact also what the thing essentialy is. Another problem with the word connotation is that it is often used in negative light. In the past I have used the word connotation for 内涵 in contexts of theories or ideas (intangible and debatable things) and my feeling is brands are a bit borderline between tangible and intangible and so it is still a possibility. Starting from scratch and trying to think of what kind of questions a person might ask in an interview conducted in English, a couple of ideas came to mind that colleagues may or may not agree with - It seems that in an interview in Chinese when somone asks about 某某东西的内涵 perhaps, in an English context, the interviewer might simply say "What is XXX all about? Or even ask two questions "Could you tell us what XXX is all about? What does it represent?". This term is one of a couple of hundred recurring things that as a translator, I always end up translating some way or another but never feel totally happy with. I suppose that's one of the sad things about translation, you always have to compromise. Thanks again Kevin and other colleagues. Regards, Dave"