I think there is no shortage of Chinese brand dishing out sums in millions of USDs to all kinds of top tier marketing consultancies just to discover that "uncoolness" stigma keeps chasing them through rebrandings, regardless of how much star CMOs they hire.
As for Xiaomi, they are quite frequent on pages of trendy journals there and there with sponsored articles, yet if you ask an average reader if they even noticed it, most will say no.
They just have to come up with a better brand. Outside of China, "Xiaomi" is not an easy word.
There are innumerable examples of Japanese companies that changed their names to make them easier to market. Panasonic, for example.
More recently out of Korea, look at the rebranding of Lucky Goldstar as simply "LG." Worked wonders.
There are plenty of Chinese brands that are successful in the West. But they are always brands that are appealing to the Western ear. Vizio. Element. TCL. All better names than "Xiaomi."
As for Xiaomi, they are quite frequent on pages of trendy journals there and there with sponsored articles, yet if you ask an average reader if they even noticed it, most will say no.