Shi Zhang and Bernd Schmitt designed a method for determining how bilingual consumers understand messages in both languages and tested it among 368 students at Nankai University in China. All students spoke Chinese fluently, while half scored high on an English test and the other half scored low. The study asked them to rank the quality of dual brand names, where the English letters and Chinese characters appeared in the same rectangular frame. The products were lotion, tissues, boxing gloves and a supermarket store.
The results showed that when you put the English name first or tell the consumer that’s your focus, it matters whether the sound of the name in English matches the sound in Chinese. This finding was even more true for the group with better command of English. When you put the Chinese name first or tell the consumer that’s your focus, it matters more whether the meanings of the two words match. This pattern was equally true for both groups of students.