The Evaluation of English in contrast to the mother tongue: an experiment amongst German and Dutch participants.

Abstract

In this study, an experiment among 238 participants was conducted to discover if Dutch and German participants evaluated a logo with an English slogan as more modern, international and prestigious than a logo with a slogan in the mother tongue. Correspondingly, differences between the evaluation of the logo and slogan and differences between the evaluation of the brand between Dutch and German participants were included in this study. Since Dutch citizens are generally more exposed to the English language, Dutch participants were thought to evaluate English higher than German participants. Two product categories were tested, based on earlier research of Rossiter, Percy & Donovan (1991): soap as a low-involvement product, and life insurances as a high-involvement product. Results showed a significant difference between Dutch and German participants regarding the evaluation of symbolic value on the English language. Dutch participants rated English as more modern, international and prestigious than German participants did, which could be a result of the mere-exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968) of English for Dutch participants.