smart and stupid Chinese brand names

[tony1343]

I don't think this is a great place for this question, for the reason that everyone here knows how to pronounce pinyin. If you try to place yourself in the position of a normal English speaker some of these names are probably pretty bad. English speakers aren't going to know how to pronounce them, leading to different pronounciations. I think the Japanese brands such as Toyota are much easier to pronounce (maybe it is actually pronounced different in Japanese than I pronounce it, but all Americans pronounce it the same).

Wuyutai Tea Shop seems like a fairly good name. Not too difficult.

Quanjude - this is difficult; people are going to pronouce it like Kwanjood (maybe).

Etc.

People don't know how to pronounce pinyin q's, x's and zh's, etc. Maybe with enough marketing and advertising this won't be a problem though. Then again it depends upon what your market is. If you aren't trying to appeal directly to consumers it wouldn't matter as much. But these pronounciation problems with pinyin I think would make the brand name less memorable.

I'm just thinking of when my Dad tried to read a Chinese pinyin address out loud. It was brutal.