Equivalent facts can lead to different choices depending on how they are framed.
More quotesKeeping the slogan in German was inconvenient. Good.
Most brand teams claim to want distinctiveness, then panic the moment an idea requires half a second of curiosity. They sand off the odd edge, translate the interesting bit and proudly unveil something “clear” that could belong to a bank, a tyre company or a yoghurt.
“Vorsprung durch Technik” did a job before most British viewers knew what it meant. It made Audi feel German. The language was provenance, engineering and difference compressed into three strange words.
This happens elsewhere. An unusual colour gets called polarising in research, then its beige replacement vanishes on the shelf. A memorable product name loses to a descriptive committee compromise. A software company replaces a sharp opinion with “empowering seamless transformation” and wonders why nobody remembers the bloody thing.
Literal comprehension matters, but it is not the only form of meaning. Sound, origin and confidence can communicate before translation catches up. My question is not merely whether people can explain an element. It is whether the element makes the brand easier to recognise, retrieve and believe.
Research should identify what the awkwardness is doing before prescribing its removal. Comfort is abundant everywhere. Ownable strangeness is not.