Shakespeare sparked the debate and now Porsche ignited it. At least that’s the case in our office today. (Yes, we know the Taycan Turbo was announced at the end of 2018. But at Bellwether, we can’t resist a debate, outdated or not.)
In one corner, we have Pierre, our resident purist who describes Porsche’s use of the Turbo monitor on one of its fully electric models as ‘audacious’.
In the other corner, we have Dee, fully amused by the reactions to a car company re-contextualising language.
We are often tasked by clients with naming, or sometimes re-naming, brands, products or services across a range of industries and categories. It’s not easy because it could very well be the most subjective part of the branding process. The rules depend on the school of thought.
To Pierre, naming’s true purpose is ease of identification and understanding. He leans towards the descriptive. People are frazzled enough with choice, information and message overload. The mushrooming of meaningless names in the digital age adds to the confusion. The most empathetic characteristic a brand can have in this day and age is to be straightforward. As he is often heard pleading with customer service representatives on the phone, ‘just let me know what I’m getting, no fine print’. It’s what he wishes for himself, and so in turn, it’s what he aims for his clients.
Dee comes to naming from another angle. A brand can communicate so much about itself even when the name is gibberish. (With the reverse being true as well.) For her, understanding comes from the entire brand experience. We have become accustomed to reading visual and communication cues, to interpret made-up names and so the most compelling act a brand can do for us is that element of surprise.
For Porsche, using turbo makes good (new) sense. “Turbo means much more to us. It’s a promise about performance, about driving dynamics, about acceleration, about top speed. It’s always the top-of-the-line derivative but it’s also about heritage.”
Car reviewers and fanatics are split. Reactions on Twitter ranged from “WTF?!” to “perhaps it comes with a shot of espresso” to “turbo is just a synonym for extra power”. The outspoken Alex Roy complained that “I really wanted to hate Porsche’s decision” (but doesn’t) and Jalopnik lamented that “the annihilation of the word started years ago, with the Porsche 911”.
Even Elon Musk had an opinion: “umm Porsche, this word Turbo does not mean what you think it does”.
What does one of the world’s leading linguists on the English language think of this? In his book A Little Book of Language, David Crystal writes: “languages have no existence apart from the people who use them. And because people are changing all the time, their language changes too, to keep up with them. The only languages that don’t change are dead ones.”
Thirty years from now, a 25-year-old may only understand turbo in its symbolic sense. So maybe what Porsche wants turbo to mean is exactly what it will mean.
Are you Team Dee or Team Pierre?
Bellwether Branding is a strategy-led brand consultancy that believes in asking questions and considering varying and opposing perspectives. Dee Murphy is Partner and Managing Director, and Pierre Lategan is Partner and Strategy Director. They don’t disagree on everything.