Linda Blair

The pull of foreign sales slogans

The use of foreign phrases and slogans to enhance sales is a well-established practice in advertising. Audi, for example, has relied on “Vorsprung durch Technik”

(progress through technology) for more than 30 years to bring to mind Germany’s reputation for high quality craftsmanship and technical expertise.

Psychology employs this tactic, too – particularly when encouraging us to embrace a fresh outlook to help reduce our everincreasing stress levels.

In 2016, we were introduced to the Danish

“hygge”, the art of enjoying life and feeling content. This was closely followed by the Swedish “lagom”, advising everything in moderation. The Scots gave us

“cosagach”, a feeling of cosiness and relaxation, and the Japanese offered

“ikigai”, finding a reason to jump out of bed each morning by combining what you love with what you do well. The latest contender is the Greek “meraki”, paying attention to detail and taking pride in your work.

So why are foreign words employed so often, and why do some endure while others quickly fade away?

According to Teresa Domzal and her colleagues at George Mason University in Virginia, an unfamiliar term grabs our attention and takes more time to process than a word we already know. As a result, it becomes more deeply embedded in our memory.

We don’t need to be familiar with its meaning – in fact, quite the opposite. Research by Ulrike Nederstigt and Beryl Hilberink-schulpen at Radboud University in the Netherlands suggests that a product is likely to be perceived more favourably if the slogan promoting it is presented in an unfamiliar language, rather than in one the consumer knows well. This finding supports the work of Helen Kelly-holmes at Aston University in Birmingham. She proposes that words and slogans in other languages are useful mainly for their symbolic function – the associations they call to mind – rather than for their ability to convey any meaning.

However, if the product being advertised in another language doesn’t appear appropriate to the country implied, consumers are less likely to endorse it, as Jos Hornikx and colleagues, also at Radboud, found. They recruited 150 adults and compared their reaction to adverts in which the language used for the slogan was congruent with the product (French to advertise wine, German for sausages and Spanish for oranges) with adverts where there was incongruence (French to advertise beer, German for olive oil and Spanish for washing machines). Participants rated the congruent adverts more favourably.

You can use these studies’ results to help you predict which of the latest lifestyle choices is most likely to resonate. Do they match what we see as the “typical” lifestyles of those countries’ inhabitants? Whichever comes closest will, it would seem, endure longest.

Linda Blair is a clinical psychologist and author of Siblings: How to Handle Sibling Rivalry to Create Lifelong, Loving Bonds. To order for £10.99, call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk. Watch her give advice at telegraph.co.uk/wellbeing/ video/mind-healing/