Erase The Cliché: Being Sticky Doesn’t Have To Be Tricky!

Written by Christine Buske
on February 12th, 2007 / 5 Comments / Print this

Has my cheesy line caught your attention? I am willing to bet it did, and that is just the point of this article. Danielle recently wrote extensively about this topic, but I would like to take this opportunity to expand on the concept of slogans a little more.

While Danielle already clearly showed the benefits of a catchy tagline, I’d like to draw your attention to slogans-gone-bad. I’m not even mentioning the offensive ones that draw bad press and publicly back-fire, but I am talking about the slogan that may even seem good, but is not bringing you the business and name recognition it could.

Does it Stick?

If you already have a slogan/tagline or you are working on one, write it down on a white piece of paper. Don’t use letterhead or anything that can identify your company. Then look at it and write down (on the back side) what types of services or businesses this slogan can be used for.

To illustrate this exercise, consider the following line:
“Your Health is Our Business”

I can think of hundreds of businesses that could be printing this line on their product, such as spa’s, sauna’s, whirlpool companies, supplement manufacturers, doctors, hospitals, and even gyms. These are really just a few examples, because you could even imagine seeing this line on back massagers and any other product you put on or in your body that is not blatantly harmful. Note that I am not actually aware of any companies using this line, I just made it up and I am not aware of any trademarks related to it.

To make this exercise more powerful, ask your family and friends to comment on the types of businesses and products they think of when seeing your slogan and expand on the list you started.

The tagline I mentioned is not horrible, it could even be considered a little catchy. The problem with it is that it is not sticky: it doesn’t associate itself perfectly with one product line or a feeling your product should elicit with the customer.

A classic example of a targeted slogan is “have a break, have a KitKat”. Who doesn’t immediately recognize it? It also attaches the KitKat to a positive feeling: having a break.

The Roads Down Slogan-Ville

A great tagline can make a product more valuable, and more relevant. In other words: strengthen your brand and boost brand recognition. Now, although I may have given you the idea that a successful slogan has to include your product name, or any other identifier that makes it relate only to your product line, this is not 100% true. The lines of what does and does not work are a bit fuzzy, and while the more specific your slogan relates to your product or service, a line that does not include your name but somehow elicits a positive feeling (psychological effect) on your customers is just as profitable.

For example: “when you care enough to send the very best”. This is a line you will recognize from the Hallmark product line, and while it does not specify the brand name, it does communicate the brand: quality. Hallmark does not offer greeting cards, it offers quality greeting cards for people with good taste, and the tagline perfectly fits that brand image.

Strong slogans can thus be categorized in two general groups:

• The ones that “stick” exclusively to one product or brand, like “Great Art in Eden Park”, the tagline for the Cincinnati Art Museum.
• The second group includes lines that do not directly identify the product, but identify the feeling you get from that product, like “I’m lovin’ it”, which is of course the McDonalds tagline. Whether or not you love it is up to debate, but the line does create a very nice and fuzzy feeling.

Now, there is some bad news with the slogans that elicit a feeling or emotional response: they tend to work best when the business name itself is already very well known. It is not surprising that companies like Hallmark and McDonalds use these emotional pulls to draw in customers. They can also work for smaller businesses who have less brand recognition, but a catchy line that incorporates your name or product somehow does tend to “stick” better with potential customers who do not already know you. KitKat actually brings the best of both worlds together: it includes the brand name, and tries to associate it with a positive feeling.

The type of slogan appropriate for your business depends a bit on your products, brand, business type and marketing campaign. I would suggest different lines to a contractor who plans to print the line on all their trucks that I would suggest to an interior designer who just plans to use business cards and flyers as a marketing tool.

I will discuss developing an effective slogan in more detail in one of my next articles!