what is a perfect slogan?
A slogan can best be understood as a positioning statement
It’s what you want the consumer to think about you.
Slogans play an important role in creating awareness and image!
· The tagline has to be in the LANGUAGE OF THE CONSUMER
Let’s say you are a job portal which analyses requirements and candidate profiles on personality traits and competencies. And that’s how you are different formal your competitors
You obviously want your consumer to know it.
To communicate this let’s say you use words like competency mapping, brain mapping, personality analysis, psychograph, psycho-analysis, behavioral analysis etc.
As a product manager you would want the consumer to know all or at least some
But these are not words that you use in your positioning statement
Your positioning statement has to be in the language of the consumer
The biggest lesson for a brand manager is to speak the language of the consumer
Using the words mentioned above will do one thing beautifully – SCARE THE CONSUMER
What does the consumer want?
He probably wants money, which will take care of his needs, which will keep him and his family satisfied, which over a consistent period of time will lead to happiness.
Using these words in the positioning statement is the best thing to do.
· You should try and own a word in the mind of the consumer
Like: Crest owns the word cavities
BMW owns driving
Pepsi owns youth
This defines your positioning
Gives meaning to your tagline
Extracts the maximum that you can from a tagline,
· Sometimes however, these words are taken the best thing to do in such cases is to change the way the product is being looked at.
A classic example is as follows
During the much talked about ad campaign that happened in 2008.
Two candidates Barack Obama and John McCain
John McCain was the candidate that was most likely to win
He had a positioning of someone with a legacy; a heritage of army and political leadership, experienced, etc
Barack Obama could in no way match this positioning
All the good words were taken this is when you choose a drastically opposite positioning statement or word
He built the advertising campaign around the world – CHANGE
And rest is history.
· The slogan also has to capture the essence of the brand
Brand meaning – what does the brand stand for
Brand promise – what does your brand claim to deliver on?
What value does it add to the consumer?
Along with this one important thing is communicating the nature of the brand
The attitude that the brand has-
Do you want the brand to be perceived as friendly, formal, caring etc?
· Slogans can be of two kinds
1. For the brand – generally does not change – becomes an identity
2. For a particular advertising campaign – for a specific time period
· Sometimes however the tagline or the slogan becomes over espoused or overused
It becomes something that is used by people in day to day conversations.
Without a context
A smart way to leverage on this is include the BRAND NAME in the tagline
This way, even is the tagline becomes famous, you’re BRAND NAME BECOMES FAMOUS WITH IT
· After a period of time the slogan becomes so easily associated with the brand that it no longer has to reinforce it. In such cases its best to modify the slogan a little bit.
Let me leave you with few great taglines
Please note that a slogan is nothing without the context of the positioning strategy.
However, I am trying to put down some that best define and the positioning statement
1. Hungry? grab a snickers
2. The citi never sleeps
3. Melts in your mouth, not in your hands
4. Let your fingers do the walking
5. The Uncola
