Business taglines more important than ever

Posted At : April 22, 2008 2:18 PM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Branding,Strategy,Marketing,Commentary

Steve Cone from Advertising Age published an interesting article last week entitled “Help taglines regain lost glory: why creating strong slogans is a marketer’s most important job.”

He says powerful taglines – what he calls “powerlines” are largely missing in action in today’s marketing messages. Cone believes this is a mistake because the right words “have the power to awe, inspire, motivate, alienate, subjugate and, in a marketing context, change the buying habits of consumers.”

He argues most consumer taglines “generally mean nothing or are relegated to small, unreadable type.” Cone also doesn’t like the fact most companies change their taglines every year or two, and sometimes within the same year. “Nothing could be more harmful to your brand and your business.”

The secret to creating a compelling tagline is attitude. Cone says “the brain is wired to seek the unusual phrase … and ignores phrases that seem ordinary and unimportant.” He also makes a compelling case for the power of sound, “Sound trumps sight by a wide margin in forcing the brain to remember something; you can’t turn off hearing.”

A current consumer powerline Cone likes is “Las Vegas: what happens here, stays here.”

Most of his top 10 favorite taglines hark from an earlier era when they were “the epicenter for all promotional executions:”

A diamond is forever (De Beers)
Think small (VW)
Just do it (Nike)
You deserve a break today (McDonald’s)
When it rains it pours (Morton Salt)
You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s rye bread (Levy’s Baking)

Some of my favorite consumer taglines are:

Snap! Crackle! Pop! (Rice Krispies)
It’s the real thing (Coke)
M’m M’m Good (Campbell's Soup)
We try harder (Avis)
We bring good things to life (GE)
King of beers (Budweiser)
For life (Volvo)
It’s everywhere you want to be (Visa)
The ultimate driving machine (BMW)
When banks compete, you win (Lending Tree)

Are taglines equally important in the world of B2B and technology? Is it more difficult to position a product that’s more complicated, or isn’t noticed/used by consumers?

Yes and yes.

I’ve met with hundreds of business people over the past decade to discuss how to create focused messaging. 80 percent expressed a passion for “dumbing it down.” They really, really, really wanted to capture their product benefits in a catchy way. The business taglines they most frequently cited to make their point:

We don’t make a lot of the products you buy, we make a lot of the products you buy better (BASF)
Think different (Apple)
Intel inside
The network is the computer (Sun Microsystems)
When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight (FedEx)
Invent (HP)
Where do you want to go today? (Microsoft)

If you believe taglines aren’t that critical for business, think again. They’ve never been more important.

Google never had a tagline until last year. Some people thought it was “Don’t be evil,” but that was their internal corporate motto. After a lot of introspection, they came up with: “Search, ads and apps.”

Salesforce.com had a pretty good tagline for years, “Experience Success.” But they changed it to “Success on demand.” They obviously care a lot about whether the new one is working because in January ‘08 they posted the following on their corporate blog:

“What do you think about the “success on demand” tagline? Is it memorable? Do you recall it when Salesforce.com is mentioned? Does it reflect who we are? Can it be improved?”

Look no further than Dell to validate the importance of taglines. They’ve created so many taglines it’s tough to keep track. Here’s a list of the ones I remember, most of which, if not all, are from this decade:

Dude, you’ve got a Dell
Easy as Dell
Get more out of it now
Purely You
Yours is here (current tagline)

As Dell relentlessly morphed its tagline, the company’s brand reputation was frequently barraged. The two went hand-in-hand.

Taglines are important because they exist to capture the essence and promise of a brand. When companies consistently struggle to articulate this most critical message, it’s often a symptom they have lost their way.

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Yankees blow Levine's save in buried shirt debacle

Posted At : April 14, 2008 3:55 PM | Posted By : Mike McGrail
Related Categories: Commentary

AP credited photo - David Ortiz jersey in new Yankee Stadium

With the volatile Steinbrenner clan at the helm and enough interpersonal drama in the locker room to dwarf “Project Runway,” the New York Yankees are not generally noted for their sense of humor. But the pinstripes showed one – and pretty good PR game – this weekend when they found out that a Red Sox-leaning construction worker buried a David Ortiz jersey in new Yankee Stadium concrete.

After the offending jersey was jack hammered out of the floor at considerable cost, Yankees President Randy Levine wisely planted tongue in cheek when he talked to the media. He said the team considered leaving the jersey “because it’s never a good thing to be buried in cement when you’re in New York,” and that might not be a bad fate for a symbol of the Yankee-killing Red Sox power hitter. Then Levine deftly wiped the last droplets of yolk off the Yankees’ collective face when he announced the team was donating the shirt to the Boston-based Jimmy Fund to auction off as a donation for research at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The Jimmy Fund is, of course, the Red Sox long-time marquee charity.

As a lifelong Sox fan I wish Big Papi’s shirt was entombed in the Yankee stonework pumping out bad juju for the next 100 years. As a PR professional, I have to admire Levine’s sharp response. If the Yankees had left it at that, the scales would have tilted in their favor, at least from a PR perspective. But the Yankees being the Yankees, couldn’t let it go. COO Lonn Trost has now hinted at legal action against the prankster – who turns out to be a resident of the team’s very own Bronx.

And Village Voice blogger Heather Muse reported that co-owner Hank Steinbrenner threw a hissy fit when he got the news. Steinbrenner was quoted saying “I hope his coworkers kick the !@#$% out of him. It’s a bunch of bull&*^%.” The prankster invited Steinbrenner to try and do the kicking himself, but only if he brought Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. No word yet on whether or not Steinbrenner has accepted the offer.

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Shine a Light: The Stones and technology partnerships

Posted At : April 11, 2008 4:00 PM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Commentary

Rolling Stones - Scorsese - Shine A Light Movie

The right strategic partner makes a brand stronger.

Case in point: Martin Scorcese’s new documentary, “Shine a Light.”

I saw it the other night on an IMAX screen. It captures the grizzled Rolling Stones in concert at New York’s intimate Beacon Theatre.

“Shine a Light” is a brilliant piece of filmmaking because it reinvigorates a 46 year-old brand, around since 1962. While many might agree the Stones are the greatest rock and roll band of all time, some discard them as no longer meaningful.

Scorcese’s film gives you a good boot in the rear; you leave with renewed appreciation.

The Stones/Scorcese partnership goes way back. He recently told The Philadelphia Enquirer: “A lot of their music became part of my DNA.” Their music is featured in many of his greatest films, including Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed.

Shine a Light is engrossingly real. To the Stones’ credit in this age of plastic reinvention, the boys are comfortable in their own skin. Tight close-ups are featured all the way through. Explaining this technique, Scorcese told the Philadelphia Enquirer, “It shows you a life that’s been lived. And a life that’s living still … and it reads on their faces, it reads in their movements, their bodies, their very souls are up there on screen.”

Scorcese brilliantly contrasts the Stones of today with their Rock God years by dipping into obscure footage from the sixties and early seventies. Coming off a wrinkled Mick, you come face-to face with him in 1972 when Dick Cavett asks: “Can you picture yourself at age 60 doing what you’re doing now?” Mick quickly replies with a grin, “Easily. Yeah.”

Mick’s 64 years old, but has the body of a nine year old, beanpole girl. Being a long distance runner serves him well: he never tires on stage. The young talent joining him in Shine a Light – Jack White of the White Stripes and Christina Aguilera – are clearly star-struck. Mick one-ups both of them; not that he’s trying to.

Shine a Light made me think of the technology industry. Name a high tech player and you’re likely to find a plethora of partnerships associated with that company. Partnerships are forged to deploy and distribute tech products and services, support customers, deepen geographical representation; offset weaknesses and maximize strengths.

Partnerships fall into three camps: the ones that hurt or break companies; the ones that positively transform; and the ones with zero impact.

There are plenty of examples of tech partnerships gone bad. In the nineties, Intel had a partnership with Intergraph Corporation, a maker of computer workstations. Intergraph abandoned its own chip technology efforts and killed its fail-safe strategy with Sun Microsystems to go exclusive with Intel. The partnership worked pretty well for four years, then by 1997 the lawyers got involved with charges and countercharges of patent infringement, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets.

It got ugly.

Apple and HP trumpeted “a strategic alliance” in January 2004, whereby HP would sell HP-branded iPods. At CES, Jobs said, “consumers will be reassured in getting unparalleled digital music solutions from both HP and Apple.” Only one year later, HP stopped ordering iPods from Apple’s factory. They didn’t appreciate that fact that Apple hadn’t price-protected each player sold to HP. By July 2005, HP had decided to stop reselling iPods altogether.

There are thousands of examples of partnerships gone wrong in the tech industry.

There aren’t many long-term, unquestionably successful strategic technology partnerships. But a co

uple come to mind.

One of the best is the Microsoft/Intel partnership. These two companies have collaborated for more than 20 years across engineering, sales and services. Another great example is the Microsoft Logo

relationship Dassault Systemes (DS) built with IBM. DS had innovative Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software, but it didn’t have a distribution partner or brand visibility in the U.S. The two forged a strategic partnership that has lasted over 25 years. During that time DS revenue topped the $1 billion mark.

Arguably, the largest “bucket” for technology partnerships is the third category: the ones with zero impact. Technology companies announce partnerships every day of every week of every month of every year. But 80 percent of these go nowhere. Forrester Research cites several reasons, including the failure to define shared market opportunities, a lack of agreement and investment in going-to-market strategies, and an inability to align the whole organization with the partnering commitment.

In an industry filled with “ecosystems,” “partner programs” and “strategic alliances,” it’s important to remember what the Rolling Stones sang in 1969:

“You can’t always get what you want.”

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Will virtual events replace traditional shows?

Posted At : April 4, 2008 2:22 PM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Speaking,Commentary

Today we are pleased to have guest-blogger Kim Orso, a Director of Beaupre’s Speakers Bureau, to discuss virtual vs. in-person trade shows.

There truly is a trade show or conference for everything – The Bead and Button Show, Totally Tools, The Shreveport Hunters Show. Name the industry, chances are there’s some event out there to support it. As a matter of fact, I just learned there are 13,000 events produced annually in the U.S. and Canada. This was reported in “The future of business events: Why trade shows live on” written by Columbia Business School marketing professor and author of Trade Show and Event Marketing, Ruth P. Stevens.

Ruth’s article paints a very rosy picture for the future of live trade shows and conferences. She reports that the leading platform for virtual trade shows, Unisfair, claims to have run more than 300 virtual events on behalf of companies, trade associations and other organizations. Even though that number continues to grow, the virtual event hardly seems to be a threat to the traditional trade show.

Ruth spent a year and a half researching the business event scene in order to write her book. She argues that, historically, communications media (with the exception of the telegraph) have adapted and co-existed as new media channels have been introduced. As an example, television isn’t going away because of the Internet, it’s just changing how it does business. She sees integrated marketing communications as a way to success and says the Internet and live events should work in tandem. She also argues that online interaction can’t replace face-to-face contact.

I completely agree with Ruth on her assessment of the trade show industry. My brother-in-law has been selling paper to book and magazine publishers for more than 20 years now, and he’s frequently been asked how business is faring with the proliferation of the Internet. He responds positively by saying that we will always need paper, because of the three “B’s” – beach, bed and bathroom.

I look at trade shows in the same vein. They won’t ever go away because of the three “P’s” – product, people and productivity. Attendees want to touch, see and experience new products being introduced to market. Exhibiting companies like to meet face-to-face with potential and existing customers and partners. And, as long as companies pick the right events and properly prepare for a trade show, business can be very productive when prospects and partners congregate under one roof.

While the advent of the virtual event is intriguing and many online tradeshows have been successfully launched (see Stratus Technologies’ upcoming Availability Summit), the Internet doesn’t appear to be a real threat to the face-to-face venue. Instead, they can supplement each other and help companies get the most out of their marketing dollars.

- Kim Orso, Director Speakers Bureau

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