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What's Your Tagline Today? By Michael AntmanEmail to a Friend 
More so than most other aspects of marketing communications, advertising is subject to fads and fashions. From typography to photography, almost every element of almost every print and television ad you see is a product of its era in the same manner that the clothes and automobiles of the time were. Don't think so? Take a look at an advertising annual from, say, 1967. Virtually without exception, the design elements of almost every ad virtually scream "1967" – the makeup on the models, the hairstyles, the vibrant colors, the co-opting of rock-concert poster and "psychedelic" design motifs. In other words, although advertising people like to talk about "differentiation" and "unique selling propositions," a circa-1967 print ad for a Plymouth is almost certain to resemble one of its competitors' ads more closely than it will a 1987 ad for a Plymouth – and not just because the look of the car itself has changed. A Tagline Is Forever Even copywriting style changes dramatically with the times. Compare the earnest, wordy and enthusiastic ads of the 50s and 60s with the characteristic ad of the 80s and 90s, in which the headline served as the set-up for a joke, and the image and/or brief, pun-laden copy served as the punchline. There's one partial exception to advertising's lockstep adherence to the zeitgeist, and that's the tagline, nee "slogan." From "You're in Good Hands With Allstate" to "A Diamond Is Forever," some of the most effective and memorable taglines of 2004 were just as effective and memorable in 1994, or even 1964. This is exactly as it should be. A company that uses the same tagline (or close variants) for many decades is sending a message to the world that, whatever innovations and new products it may choose to introduce, there is one thing that never changes: Its commitment to quality and service. A 2004 ad that looks like an ad from 1985 represents a serious branding problem; a 2004 ad that bears the same tagline as its counterpart from 1984 represents solidity, strength and confidence. The Tagline Exception is only a partial one, however. Some companies change taglines for very good reasons – because their underlying strategy has changed substantially. But others change their taglines because, well, because everyone else is doing it. Witness the recent vogue for "question" taglines – "Where Do You Want to Go?" and "What's In Your Wallet?" and "Gatordade. Is It In You?" and "Do You Yahoo?" and "What Is Mlife?" (by the way, the answer to that last question seems to have been another question, namely, "who cares?") Fortunately, this "questionable" fad is likely to fade away as quickly as it appeared on the scene. Imagine the advertising landscape if the question tagline had been de rigeur in years past: "Is That a Tiger In Your Tank?" "Amtrak: Where Do You Get Off?" "Are Your Peas From the Valley of the Jolly (Ho, Ho, Ho) Green Giant?" Even Allstate has gotten into the interrogative act, with their recent commercials that ask, "Are You in Good Hands?" But this is an intelligent way of following a fad – the question is not only relevant, it is a direct variant of their famous tagline, which they continue to use in other contexts. Change and Die Whatever the reason, it is clear that companies these days are changing their taglines entirely too often. A recent, well-publicized survey of consumers showed that the vast majority were unable to identify the companies behind many taglines, even after millions or even hundreds of millions of marketing dollars had been expended to establish them. In most cases, this is because companies, driven by quarterly profit pressures and constant turnover in their marketing staffs, keep on changing their slogans when they don't immediately take off, or when they made a minor (i.e., invisible to the consumer) adjustment to their product line or business strategy. What percentage of consumers would have identified "Like a Good Neighbor" with State Farm six months after the slogan was introduced? But State Farm stuck with it – had the courage of its convictions, in other words – and now they possess one of the most venerable and effective taglines of all time. Incidentally, the survey demonstrated that this phenomenon works, or rather doesn't work, the other way, too. When asked to identify the current tagline of the fading American retail icon Sears, only 4 percent could do so. The taglines for Buick and Miller Beer, two other brands with their share of troubles, were both identified correctly by only 1 percent of respondents. And Plymouth? Zero percent. Of course, Plymouth doesn't actually exist any more. Must be because they kept on changing their tagline. |
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