Number 77: November 10, 2004

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This week in Katydid:

• Slogans – Just Don't Do Them
• Anti-Ads Promoting Drugs
• Subscription Information

Slogans – Just Don't Do Them
I've worked with quite a few start-ups in my career and most of them tend to fret early on over their slogan. It's part of the "let's form a band" mentality of new businesses. It's a male adolescent right of passage to have dreamed of forming your own band. We scratched our cool band names and wicked logos on the covers of notebooks. All of that comes back when we decide to form a business. If the same time and heartache went into the name, logo, and slogan that went into the business plan, more businesses would succeed.

The results of a recent survey suggest all that we value our slogans too highly. Most people can't remember them, or associate them with a company. The second annual Emergence Slogan Survey conducted by Caravan Opinion Research Corp, tested consumer recall of familiar product slogans and taglines. (I make a distinction between slogans and taglines, but the survey treats them the same.)

The survey sponsor, Emergence, is a firm that specializes in consultation on brand strategy. The current survey confirms the results of last year's survey. We can assume that they have some interest in plying your business away from advertising firms that make a lot of money selling identity packages. Although, you could just as easily use the information to push back on your current agency to stop trying to rebrand you every three years.

The survey tested thirty slogans by asking people to name the corporation for each of fifteen slogans. They tested two separate lists in July and August of this year. The top three remembered slogans were Allstate, "You're in Good Hands," State Farm, "Like a Good Neighbor," and Wal-Mart, "Always Low Prices. Always." The least remembered slogans were for Wendy's, "It's Better Here," Staples, "That Was Easy," and Kmart, "Right Here, Right Now."

You could also conclude by looking at the data that newer slogans have less brand recognition. I've been hearing that song for State Farm since I was a child. Wendy's tagline used to be "Hot and Juicy." I think more people would recognize that tagline. The same is true of Kmart, which has undergone extensive rebranding in the wake of bankruptcy and the Martha Stewart scandal. The Budweiser campaign, "True," has been around for several years and it only garnered about ten percent recognition. However, I'm betting that many people could associate "The King of Beers" correctly.

We could look at other factors such as how the slogan is associated with the product name and logo. We could look at whether aural reinforcement increases recognition. However, one question from the survey suggests another main reason why slogans aren't having the kind of impact we'd like: More than forty percent of people use commercials as an opportunity to surf other channels. If they never see your advertisement, they have no chance of remembering your slogan.

My philosophy is that companies evolve their messaging over time. A name and logo are all you need to get started. Often the company will start out with a more descriptive tagline that helps define what they do. As they win more customers and increase the size of the business, a slogan will develop – usually from a successful advertising campaign. The best slogans include a call to action, or a value statement associated directly with the brand name.

Ultimately, you should look to your customers for the right slogan. Ask them how they think of your organization. What words do they use to describe their experiences with you? Those responses will be more likely to stick in the minds of your target audience. Alternatively, you could look at their notebook covers and steal the names of their fantasy bands for your next product.

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Anti-Ads Promoting Drugs
Researchers at Texas State University in San Marco report that strongly negative ads actually increase the likelihood that kids will use drugs. Working on a sample of 53 college students, Maria Czyzewska and Harvey Ginsberg found that 75 percent had a more favorable impression of drugs after watching the commercials than before.

In the age of skate punk stunts, the students may be revering the mishaps of their dramatized peers. However, the researchers point out that the kids are actually more cynical about advertising and see the commercials as exaggerated and false.

So, is it more disturbing to think that the next generation of consumers will ignore your advertising as false (if they see it at all), or that they will be too stoned to remember your value messaging?

It turns out it's better to focus on the factual messaging and treat young people as the sophisticated consumers we've trained them to be.

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Kind regards, 
Kevin Troy Darling

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