Brands, campaigns and Mess

It's hard to think of a well-known brand without thinking of its tag line. Nike's tag line is "Just do it." Hewlett Packard, "Invent." Apple Computer, "Think Different," and the Dairy Council, "Got Milk?" Why do you suppose these companies went to so much expense and trouble to establish these tag lines?To answer this, we should begin by learning that tag lines were once called slogans. The origin of the word slogan came from the Gaelic slaughgaiirm, used by Scottish clans to mean "war cry."

Recently I have been observing the brand – big, sumptuous and the mess they have me got into. Associating punch lines was common in seventies and its back again in action. The movies have it and now the brands have them too. Or may be i am wrong, they might have been having them for long, just that I was a little draggy in noticing them.

Slogans have become an important advertising tool used to influence consumers and their buying behavior. To be successful, advertising needs to evoke an emotional response that causes the customer to take action. In the marketing biz, its called AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action). Slogans or tag lines do much to support this. As a rule of thumb, tag lines should be short and differentiate your business from your competitors'. It should be unique and capture the essence of your business, product or service. It must be easy to say and remember. It should evoke an emotional response. And finally, it should be difficult to create. Difficult to create? Yes, longevity and a serious contention of expected competition over the life of the business must be considered.

The Punch lines that these brands have underneath their names, at times i just feel are they even closely related? Recently Wild Stone changed their campaign.The new campaign is where a young girl (guddi) being floored by the Wild Stone Man. The ad is leaving many things to the imagination of the audience.What is interesting about the new campaign is that the brand has a new tagline . Wild Stone has changed its tagline to " Barely Legal". The earlier tagline " Wild By Nature " has been dropped. What does that means. Does Wild Stone want to proclaim that the products they are launching have legality issues or you can defend any law once you start using the their products.

Axe, one of the most successful product has a success story so difficult to emulate. But The Axe Effect. Is that doing wonders? means it doesn't even explain the effects its having or even the genre of effects. Are we buying just to buy like in most of the Axe ads, there are no Hunks, only very ordinary or even skinny kind of people getting assaulted by beautiful girls. Is that what makes the brand more approachable. I seriously need to reconsider.

“A lot can happen over a coffee”. This is what CCD says, alternatively i haven't experienced anything serious happening over a coffee. I don't think you can even take a girl out for dinner just by pouring a couple of cappuccino. C'mon the girls are intelligent these days. Or do you get expect to get laid just because you had a dark passion with one of the girls you met recently. I am still trying to think about “lots” that can happen over a coffee.

“Salt Of the Nation”. This one is seriously insane. Tata Salt which originally was a buy product from one of Tata chemical factory has been self proclaimed as the salt of nation.Father of nation, National Animal, National Sport makes sense but National Salt ?? and believe me the tagline has helped Tata Salt in capturing of 40% of market share. If this works may be a sugar of nation can work too. A great enterprenial idea.

“Just Do it”. This has done wonders for Nike over more than a couple of decades now. Nike never explained what is the ‘IT’ they are asking their customers to do. I have been working lately to consolidate a list of things that can be done using Nike’s shoes Nike has an amazing marketing team that continue to find new and amazing ways to say it repetitively to the customer without letting them get fed-up of it. and we keep playing around the aspects that they give us to think.

“Beyond Petroleum” this is what the British Petroleum says. What is pretty evident is the fact that a petroleum company cannot give you a cosmetic service or say it cannot start manufacturing burgers at gas and petrol stations. You want to sell petroleum and you say you can sell beyond petroleum. I cant buy that.

“The Citi Never Sleeps”, says CITIGROUP or CITIBANK. But if you try calling their credit card’s helpline numbers, they just don’t pick up calls easily; just like the admin folks in your the office. “Everything is Possible” says HP Invent. This is fraud how can you say everything is possible. Can you build laptops without microprocessors or can you store 200GB on a 150GB Hard disk. No guys you cant. Why say that as your brand punchline.

“Where Vision Gets Built” said Lehman Brothers and I can see the vision they built. You pushed the west into a tight recession. You made recently graduated college kids wait for several months before they could actually join; and you say you were building visions. “I am What I am”. Reebok advertises itself proclaiming that. How is that even closely related to a company that sells shoes.

I am tired of writing about these silly punchlines used so frequently these days. I will push in some weird looking punchlines here. may be you are the best ones to decide if they really match. It is important to remember that although it is not “just” a catchy phrase, it should be after all a catchphrase. Something your customers can connect to, something that they can remember while making a buying decision and something that can guide them distinguish you from your competitors. What heights can a tagline take a company? Well it has the potential of becoming part of the everyday lives of your customers. I still doubt how many actually does.

Well its a rat race, a race where everyone wants to do good. As far as I am concerned i will keep asking myself the questions. May be someday I attain enlightenment.