An epic tagline sums up both the emotional and rational ideas of the brand: "Just Do It." "I love New York." "Nothing runs like a Deere."
Something that drives me crazy in this business is when companies who have an outstanding tagline walk away from it. And I don't just mean, stop using it... I mean when they disrespect it.
Avis is the lead example. In the 60s Doyle Dane Bernbach created "We Try Harder." Quite possibly one of the best strategies and taglines our industry has ever seen, it was about the idea that when you're #2 you try harder. Every execution paid off that idea. It also had an emotional component that everyone could identifiy with. Avis still uses that tagline (I'm sure because quantitative data says that people know it) but they no longer pay it off. Yes, they talk about having iTunes, but that's not the human element of "we're trying harder to do whatever it takes, to earn your business." This is:
A second example has bubbled up, and it pains me because I love the newest agency on the brand and would love to know how much of this direction is coming from the client vs. the agency... In the mid 80s Ammirati & Puris made BMW "The Ultimate Driving Machine." BMW still uses that line, but there's very little emotion tying back to it. The line is so visceral, but now, their advertising talks about how BMW is an independent company, and a creative company, and then ends all these ads with "the ultimate driving machine." (?) To me, those things don't really relate. In Fast Company this month, there's a four-page spread with different shots of a 3 Series being built with the ending line of "built from the bottom up to be an Ultimate Driving Machine." AN ultimate driving machine? I just wonder why BMW marketing isn't pushing the brand to emotionally pay off the line like they used to.
And finally, what ever happened to "Finger Lickin' Good?" and "It's Miller Time?" KFC and Miller have floundered around for years animating their icons and changing brand ideas seemingly every quarter. What up?
I'd love to know because creating such a tagline is extremely difficult. These brands are sitting on a gift and they're not fully embracing it. Which pisses the rest of us off who toil for years hoping to get remotely close to something so powerful and ownable.
Great taglines sum up the emotional AND rational ideas of the brand. A very difficult thing to do.
Please, I beg you, take advantage of this if you have one.
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