The Power of a Tagline: Does it Really Motivate Customers?

May 2008 E-NEWS
from Steven Donaldson and Michael Zinke, the Brand Guys

Creating the Visible Brand in a multi-channel world—web, retail, print and electronic media. We send these brand "bites" monthly to give you insights and tips on building value, uniqueness and loyalty for your brand. Your brand's critical differentiation helps your customers find you, remember you and come back to you.

In this issue:

1. The Power of a Tagline: Does it really motivate customers? Ford's new tagline is an invitation to experience quality.
2. Brand Architecture and the Customer Experience: The Case of the Apple Logo. It's now been shown through a fascinating experiment that brands really do live inside the mind of the consumer.

The Power of a Taline: Does it Really Motivate Customers?

Ford. Drive One

The goal of the new tagline is to re-shape customer perceptions about the brand and to deal with the now-historic problem of American car companies: defection to "foreign" brands such as Toyota and Honda.

The reality is that the standard big budget advertising campaigns showing fast cars zooming down winding down Hwy 1 near Big Sur or massive SUV's climbing the nearest mountain have had little impact on consumer perceptions of the Big Three. This says that coming up with a "hot idea" to push a campaign does not pass muster with consumers, who use their experience to verify the promise made by a brand tagline. When the tagline is fake, well, customers know it.

Ford's past tagline flops include "No Boundaries and "Bold Moves" — what these mean in the customer's experience is not clear. They sure didn't motivate increased sales or more positive perceptions of Ford.

This time, Ford's big marketing move is a bit different. The new tagline — "Ford. Drive One" — was the result of interviews with dealerships across the country over several months. They actually wanted to know what customers were saying. Because the tagline reflects a grass roots strategy, focusing on what dealers say customers are willing to do — test the car — they think it will drive comparison-shopping and a shift in the perception of Ford quality. It also conveys a confidence in the quality of the experience you will have if you take them up on this invitation.

Look at it as being in a similar vein to the Nike tagline "just do it". It's not about claims, promises or meaningless associations. It goes to the heart of what the brand wants you to do — have an experience.

The key here is for the tagline to represent a genuine experience that actually means something to the consumer and enhances the meaning of the brand.

So, when thinking about your next tagline make sure it fulfills these key criteria:

1. Verifies a customer experience
2. Enhances the meaning of the brand — what you do
3. Challenges the consumer to do something
4. Promises something you actually deliver

* "Ford's Latest Better Idea". Wall Street Journal. By Mike Spector. March 18, 2008

Brand Architecture and the Customer Experience

The Case of the Apple Logo.

It's now been shown through a fascinating experiment that brands really live inside the mind of the consumer, and that the logo, if presented right may actually have an effect on consumer behavior.

You don't need to be a Mac owner to "Think Different" and be more innovative. Just thinking about Apple Inc. (by exposure to its logo) can make you more creative.

This according to researchers at Duke University and the University of Waterloo, who found that exposing people to a brand's logo for 30 milliseconds will make them behave in ways associated with that brand.

Surveys have found that people feel similarly about Apple and IBM in every way except creativity, where Apple came out ahead, and competence, which is IBM's strength. Subjects were exposed to imperceptible images of the brand logos for Apple and International business Machines (IBM) among others. Researchers then asked the subjects to describe as many uses for a brick as they could.

Apple-primed subjects averaged 30% more answers, and independent reviewers deemed their answers more creative, while IBM-primed subjects had strikingly uniform answers.

This shows, with startling clarity, that a logo can embody the entire meaning of the brand. Just perceiving the brand identity subliminally will trigger consumers' experience of what a brand is known for, what it promises. What a brand is known for does become bound to the visual experience of the brand through the logo, advertising and consistent messaging. The logo is not the brand — it just embodies the meaning, experiences and perceptions of the brand.

Apple knows that their brand is not the Apple logo. With every ad, every campaign, you see something creative, cool, well-designed, elegant or groovy (people dancing with iPods) that creates an association with their products of all the key brand attributes around innovation and creativity. Then they show you the Apple logo — frequently without the name. It's all about experiencing layers of symbolism. That's what a logo can do for the brand. It's not the brand — it represents what the brand is by embodying all the attributes, experiences, promises and history of the brand for the consumer.

However, does this mean businesses wanting to inspire creativity or competence in a handful of areas should buy Macs or IBM equipment for their offices? You decide.

As creatures of visual recognition, simple perceptions can mean the difference between one brand an and other. So when thinking about building your brand architecture take these key rules to heart:

Creating the Brand Experience

1. Understand the core of your brand: brand promise, key attributes, the one thing you uniquely deliver to customers, value of the brand
2. Communicate it through all media consistently
3. Convey the value of the brand experience through all media
4. Link the logo and all other sensory experiences of the brand (music, smell, touch) to the core brand attributes and value.

Creating the Brand Experience

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