Is Your Slogan This Bad? (Karrh On Marketing)

We could have guessed that some companies have problems with this element of their marketing. Frankly, though, I am surprised the problem is this severe.

The “problem” in this case is the effectiveness of advertising slogans and tag lines. According to a recent survey (conducted by the consulting firm Emergence and reported in the Sept. 30 edition of USA Today), few slogans — even those part of big-budget campaigns — register with consumers.

In the survey, 1,021 randomly selected respondents tried to recognize the slogans of 22 of the nation’s biggest marketers (each of whom reportedly spends more than $100 million each year on advertising). Of those 22 marketers’ slogans, only Wal-Mart’s (“Always low prices. Always.”) generated more than 50 percent recognition. Next was the “Improving home improvement” slogan from Lowe’s (29 percent recognition). In all, only six slogans generated even 10 percent recognition.

Want to try a few yourself? Which marketers want you to remember “The stuff of life,” “That was easy,” and “We’re with you”? If the correct answer comes to mind, then the executives at Kmart, Staples and Circuit City, respectively, probably wish you had been part of the survey. Each scored exactly zero percent recognition.

To be fair, the ultimate measure of the quality of your slogan isn’t whether consumers can quote it accurately on command. Consumers don’t make choices as if they’re memorizing state capitals for a midterm exam. Still, your slogan should at least be memorable; it is designed to be the “takeaway” from the advertiser’s message to its markets.

I think there are five primary reasons why some marketers’ slogans fail to resonate with consumers:

• Companies change their slogans too often. When executives get the itch to change marketing strategies, slogans are one of the first areas scratched. Among the lowest-scoring slogans in this recent survey, several (such as those from Kmart, Staples, Sears, Microsoft and GE) have been in front of consumers for less than a year. McDonald’s had recently switched its slogan to “I love to see you smile,” then switched again a few weeks ago to “I’m lovin’ it.” It may take years to fully establish your slogan, but your patience will likely be rewarded. Recently, I asked students in an undergraduate class to come up with the slogan for M&Ms; most of them easily recalled “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands,” even though that hasn’t been a focus of M&M’s advertising for years.

• The slogan doesn’t ring true. Today’s more skeptical consumer recognizes hype; if your slogan doesn’t match experience with your product or service, you’ll be quickly dismissed. One of the reasons for Wal-Mart’s relative success with “Always low prices” is that they actually deliver on the promise. On the other hand, according to published reports, Radio Shack had problems with its “You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers” slogan because, well, store employees often lacked answers.

• The slogan doesn’t relate to a compelling benefit. Too many slogans are grandiose chest-pounding, the product of executives trying to educate the masses about how great their companies are. A sign of this thinking is the use of “we” in a slogan. Great slogans capture benefits from the perspective of the consumer rather than the sponsor. Notice the difference between McDonald’s short-lived, self-centered slogan (“We love to see you smile”) versus the classic, consumer-oriented one (“You deserve a break today”) that served them so well in the past.

• The slogan is unfocused. What exactly do you want your slogan to accomplish? Are you trying to sell things, attract employees, build your reputation, or stand out to investors? If the answer is “all of the above,” then you probably can’t craft a single message that works.

• The slogan isn’t integrated across all contact points. Wal-Mart doesn’t just slap their slogans on ads. They also have it prominently in their stores, on employees, and on the 30,000+ trucks that serve as rolling billboards across America.

Maybe I should try this myself. How about this one: “Always a somewhat coherent column. Always.”

(Jim Karrh, Ph.D., is associate professor of marketing and advertising in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s College of Business and senior consultant with CJRW Executive Strategies in Little Rock. E-mail him at jakarrh@ualr.edu.)