Slogans and Tag Lines

As Beth is working out the marketing plan, Kandra and I also get to work – Kandra on the logo and imagery, me on the messaging.

The logo is probably what most people think about when they think of branding. When you say McDonalds, what pops into your mind? The golden arches and the scary clown. With Nike, the swoosh.

The other element that people key on, and my area of expertise (such as it is) is the slogan or tag line. Are these the same thing? The words are often used interchangeably, but I think they’re different and have different uses. I think even wikipedia doesn’t really get at the differences, but here’s what I think: A slogan incorporates a call to action of some sort. “Just do it.” “Reach Out and Touch Someone.” “Don’t Leave Home Without It.”

A tag line is similar, but doesn’t incorporate a call to action. It doesn’t mean they’re less effective necessarily, but it does mean they have a different purpose. They are more descriptive than a slogan, but don’t ask the target audience to actually do anything. “Little, yellow, different, better.” Movies have tag lines rather than slogans, because they’re not really selling you anything – they just want you to remember the film: “In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream” (from my favorite movie evah, by the way).

To my mind, the slogan empowers the prospect by putting the the need for action on their shoulders. The tag line empowers the company or product by focusing strictly on describing it or its benefits. Tag lines change more often than do slogans. How long has it been since Coke was “the real thing?” A long time, but Nike has been telling us to “Just do it,” for more than 20 years.

I think, actually that “Just do it,” is the best slogan in branding history. I’m not necessarily a huge fan of Nike the company, but Nike the brand is almost pure genius. The slogan itself incorporates a call to action, but it also communicates a sense of urgency bordering on impatience. And it puts the impetus for action and focus purely on the customer.

I think that if the slogan was tweaked just a little, it would be a disaster. One of the more common and least effective constructions in sloganeering today is “giving you the strength, power, or control…” or “putting you in charge…” – We, the company will give you control or the tools to do something. The focus is on the company, not the customer, and the customer is disempowered. Its as if Nike’s slogan was “Letting you do it.” Nike’s core brand message is empowering the individual athlete, so their slogan subtly reinforces the idea of empowerment by calling on them to do the work and reap the rewards (using Nike shoes as a tool, of course).

All small companies could learn something from Nike’s branding. After all, they started out as 2 guys selling shoes out of the trunk of Phil Knight’s car. One of the ways they have thrived is by making sure that they reinforce their message of empowering the athlete at every turn. Their slogan is the most obvious and successful example of this.