Regis Group Affiliate
I recently explored the Advertising Age blog site (www.adage.com), which always links to articles of interest in the mother publication. What caught my eye was an article on tag lines by Al Reis, a founder of Reis & Trout in New York City, who now has partnered with his daughter Laura in Atlanta. When he ran Reis and Trout in New York, he and his partner Jack Trout introduced the phrase “Positioning” which as far as I’m concerned was the basis for today’s much more sophisticated branding techniques. So what he had to say about tag lines (an important part of the branding “Identity package”) I wanted to know.
In this age of simple, short tag lines (“Just do it,” “Got Milk?”) Reis surmises that some marketers think that simply shorter is better. But what they forget is the emotional context that ties consumers to the tag line.
Among the many examples he gives are FEDEX and Perdue Chicken. “Federal Express could have positioned itself as: ‘The overnight company.’ But it didn't. Instead, it launched a campaign that not only turned around the brand, but also made marketing history: ‘When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.’" You can visualize someone yelling into the phone, "My package absolutely, positively has to be in L.A. tomorrow."
“When Frank Perdue was the spokesperson for his chicken brand, he could have said, ‘Perdue, the tender chicken.’ But he didn't. What he said built the brand and also made marketing history: ‘It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken."
Al Reis concludes with this historical quote: “When Abraham Lincoln was asked how long a man's legs should be in proportion to his body, he replied, ‘They ought be long enough to reach the ground.’
How long should a slogan be? It should be long enough to reach an emotional connection in the consumer's mind.”
To read the complete article with many more examples, go to Adage.com
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