Since the introduction of that slogan, the competitive landscape in the rental car industry has gotten more crowded and more challenging. Having used most of the rental car brands myself, I can confirm that Enterprise has consistently shown that it tries harder in the area of customer service. Perhaps, that’s why AVIS finally walked away from its much-lauded slogan.

While I can understand that “It’s your space” is customer focused, it is not a promise and I am unconvinced that it differentiates. I am sure a great amount of brand research went into the development of the new tagline (or I at least hope it did). But I just don’t get it. As a very frequent business traveler, I am not compelled to use AVIS based on this new slogan.

I will withhold judgment until I have seen the marketing campaigns associated with this slogan unfold, but, for now, all I can say is, “huh?”

What is your opinion?

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• It communicates the brand’s “unique value proposition”
• In an economy of words
• It is believable for the brand
• Competitive brands are not saying and cannot say the same thing
• It is memorable – it must stick in people’s minds
• It can’t be trite
• It needs to do more than just refer to the product category
• It should not promise a “cost of entry” benefit for the category
• Ideally, it is entertaining or emotionally appealing

Common tagline mistakes:

• Claiming something that is overused or trite
  • We are the [quality/service/innovation] leader
  • Excellence in all that we do
  • You can count on us
  • We care about people
• Saying something that sounds good (is “catchy”) but that does not differentiate the brand in a meaningful way
• Communicating what product category the brand is in…period.
• Claiming a benefit that all brands in the category must deliver (a “cost of entry” benefit)
• Saying something that many or all brands in your brand’s category could also say
• Saying something that is so broad that it is meaningless
• Saying something that is too complicated or confusing
• Using too many words

Taglines must be developed based on a well thought through “unique value proposition” informed by customer insight. Only then should one begin the process of generating hundreds, if not thousands, of tagline options, which will be evaluated against the above mentioned criteria to filter out all but the most powerful options.

Over my 30+ years as a marketer, I have encountered hundreds of tagline examples, most of them quite bad. Luckily, I forgot most all of the bad ones.

Here are a few examples of ineffective taglines (current and historical):

Ames Rubber            Excellence through total quality.

BF Goodrich             Creating value through excellence in innovation, quality and people

Blockbuster              No more late fees. The start of more.

Chicago                   We’re Glad You’re Here!

Delta Airlines           We get you there.

Denny’s                    A good place to sit and eat.

Exxon                      We’re Exxon.

Lehman Brothers      Where vision gets built.

Mobile                     We want you to live.

O’Douls                   What beer drinkers drink when they’re not drinking beer. 

Rochester, New York I’d Rather Be in Rochester – It’s Got It

Here are a few examples of effective taglines (current and historical):

Alka-Seltzer             I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.

American Express     Don’t leave home without it.

Apple Computer       Think Different.

Avis                         We try harder.

BMW                        The ultimate driving machine.

California Milk Processing Board  Got milk?

DeBeers                   A diamond is forever.

Foodlink                  Abundance Shared

IMAX                       Think big.

Kentucky Fried Chicken   Finger-lickin’ good!

Lay’s Potato Chips          Betcha can’t eat just one.

National Pork Board        Pork. The other white meat.

Timex                            Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

United Negro College Fund    A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

VISA                                It’s everywhere you want to be.

FootJoy (FJ)                   The Mark Of A Player.*

*Disclaimer, The Blake Project developed this

What taglines do you consider effective? Ineffective?

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A tagline that succinctly and powerfully communicates the brand’s promise is one of the quickest, easiest and least expensive ways to communicate the brand’s new position to internal and external audiences. It should consistently accompany the brand’s logo in situations outlined by the brand architecture.

I believe that developing brand taglines (and elevator speeches) are the most important next steps one can take once a brand has been positioned or repositioned.

A tagline should achieve all of the following for your brand:

1. Communicate the brand’s unique value proposition (brand promise)
2. Be succinct
3. Be memorable
4. Cause a person to want to know more about or interact further with the brand

Achieving all of the above is more easily said than done. Over time, I have found that the less sophisticated the client, the more they are primarily interested in a tagline that sounds good, even if it doesn’t really say the right thing or anything at all about the brand. Many relatively unsophisticated clients would choose a tagline option that sounds great but that is completely off brand strategy over one that just sounds good but perfectly communicates the brand’s unique value proposition.

Yes, it is up to the brand consultant or marketing agency to create or recommend the perfect tagline, one that does all of the above, but I am amazed at how many clients are willing to walk away from their brand strategy to embrace a cool sounding tagline that means nothing. I have heard marketers and clients say, “I like that tagline because it could mean anything” or “I like that tagline because it could mean different things to different people.” Or worse yet, “That sounds so cool. Does it really matter if it communicates our brand’s promise?” Yes it does. Why bother with a tagline if it is not helping position your brand the way you want it to be positioned? Don’t settle for a tagline that just sounds good. Keep the process going until you have found one that achieves all of the above criteria. You will be rewarded with a stronger brand.

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In the cemetery of failed launches are thousands of products like Xerox computers, IBM copiers, Tanqueray vodka, Listerine toothpaste, Coca-Cola clothes, etc. These products didn’t fail in the marketplace, they failed in the mind. They tried to stand for something that didn’t fit the prospects perceptions about the brands.

Mind first, market second. You can’t short-circuit the process by taking a good product to market to demonstrate its superior performance and then, in the process, changing perceptions in the mind.

I have been in more meetings than I can count where a CEO or a CMO has said, ‘Here is our product which out-performs our competition. Now it’s your job to communicate that superiority to prospects.’

Forget reality. Forget product superiority. Marketing is a game of perceptions. The perception is the reality. Start with the mind of the prospect and figure out a way to deal with those perceptions, even if those perceptions are negative.

•    Avis is No. 2 in rent-a-cars. So why go with us? We try harder.
•    The taste you hate, twice a day. Listerine.
•    With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good.

Many marketing people don’t have the courage to deal with negative perceptions.

That’s understandable. But what’s not understandable are the number of marketing people willing to walk away from positive perceptions.

Take Pepsi-Cola, for example. What comes to mind when you think of Pepsi? Back in 1963, the brand launched an advertising program that has to be the ultimate cola campaign.

The Pepsi Generation.

This idea took advantage of a key psychological principle. The younger generation looks for ways to rebel against the older generation. Since the older generation was drinking Coca-Cola, it was easy to convince the younger generation that they should be drinking Pepsi.

How long did the Pepsi Generation slogan last? Just four years. For the next 16 years, Pepsi experimented with a number of different slogans.

1967: Taste that beats the others cold. Pepsi pours it on.
1969: You’ve got a lot to live. Pepsi’s got a lot to give.
1973: Join the Pepsi people feelin free.
1976: Have a Pepsi day.
1979: Catch that Pepsi spirit.
1981: Pepsi’s got your taste for life.
1983: Pepsi now!

Sixteen years wasted until, in 1984, Pepsi went right back to what made the brand a strong No. 2 to Coca-Cola.

Pepsi. The choice of a new generation.

Nothing is as vulnerable as a powerful advertising slogan. Year after year, creative hot shots take a crack at it, figuring that if they can topple the king, their reputations are made for life.

Finally by 1992, they did it. At the Super Bowl that year, Pepsi-Cola introduced a new advertising slogan with three 60-second commercials.

The new slogan: Gotta have it.

The TV commercials were loaded with celebrities including such old-timers as Yogi Berra, Regis Philbin and George Plimpton. At first, I was upset that all these old folks started drinking it, says one hip-looking teenager in one of the spots, and then I said, Hey, they’re people, too.

One of the biggest mistakes a marketer can make is appealing to everybody. If you appeal to everybody, you appeal to nobody.

In one of the commercials, a little girl notes, If the taste of Pepsi is so big, then everybody’s gotta have it.

Appealing to everybody didn’t work for Pepsi-Cola. ‘Gotta have it’ lasted about as long as a heroin hit. By the next year, it was back to the younger generation. Be young, have fun, drink Pepsi. As the years rolled on, Pepsi kept on — changing its slogan.

1995: Nothing else is a Pepsi.
1997: Generation Next. (Close, but no cigar.)
1999: The joy of cola.
2002: The joy of Pepsi.
2004: Pepsi. It’s the cola.
2007: More Happy
2008: Something for Everyone

Tell the truth. Do you remember any of these Pepsi-Cola advertising slogans? Isn’t the only idea connected with the brand its appeal to the younger generation? Isn’t the Pepsi Generation the one slogan that most people remember? I think so.

In his book, Adcult USA, James Twitchell tells a story about Rosser Reeves. An executive of Minute Maid once complained about Reeves refusal to fiddle with the advertising, saying ‘You have 47 people working on my brand, and you haven’t changed the campaign in 12 years. What are they doing?’

Reeves replied: ‘They’re keeping your people from changing your ad.’

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If you doubt this, take the following quiz. Here are some current multi-million dollar slogans for some very big national advertisers. See how many you can match up with a sponsoring company:

Your future made easier.
Your world delivered.
Yes you can.
Way of light.
Uncommon wisdom.
Always worth it.
Shift.
Today’s the day.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s not fair to take a slogan out of context. They are just some ideas for a commercial or a print advertisement. That’s the problem. If you think like that, you’ll probably end up with just a cute but meaningless set of words. A good slogan should be a position or differentiating idea.

None on that list comes close to being that. What you’re after are the likes of what I call “Hall of Fame slogans”–such as these, which I suspect you’ll have little trouble with.

Diamonds are forever.
The real thing.
The ultimate driving machine.
Everywhere you want to be.
Better ingredients. Better pizza.
Eat Fresh.

Some of these have been around for decades. One is still remembered (even though it hasn’t been used in decades). All go to the essence of the product, not to the commercial. None of them can easily be expressed by a competitor. (That happens to be a litmus test for a slogan.) For example, Nokia has been running the meaningless slogan “Connecting People.” Well, what else does a cell phone connect? That same idea could easily be expressed by Motorola or Ericsson. What really differentiates Nokia is their position of leadership. The slogan they should be running is “The world’s No. 1 cell phone.”

That same leadership concept would make far more sense than “I’m lovin’ it” for McDonald’s. When you consider their size and global reach, you could easily position them as, “The world’s favorite place to eat.” Agency folks would quickly label leadership as boring and not interesting. And ask how can I put it to music?

What these folks ignore is the psychological power of leadership. People tend to buy what others buy. It’s what psychologists call the “herd effect.” (People judge their actions correct to the degree they see others performing them.) But instead of using this psychology, they choose to be cute and creative. Next stop, a meaningless slogan. What many agency folks and marketers fail to understand is that there are many ways to differentiate a product beyond the product itself. In addition to leadership, there is heritage, attributes, how it’s made and next generation strategies to pursue. (I wrote a book on all this entitled, Differentiate or Die.)

The underlying problem is that these slogans do not help or produce a reason to buy a certain product over another. This means that the advertising isn’t very effective. This in turn causes marketers to loose faith in advertising. The bottom line: Meaningless slogans are like a virus that is undermining the world of marketing. Unless it’s stopped, we are watching category after category become commodities.

And that is big trouble unless you have a very low price.

Quiz No. 1 Answers

Your future made easier. ING

Your world delivered. AT&T

Yes you can. Sprint

Way of life. Suzuki

Uncommon wisdom. Wachovia

Always worth it. Bud Light

Shift. Nissan

Today’s the day. Monster.com

Quiz No. 2 Answers

Diamonds are forever. DeBeers

The real thing. Coke

The ultimate driving machine. BMW

Everywhere you want to be. Visa

Better ingredients. Better Pizza. Papa John’s

Eat Fresh. Subway

The Blake Project Can Help: The Brand Positioning Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers