If you’re not using a tagline or slogan for your brand, you should be. Of course it needs to be the right one for your brand, product and customer. Here’s what you need to know…
Marketing Researchers have firmly established the importance of using taglines or slogans. A number of studies have illustrated that the slogan may be more important than the brand itself in getting consumers to spend money. For example, in one study, consumers exposed to slogans, e.g., “Save money. Live better” were inclined to spend twice as much as when they were exposed to the brand itself; in this case, Walmart.
Another study demonstrated that a “savings” slogan actually made consumers spend more money than if they had not been exposed to such savings-oriented slogans. Savings-oriented slogans outperformed luxury-oriented slogans in getting consumers to spend money.
A variety of research shows that one phrase slogans can have a profound effect on the way consumers view a product or brand. The bottom line is that the right slogan can actually double sales compared to no slogan or the wrong slogan.
What do I mean by the “right” slogan? It’s one that is consistent with your brand’s or products’ unique selling proposition (USP) AND your target audience. I’ve written previously about how all marketing begins with understanding your potential customers. If you haven’t read these posts you can find them here.
Slogans should take into consideration the psychographics of various segments or your target market. In other words you need to understand the subsets of your customers and what motivates them to take actions. Your slogan should match the mindset of those various segments.
For overall brand slogans or taglines, you can use the predominant customers’ motivation or try to craft a slogan that appeals to multiple segments and what motivates them. Two motivators in particular are important for those generating slogans for their brands. They are “avoidance” and “approach consumer motivation.”
“Avoidance motivation” is associated with the possible loss of what they have. “Approach motivation” is associated with opportunities to improve their life.
Prevention of loss is a strong motivator for certain products and/or consumers. The “approach” or “promotion motivation” is also appropriate for certain high risk, high reward products as well as more opportunistic customers.
Most products fall in the middle and can be described in either avoidance or approach language.
Take for example how a toothpaste slogan might be described in either an avoidance or approach marketing message.
“Whiter teeth and fresh breath” (approach) or “Kills bacteria that causes bad breath and cavities” (avoidance)
If you are selling cars, you might use:
“Better mileage (approach) or “lower fuel costs” (avoidance)
Unless you business has very specific products geared to a specific motivating factor, your customer base is likely to consist of people driven by both motivations.
Segmenting either customers, products or both would be the most effective way to employ slogans so as to maximize the influence of the motivation language. For large brand slogans or taglines, including both loss and gain elements would be important to appeal to the largest audience.
Walmart is a brand that has maximized it slogan. “Save More” (avoidance AND savings-oriented) “Live Better” (approach) make it a home run based on the research described in this post. Walmart believes so in that they’ve put their slogan into their logo.
Marketing research leaves little doubt that using slogans or taglines increase sales. Hopefully you have a little more insight as to what the right kind of slogan should be.
As they say…a word to the wise is sufficient.
