Want to Improve Your Slogan or Tagline? Omit it.

A new report is out. It's from an ad agency specializing in taglines. (Which is kind of like a meteorologist specializing in rain dances.) They just finished searching some 150 corporate taglines, created in 2009, for most-oft used words.

Why? The agency's president said, "A whole bushel of taglines reveals a brand lexicon that speaks volumes about what’s important in the minds of consumers."

Whoa, wait.

Following that logic, we could also conclude that "the dog ate my homework" is the excuse that convinces the most teachers, and that most of us believe the guy who says, "I subscribe for the articles." The question isn't how often a tactic is used. The question is whether it works.

Analyzing words in taglines (aka slogans) reveals what companies want to say. Not necessarily what consumers want to hear. 

Here's a more telling study you might want to try. Make a list of companies that measure individual ad results in terms of cost-per-sale. Call it Group A. Next, make a list of companies that rely on inferential measures, such as how many people recall an ad, or how many awards an ad wins. Call that one Group B. Now count the number of companies in each Group that uses taglines. 

I did this myself a few years ago. In my study, ads for every company in Group B sported at least one tagline. A few used two and one used three. Group A? Not one tagline. Which group do you suppose knows more about the alleged power of taglines?

The study is admittedly inferential, but it's a good start. Not all inferences are created equal. An inference from a consensus of expertise carries more weight than one from non-expert speculation. If any readers have tested slogan-versus-no-slogan in the real world, please click Comment and share.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for a great slogan, how about this one: Don't Waste Your Time. Use your energy to improve the parts of your ad that really count.

Steve Cuno