OFFLINERS - Proof Companies Are Dumb...In This Case, Real Dumb

Ignore Kennedy at the peril of your own wallet. A guy who charges $250,000.00 for a 4 page sales letter and 25% of the GROSS proceeds AND gets it, you ignore. Great.

My view on slogans is that they help in branding, it helps remember the brand and relate it with other things you have experienced and thus stamping it on your mind. So yes, a better slogan can and will have an effect in the perception of the business, branding-wise, but that's it.

All the comments about a unique selling proposition are solid, but I have to disagree that a slogan can deliver that factor to the end-consumer, specially on B2B type transactions.

B2B companies like the mentioned example are established companies, their reputation, time-delivery, reliability and quality of their products go beyond what any slogan can influence.

Having said that, every bit of small detail counts so if they can improve their slogan they can, but the fact i in this type of company the slogan is not a breaking point and will never be.

...and to finish it off, I like the slogan as it is.

"Where you turn"

Kind of resembles the company as "the place to go(turn)", or am I the only one that perceives it that way?


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AP,

Always good to learn from your posts and experience. Kind of a pleasure getting in a debate. So here's my view:

"When It Absolutely, Positively, Has To Be There Overnight."

"Always Low Prices. Always"

"Earths Biggest Bookstore."

"Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed!"

All those slogans, where developed/created after the companies had already established their reputation, market share and people recognized them as by exactly those USPs. Not the other way around.

For example on the Dominos Pizza. They started their business with that 30 minute guarantee, people recognized them by that and that was their USP. All good. Did they need a slogan to put that in the audience's mind? No, but they did and their slogan just helped stress that USP and place it in the consumer's mind.

They used it to brand themselves.

Now they changed their slogan to something like:
"Get the door, it's Dominos" (believe its the latest?)

Why do I think that was a good choice and not "dumb"?
Because people already know of their guarantee, they based their reputation on it and people recognized them by it. Now they changed to something more broad, but catchy and memorable. Something the consumer can remember. Hell, I'm sure that after you order a dominos pizza, and you hear the doorbell your mind thinks "get the door, its dominos". HUGELY EFFECTIVE and memorable in my view and not a single USP there.

Slogans DO get old with time.

I'm sure its part of an advertisers or branding expert to not bore the audiences mind with a single phrase for decades, or it will sooner or later be obviated by the consumer mind. I'm also sure they will go back to the 30 minute guarantee type of slogan, but only when the audience gets bored of the "Get the door, its Dominos"

Sort of like what is happening with the whole sex in advertisements deal, this things worked years ago when sex on the mainstream media was seen as a scandal and those scandals it's what got them huge media coverage.

Nowadays, its simply not the case. It's proven sex (at least in tv media buys) is actually counter-effective.

Overall I think they key of an effective slogan, or any advertisement for that matter, is to have some sort of impact in the audience's mind and have them relate the company with other topics in their life. Be refreshing and memorable, even subconsciously.

Anyways, my view is that there's no need for a slogan to stress their USP, rather use it to improve their brand effect in their consumers. If you use your USP to make your brand memorable then definetly make up a slogan, but I differ that that's the one and only way to create a good effective slogan that gets results.

But then again! Thats only my 0.2cents.

Francisco

Hah! Implying that Kennedy doesn't know what he is talking about?

I could say more, but clearly it would be a waste of time. I'm not convincing you of my side of the argument and vice versa.

That's the problem. Their advertising and marketing isn't results oriented. That's the huge problem with ad agencies, btw.

You need credibility, believability, confidence, and of course the skills to actually deliver what you say you will.

That's the thing. Despite the stupid things they do, a lot of companies still manage to profit. And sometimes make a lot of profit.

Just makes you think what would happen if they actually did things that were much more effective. You know, like up selling, tracking everything, selling to past customers, raise their prices, etc.

I would NEVER consult with a company that put a lot of time and money into coming up with a new slogan like "Where You Turn".

Way more trouble than it's worth.

Agree only up to a point.

They do indeed 'position' themselves and they often do it with 'White Papers'; 'Industry rpoerts' etc (I know because I used to do this in my early consulting days of working with service firms.

Second point I want to mention is that these sort of companies aren't the 'ideal' client for most Offline consultants...or they shouldn't be in my opinion because it's more than it's worth to get them to even thnk about what's not being done right - and there's the red-tape, late payment headaches!

Must be a slow day at DK's house...

One thing to keep in mind when you read things like what DK wrote is that companies like Timken don't need any hype to sell their products to engineers.

They have world class products that are the standard of the industry, and those products are choosen by their customers because the specifications meet or exceed the requirements for the job.

If they tried to use the same tactics that folks in the MMO niche do they'd end up looking rather superfluous.

"Who Else Wants Give Their Machines Longer Life and Better Efficiency?"

"Finally Revealed, The Seven Secrets Every Engineer Always Wanted to Know About Bearings But Was Too Afraid to Ask."

"Shocking News Uncovered! - The Money Isn't in the Bearings, the Money Is in the List"

Here's the deal...when you are the leader in your industry you reley on your reputation and your proven commitment to provide the best parts money can buy.

When you're not, you hire Dan Kennedy.

KJ

I certainly didn't imply that "I'm Lovin It" was why McDonalds are successful. But it is certainly a successful slogan.

I think 'Where You Turn' is a great slogan and I challenge anyone to come up with a better one.

It's a pun as well as making you think of something that you can and do always rely on, which is not only what you want in bearings, but also in a company.

And Dan Kennedy said it himself: "Just in case you miss the point: slogans don't sell ball bearings"

Sometimes large companies spend millions of dollars to rebrand themselves for things that have nothing to do with customers.

Bill Davidow writes extensively about his experience at Motorola and this very thing.

It ALWAYS relates to the bottom line. But with any mega corporation, the dynamics extend beyond the basics of business 101, selling stuff. The infrastructure to sell stuff and deliver that stuff (or services) have requirements outside of just the operation of the core business system.

We're talking about companies that have the annual operating budgets the size of some large metropolitan cities... all the way up to companies with the size of some GDP levels of moderately developed nations.

In a symbiotic system that large, there are always initiatives and reasons for things outside of the small business mindset, where the operation of the capitalist business function is still very connected with the management or ownership.

To illustrate what I am talking about here... do you think that a billion dollar corporation like... say Google... is enhancing their bottom line by having on staff nutrition and wellness experts give seminars to employees in lunch rooms? Or are they just kind benefactors of people who are passionate about health?

What's the bottom line?

Insurance discounts from the group plan underwriters to the company for preventative health programs that hold down premium costs that would be higher than the cost of hiring the wellness consultants.

It's a complex thing. And one that's not readily apparent to someone outside of the organization looking in.

I guess they could have gone with, "Our Slogan Puts A New Spin On Our Bearings", but that would have opened the door for the press to use the headline, "Timken's New Slogan Has No Bearing On Their Profits".

In which case Timken would have to respond with, "Timken. We've got the Balls To Put A Spin On Anything We Want."

:rolleyes:

KJ