Now that I’m back in marketing as a full-time employee, there’s pressure on me to come up with a snappy tagline for the credit union. It’s a fact that there have been taglines so clever they have boosted sales, enhanced reputations, and found their way into popular culture.
According to that fount of knolwedge Wikipedia “A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and promise of a brand.”
So a tagline is a promise or a rallying cry of sorts.
You remember these gems:
Got Milk?
Just do it.
It’s the Real Thing.
Or how about these classics?
Delta: We’re ready when YOU are.
United Airlines: Fly the Friendly Skies….(insert sound of needle sliding across a record album). What? Wait a minute.
A clever tagline cannot help a bad company? A clever tagline could actually piss people off and be used against you? Hell yes. And that’s why I eschew taglines for credit unions.
This year I had to admit I was pretty impressed with the new Best Buy ads. In fact, if I saw one zipping by as I was TiVoing past these intrusions, I’d stop and back up.
It showed a mom shopping at Best Buy and being so impressed with their seleciton and prices – the clerk made the remark “Santa Claus better watch out.”
Cut to Christmas Eve, Santa’s come down the chimney with his paltry little presents and the smug mom nodding at the Best Buy bounty under the tree would say “Game on Santa.” That’s right – cuz Best Buy is better than you old fat man in your red sweatty suit.
Best Buy ruined Christmas and what little reputation they had left when they advertised free shipping on Black Friday and later said “Oops, we can’t fill most of those orders because the response was so overwhelming, so you’re screwed. Merry Christmas.”
Game Over Best Buy.
Time to review your credit union’s promise. Here are just a few I found:
“Invested in Your Financial Health”
“We’re here for you!” (found at least six examples with one Google search)
“Everything we do, we do for you.”
Are you fulfilling the promise? Or could it be used as a weapon?
I will end with my personal favorite credit union tagline. And yes, they paid an agency to come up with this.
Wait for it.
“Serves you right.”
The 2020 Vision of Marketing 
5 comments
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December 27, 2011 at 3:17 pm
Sheryl K
Don’t forget Washington Mutual’s “The Friend of the Family.” Somewhat ironic, in hindsight.
December 28, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Matt Davis
The disconnect between a tagline’s promise and the fulfillment of that promise is a villain…but only one of them. David Ogilvy once said “Agencies waste countless hours concocting slogans of incredible fatuity. Notice that all of these bromides are interchangeable – any company could use any of them.”
To me, a tagline (if used at all) should be three things: (1) Tyrannical – all decisions by all departments are bound to the delivery of its promise; (2) Memorable; and (3) Unique – no other firm could be more closely aligned with its promise/claim/etc.
The discipline associated with abiding by these guidelines is too much for most organizations. It’s why even though Burger King promises you can “Have It Your Way” you should still expect a cashier to roll her eyes at you if you order a Whopper without onions and barbecue sauce instead of ketchup. It’s why even though all of us buy their products, almost none of us can identify the company associated with “Touching Lives, Improving Life”. It’s why Susquehanna Bank’s “A Smarter Way to Make Money” could just as easily be the tagline for a counterfeiting operation or multi-level marketing scheme.
“Diamonds are forever”, “Can you hear me now?”, and “Just Do It.” were only successful because the companies behind these taglines understood why people wanted to align themselves with their brands, and were able to deliver the products, services, and experiences necessary to encourage more and more people to do so.
December 28, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Denise Wymore
Matt,
You are so right. One of my favorite books, a classic really – the Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR by Al and Laura Ries said:
“Advertising as a brand-building tool is dead. But advertising has a second life as a brand-maintenance tool, once the brand has been built by positive PR.” Just Do It was great because Nike was great. Can you imagine if United Airlines had come up with that? Just do it. Go ahead. Get on a plane – we dare you.
December 30, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Glenn Coble
I love Matt’s 3 rules which are nearly impossible to achieve. Even though I’ve worked under several people who think they know how to market I have always fought against the use of tag lines… I have only been in this business (credit unioning) 7 years so I thought I had come up with a tag line that no one else had, “Community is our middle name”… WRONG… Really wrong. Oh well, it is one we back up.
We should revolt against tag lines, smiling happy clip art faces, disclaimers that no one can read or understand, paying homage to any oligarchy in our ads and answering to anyone who learned marketing in the 60s and hasn’t changed.
I think “Just Do It” only works for Trojan Prophylactics.
December 30, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Glenn Coble
Oh yeah… I think the Santa Claus das were mean, even before we found out Best Buy couldn’t back it up.