Vacuous Brand Claims

Every so often, I run into marketers who are more interested in coming up with catchy slogans than creating real brand promises. They want something that sounds good. Sometimes they even want something that seems versatile, that is, that could help make any point or say anything. But they are not focusing on the one thing that can make the brand stand apart, its relevant differentiated benefits or shared values and they cannot support their slogan with proof points or "reasons to believe."

Brands need to pick promises and slogans that cannot also work for many other brands in their categories. The promises and slogans need to apply uniquely to them.

The brand positioning exercise is all about claiming something that is unique, compelling, purchase motivating and believable for the brand in question. It is not just about coming up with something that sounds good. 

Here are some examples of pretty lame brand slogans or tag lines that were created without doing the tough brand positioning work first:

• [brand]: It's got it!
• [brand]: The place to be
• [brand]: Tomorrow starts here
• [brand]: Get into it
• [brand]: Together for a better tomorrow
• [brand]: Leading the way
• [brand]: Making good things happen
• [brand]: Innovating the future

Admittedly, short catchy tag lines can work if they support unique and compelling brand positions. For instance:

• Nike: Just do it
• Subway: Eat fresh
• Verizon: Better matters
• Coke: It's the real thing
• Apple: Think Different

Each of these was created to support a very specific brand position. 

When positioning or repositioning your brand, come up with something that is a powerful differentiator that can't be used by competitive brands. Also pick something that has a very clear meaning and can't be used to make almost any point. Brands need to stand for one thing (or two things at the most). If you are trying to make too many different points about your brand, people will not be able to recall any of the points. If you think the tag lines in the first list are good, I would recommend that you read my book, Brand Aid, second edition. You might change your mind after reading it.

The Most Common Problems with Brand Extensions

Some of the most common problems associated with brand extension are:

• Extending into a category in which the brand adds nothing but its identity (i.e., its products or services are not significantly different from current products or services in the category)
• Extending through opportunistic brand licensing without regard to its possible impact on the brand
• Extending into lower (and, sometimes higher) quality segments
• Not fully understanding brand benefit ownership, transfer, or importance

Unsuccessful brand extension examples: 

• Bic perfume: How do you leverage the “small disposable pocket items” association?
• Levi’s tailored classic suits: What is Levi’s primary association? (casual clothes)
• Campbell spaghetti sauce: Why didn’t “tomato sauce” transfer from Campbell’s soups to spaghetti sauce?
• McDonald’s Arch Deluxe burger (for adults): What is McDonald’s primary association? (fast-food for kids)
• Bayer Aspirin-free: What is Bayer’s primary association? (aspirin)
• Volvo 850 GLT sports sedan: What is Volvo’s primary association? (safety) What is a Volvo’s primary proof point? (boxy armored-car styling)
• Colgate kitchen entrees: What were they thinking?
• Or, my all-time favorite, New Coke: What is Coke? (“It’s the real thing”—with a long-time secret formula.)

Excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here.

Brands and Memory Structures

An important role of the brand manager is to determine the memory structures associated with the brand so that marketing communications can reinforce and leverage these structures. Also, potentially useful new brand associations can be discovered in the process.

For instance, Bush beans might be associated with summer, picnics, grilling, family and Duke (the dog). Coke might be associated with its bottle shape, the color red, the beach, parties and nightclubs. A pizza brand might be associated with cheese and tomato sauce, family and friends and watching sports on television. Hallmark's greeting cards are associated with holidays, special occasions, family and friends. But they also are associated with candy and flowers among other product categories.

Everyone knows McDonald's arches and Nike's swish. Most people associate Harley-Davidson with the sound of its engine. Many people associate Tesla with Elon Musk and batteries and alternative energy. People associate Cinnabon with the cinnamon scent. Many brands are associated with fond childhood memories or with sex. What is Old Spice associated with? How about Dos Equis? ("Stay thirsty, my friends.") GEICO? 

The trick is to discover all of the items people associate with the brand so that those associations can be reinforced, built upon and used to help people recall the brand associated with not only marketing communication and the brand identity itself, but also with specific relationships, occasions, complimentary products and other memory triggers.

If you have not identified and mapped out your brand's memory structures, you need to do so. it will help with the effectiveness of your advertising and your brand's identity system.