Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [159]
Among the slogans for 22 of the largest advertisers in the United States, only six were recognized by more than 10 percent of those surveyed. Circuit City’s “We’re with you,” K-Mart’s “The stuff of life,” and Staples’ “That was easy,” each scored near zero. Microsoft weighed in at 1 percent with, “Your potential. Our passion” (Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2003).
In November 2003, the marketing manager of Nestlé’s KitKat candy brand discarded the brand name when he changed the slogan from “Have a break, have a Kit-Kat” to “Make the most of your break.” As a result of this and other advertising changes, sales dropped sharply. He was fired, the brand reverted to its original slogan, and sales rebounded.
Slogans should make sense across cultures. The widely reported Perdue Chicken slogan, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken,™” failed this test. Translated into Spanish, the slogan became, “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.”
Given the difficulty in developing a persuasive tagline, I suggest that advertisers pretest a number of slogans on people in the target market. I doubt that the following slogans were tested: “People expect us to be better” (Stouffer’s frozen foods) or “Go away” (by a travel agency). In 2000, the U.S. Air Force used “No one comes close.” (What about that precise bombing done by Air Force pilots?)
Evidence on the effects of slogans
Our quasi-experimental analysis of slogans did not show a benefit in general for the use of slogans (based on 30 pairs of ads). However, if you are going to use a slogan, include the brand name:
Print ads using slogans with brand name had better recall. Using editions 5 through 9 of WAPB, we found 26 pairs of print ads where one of the ads used a slogan that included the brand name while the other ad used a slogan that did not mention the brand name. Recall of ads with slogans with brand name was 1.60 times better than for ads using slogans without brand names.
An analysis of non-experimental data from Ipsos ASI on 724 tested TV food commercials found that the index for persuasion was 10 percent higher for the commercials with taglines. The 20 most persuasive ads with taglines were much more persuasive than the 20 most persuasive ads without taglines. On the other hand, the least persuasive ads with taglines were much less persuasive than the least persuasive ads without taglines. These results imply that if you cannot come up with a good tagline, do not use one. This seems sensible because, as previously stated, a bad tagline might distract, often at the end of the ad when you would like people to be thinking about action steps.
8.5. Brand identifiers
Brand identifiers can provide instant recognition, and serve as a reminder of your knowledge of and experience with the brand.3 Bill Bernbach said, “... a logo is like a man’s name. When I mention a certain man you know well, everything about that man jumps into your mind ... a logo does the same thing for a product.”
Brand identifiers were mentioned earlier with respect to adding credibility. Here I examine their role in gaining attention.
Logos were popular in Ancient Greece and later in Rome during Caesar’s time. In an age when many people did not read, logos were almost a necessity. For example, people would identify barbers or wine shops by their logos.
In the late 1800s, Francis Barraud of London, observing his dog, Nipper, sitting attentively in front of a “talking machine,” painted the scene. This fox terrier with an ear cocked to an antique phonograph became the best-known dog in the world. The painting, “His Master’s Voice,” became the trademark of the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901, and of RCA in 1928.
Logos can become a dominant part of an advertising campaign. Leo Burnett created the Jolly Green Giant for the Minnesota Canning company in 1928. This friendly