Your comment is better than a LOT of entire posts I’ve read.

Thanks for taking time to leave such a well thought out addition to our conversation!

Is everybody in Minneapolis as smart as you

Come back soon!

Bet the average consumer can’t come up with 5+ tag lines for active brand campaigns today.

A couple of personal observations: Most great brand tags are created by accident. The process of discovering and writing a great tag is magic. Is magic sometimes accidental? Sure. I guess. But the best of them are grounded in solid strategy based on actionable consumer insights.

One other point about the memorable taglines listed? They weren’t just lines. They were fulling integrated into advertising and marketing programming.

For years and years we saw Mr. Whipple squeeze the Charmin – and talk about it on TV. “Have a Coke and a smile” was the key lyric line in one of Coke’s most memorable jingles. “We try harder” ran for years featuring demonstrations/stories of how Avis was working harder to please their customers. Upon the launch of the campaign much of the country was wearing WTH buttons given out by Avis – the same buttons featured in their commercials. “Let your fingers” was reinforced by animated walking fingers and a song.

Brands kept and used these valuable lines for years. Now it seems every brand manager wants his/her own tag to help identify the marketing effort as belonging to them.

Not only did these lines live on for years – but they were backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in media buys.

A great tagline can certainly benefit a brand. But a great tagline can just be that – a line – unless it’s fully integrated into all marketing efforts and communications and used over an extended period of time. Otherwise they can just be another line of copy placed close to the logo. Oh, and a few million in media wouldn’t help to burn ‘em into the minds of consumers.

David Strandberg, Minneapolis

We appreciate you for jumpin’ on and addin’ to.

I’ve often taken it one step further and asked customers, “If a colleague were to ask you what makes us different and better than anyone else, what would you say and how would you say it?” Ofttimes, their own words are far, far better than anything I could come up with.

Thanks for adding to our conversation.

Your tip about pretending to be a customer is a great idea. Mind if we steal it ?