Pls help advise with a tagline

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Permalink Reply by Dave Bricker on June 3, 2008 at 3:19pm

I would avoid words like "arrest" and "off" and "no" in favor of positive words like "attract." Ideally, the design doesn't stop anything–it starts something, provokes something, creates a reaction. It's an attention magnet - something positive, forceful, compelling. I think "attention magenet" is a bit cliché, but I'd start with writing down anything you can think of that is associated with attraction - magnets, gravity, etc. I'd do the same for "attention." The answer will come.

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Permalink Reply by Dzung on June 4, 2008 at 12:52am

Hi David,
Thanks a lot for your advice. I'll follow it.
Have a nice day,
Dzung

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Permalink Reply by Michael Leahy on June 26, 2008 at 7:31am

That's a kinda short brief. Are you sure you're not an agency? :-)

Apart from being focused on design, what else can they say about themselves? What age are they targetting?

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Permalink Reply by Dallas on August 5, 2008 at 7:42pm

My advice would be to look to the "anthemic," rather than the definitive. In other words, don't tell me what the product is or what it does, tell me why I should care. Otherwise, you're just bragging to someone who may not even be interested in the first place. Make your tagline an anthem for the lifestyle the brand creates. Drive my connection with the brand. I want to wear this stuff (figuratively and literally) as membership in some kind of exclusive club -- preferrably one whose exclusivity is limited to only those who haven't bought this stuff yet.

The best example of what I mean is probably the best tagline ever written: Just do it.

That's not about shoes, it's about life and pushing yourself. It doesn't say "these are stylish shoes that no athlete can refuse!" It says, "get serious. Get active. Get some Nikes."

Brilliant.

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Permalink Reply by Dzung on August 6, 2008 at 9:08am

Thanks Brilliant,

Your advice is really helpful. A pity that I could not follow your advice for this brand. However, I've made a good impression turing the original slogan "The original international beer since 1909" to "Time is nonsense" to embrace the ever-lasting brand value: authenticity, originality, integrity and quality.

Look forwards to talk with you more.
Dzung

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Permalink Reply by Dave Bricker on August 6, 2008 at 9:54am

This is probably the most common approach to branding, but the whole "exclusive membership" concept is part of why the ad industry is perceived to be much like insurance companies, banks and big oil on the integrity scale.

To use the idea that "a brand is a promise," our industry seems to have lost sight of the fact that a promise should offer something meaningful, valuable and truthful. The idea that you can join a non-existent status club by purchasing a product is shallow, dishonest and ultimately suggests to anyone with a brain that the merchandise has no intrinsic value.

When you're marketing something like beer, it's challenging because you have thousands of competitors who have staked claims in the promotional Klondike of "party lifestyle." If the people/company behind the beer are robotically bottling and selling, your marketing efforts will mostly go towards making distributors think you're serious. If they have a personality/style/ethic that distinguishes them and their product, then you have a unique attitude/spirit that you can build community around - something culty like Zappa music or AdGabber.

A hollow call to action that clearly benefits the caller more than the callee will ultimately build weak brands - even if it creates a financially successful product. People may buy, but if you don't measure brand equity in terms of how loyal people are and how resistant they are to switching, spreadsheet-driven success metrics can be deceiving and unstable.

I actually like "time is nonsense." It's unconventional, has a humorous wackiness to it and makes me want to investigate further. If I can follow that trail and not run into a wall of cheese, it just might endear me to the product and the people who make it.

That said, wasn't this post originally about a clothing company?

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Permalink Reply by Dzung on August 6, 2008 at 12:31pm

Oh, thanks a lot Dave,

Actually I am new to copywriting, learning by my own observation mostly. I am open to any techniques and would like to hear all of your comments and advices.

Cheers,

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Permalink Reply by Michael Leahy on November 11, 2008 at 6:10pm

One of the longest running taglines here in Belgium was for Jupiler beer which said (for many years): "Men know why".

They weren't appealing to an exclusive club, quite the contrary. It was a great example of getting close to the target (guys that have a beer after sports or washing the car). Of course, it was basically excluding 50% of the population. They they were bonding so well with the male 50% that it didn't matter.

I like "time is nonsense" as well. I guess it's for a beer that matures.

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Permalink Reply by tucker on September 12, 2008 at 10:56am

is there anything behind the idea of whiplash?

ie: WhiplashWear

what about magnetic

ie: Simply Magnetic.

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