Mar 23, 2021

How A few characters can make or break your brand?

Posted by
PulsAero Team
Significance of taglines

The health and wellness market is witnessing a 350% rise in hygiene products. There is a 40% surge in demand for turmeric, an 80% rise in demand for chyawanprash, and a 100% rise in demand for packaged food. The report comes from a recent EY study on COVID-19 and the emergence of a new product landscape in India.

If you ask a marketer, this increase is due to a group of people classified as ‘health-conscious.’ They are enthusiastic about experimenting with new health and wellness products. For this, they are willing to pay a premium. But, considering the current crisis, almost everyone wants to try products that can keep them healthy.

Taking this as a ‘golden opportunity’, brands are marketing their products with ‘health taglines’. But many among them fail to understand the difference between exaggeration and misinformation.

In this article, we dive deep into understanding how a few characters in your tagline can make or break your brand. How a tagline can turn controversial in the eyes of your customers or how it can make a permanent place in their hearts? Let’s take you on this journey to understand the significance of taglines and the simple secrets to cracking it!

What’s A Tagline...and the Emotions Behind

Tagline along with its logo, are the key parameters of an identity that make your company recognizable among the vast sea of competitors. Together, their goal is to attract new customers and stay in the mind and heart of the existing audience.

If we just talk about the power of taglines on consumers’ hearts, the words provoke greater emotions than logos. But how do you do this? When you seek to create a memorable tagline, align your tagline with the physical and emotional needs of your target audience. This way you create a strong emotional bond with them.

This is not it. There’s more ahead with big-name real-world examples.

Top 5 Accelerators Of Your Brand Motto

1. Get Rid of False Health Claims

‘Health’ has turned a buzzword during this pandemic era with brands constantly making efforts to highlight the health-related benefits in their products. A series of new campaigns are overflowing the market with an increasing trend of talking about boosting immunity. Of course, it’s a sure-fire way to secure a place in the heart of your customers. However, in the effort businesses often end up giving misleading information about their products.

In this time of uncertainty, when taglines are decorated with words like ‘nutritious’, ‘goodness’, ‘essential’, people tend to believe they are making better choices.

Missing The Mark

One of the most notable examples, in this case, is Coca-Cola company’s beverage brand ‘Vitaminwater’.

The brand’s tagline: “vitamins + water = all you need” failed to correctly inform that their product consists of eight spoons of sugar per bottle.

The added sugar includes fructose that is associated with health problems when consumed in excess.

All the more, one of its varieties with the name “essential” indicates it is something vitally necessary - which is not true.

Center for Science in the Public Interest, the US non-profit organization has been fighting this for years to get a ruling against the brand.

A recent agreement that Vitaminwater should add “with sweeteners” to its communication, finally brought clarity to the products.

Healthline opens up more on some solid facts and insights into what Vitaminwater is and what it claims to be.

2. Deliver a Positive Impression

A negative impression can have a big and lasting impact on the mind. It can refrain your audience from using your products - or provoke a negative feeling.

The Minus Factor

One such instance took place with over a century-old fruit beverage company Dr. Pepper. The brand introduced the tagline “it’s not for women” in 2015. With a reasonably negative tone, it was not taken very well by the consumers.

The Plus Factor

Whereas a tagline like Nike's “Just Do It” instantly leaves people feeling positive and upbeat. This tagline was coined back in “1988” by their creative agency with the intention of communicating Nike’s core message. It was to provide consumers with the tools to stay active and perform better. And the brand communication has just been hitting home runs ever since with high-spirits, firm beliefs, and clear goals.

Research reveals that the best taglines use words that give your consumers an uplifting feeling about the company and its products. Hence, discover compelling emotional words that express your brand in a positive way. This will also well differentiate your business from others.

3. Keep it Simple & Clear

Now when you know what emotion you need in your communication, the next best take is to design a phrase that’s simple and clear. When a tagline is kept simple and clear it easily reaches every age group.

Bridging The Age Gap

According to a study in the Journal of Business Research, elderly people have slow cognitive processing capability. And hence they are less likely to get fond of and be impacted by a tagline - especially when it’s long and complex.

The same study also unveils that the most liked taglines are 4-5 words long. Also, the ones that are most recalled are 3-4 words long.

So, if your health and wellness brand targets older adults, going with long and difficult phrases is a bad idea.

One of the best examples of simple and clear taglines is Practo’s “Your Home for Health.” This phrase promotes simplicity to its customers while showing care. Great mottos like these easily touch the consumer's heart and stay extremely clear about what they are offering.

4. Avoid Communicating Controversial

Controversy may be the spice of social media. It may be a clever strategy to grab attention. But it is never a good idea when it comes to the brand-building process.

Reebok's Rebound

Many years ago, Reebok ran an ad campaign in collaboration with a gym in Germany. The poster outside the gym read: “Cheat on your girlfriend, not on your workout.”

Indicating a clear disrespect to women - and the kind of attitude - the poster met with a huge consumer backlash. A consumer comment also said: "Whoever thought this up wanted to guarantee Reebok lost customers, right?"

Although this was a small campaign not promoted worldwide, social media turned it global.

The sportswear firm acknowledged that it was insulting and immediately pulled it down.

Later on, the Wall Street Journal reported the financial impact of Reebok’s strife. Sales plummeted 3% in the fourth quarter compared to the last year.

5. Should You Remain with Your Old Tagline? Or Change?

Once a tagline becomes a success and endures through decades, it becomes hard to change. Because people already have it established in their minds. So, it takes a great amount of research, expert recommendations, and contemplation if you seek to change your tagline.

Back To Original

After Nike’s ‘Just Do it’ success, it tried to score again with a new tagline in the 90s. This was: ‘I can’. Although the two sweet and simple words were not bad, they failed. And the company had to go back to its original phrase.

Similarly, there are a number of global brands that have braved to switch to new taglines. But most of them have failed to grab consumer attention.

Time Is The King

Changing to a new motto would be a wise step only if your company is undergoing a significant brand repositioning process. In this case, you may change your tagline. But you need to be patient until it makes its way into consumers’ brains and hearts. It definitely takes time and an effective brand strategy to publicize it.

If you take these key components into consideration before crafting your tagline, your brand will always be welcomed and cherished - over time.

Connect with PulsAero for Compelling Tagline and Slogan Ideas

For years, there has been a deficiency of understanding of what is marketing. While trying to focus on grabbing attention, businesses build brand communication with a “Hey! Look at me” attitude*.* But it is important to remember you don’t want to sell. You are here to look after people’s needs and provide them a good quality of life. That should be the ultimate purpose of any company - as the greatest entrepreneurs of the modern age believe.

Whether it’s taglines, slogans, or brand names, a few characters woven into compelling words and phrases are enough. Your target audience will identify it and learn to link with your brand. And this aspect alone can help them recall your ads, social content, and products at large.

Branding Expert's Final Say

PulsAero is a creative agency in Ahmedabad that serves the health and wellness industry. We are here to pull off your branding needs with a vision to offer your business and its customers what truly they deserve.

In a marketplace flooded with innovation, disruption, and competition, we travel the way where your brand truly reflects your values, vision, and mission. And in the effort, it also resonates with the needs and wants of your audience. This, along with all the above factors is ‘the’ way to rise up and stay memorable in the minds and hearts of your customers.

...Plus a healthy dose of creativity helps us to navigate in the right direction.

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