Three tests to check your slogan is working

 

Is your slogan broken? 

In the next issue of Dialogue Anthony Tasgal explores why a wave of apathy has hit modern sloganeering – and offers tips on how to make sure yours doesn’t fall foul of the same malaise.

In an exclusive extract, here are three tips from Tasgal, a branding guru who works with some of the UK’s biggest brands.

1. Don’t lose F.A.C.E. Personality is neglected in brand literature. Humans tend to respond better to the softer elements of a brand and communication than the rational messaging of so much communication. Lasting brand memories will be created more by an appeal to F.A.C.E – feeling, atmosphere, culture and experience – than by relentless bombardment by facts

2. Be expressive  Expression trumps description. ‘You, but on a good day’ is a beautiful expression of the creative idea for Berocca tablets, as is ‘you’re not you when you’re hungry’ for Snickers: these therefore slip effortlessly into our memory banks because they combine emotion with meaning. Avoid at all costs terms like ‘servicing your infrastructure’

3. Beware compression Stella Artois’s ‘Be Legacy’ at least attempts to tie in to the ad idea of leaving something behind, as the founder of the beer did, but it feels clumsy and sounds more like a parting farewell from Mr Spock. ‘I am Train’ equally sounds like the early utterances of a computer trying a little too hard to pass the Turing test