THINK Is Rare

Messages and Slogans—What Works ... What Fails Miserably

It's Rare

Once in a great while—and it's rare—companies come up with great messages and slogans.

These messages and slogans share one or more characteristics, but generally they change how we think about a particular product or company and they are memorable. Volkswagen's "think small" (Doyle Dane Bernbach, 1959) and Avis' "we try harder" (DDB again, 1963), numbers one and 10 on the list respectively, are among Advertising Age's top 100 campaigns. Equally memorable and at the same time category-creating are McDonald's "you deserve a break today" (Needham, Harper and Steers, 1971) and DeBeers' "a diamond is forever" (N.W. Ayer and Son, 1948), numbers five and six on the list.

Good Messages Endure

Who doesn't know M&Ms' "melts in your mouth, not in your hands" (Ted Bates & Co., 1954), AT&T's "reach out and touch someone" (N.W. Ayer, 1979) or, from Motel 6, "we'll leave a light on for you" (Richards Group, 1988), numbers 39, 80 and 91 on the list. And let's not forget number 30, Campbell Soup's "mm, mm good" (BBDO, 1930s).

A Few Personal Favorites

• Apple Computer, "1984," Chiat/Day, 1984. (Coming at a critical juncture for Apple, few commercials have ever been more influential.)
• Cadillac, "The penalty of leadership," MacManus, John and Adams, 1915. (An advert that ran only once, and didn't even mention automobiles or even the brand being advertised. Rather, it expressed the dilemma of the pioneer who breaks with tradition and is subject to the "fierce denial and detraction" of his competition.)
• Charmin, "Please don't squeeze the Charmin," Benton and Bowles, 1964 (does anyone not think of Mr. Whipple when entering a supermarket?)
• BMW, "The ultimate driving machine," Ammirati and Puris, 1975. (Forty years ago, BMW invented the concept of the sports sedan).
• Xerox, "It's a miracle," Needham, Harper & Steers, 1975 (who can forget the monks in the monastery?)
• IBM, Chaplin's Little Tramp character, Lord, Geller, Federico, Einstein, 1982.

... as well as a few that aren't (yet) on the list:

• "Can you hear me now?" – Verizon Wireless
• "Let your fingers do the walking" – Yellow Pages (Geers Gross, 1964)
• "We're the dot in .com" – Sun Microsystems

Why did these work where hundreds of thousands of slogans and campaigns failed miserably?

The True Test for a Message

The true test for a message is two-fold:

1. Whether the company actually messages out what it intended to say, and
2. Whether the recipient actually understands it as the company intended

This is, as evidenced by the information highway, which is littered with failed messages, much more difficult than it would appear.

A quick look at messages from the IT industry reveals that, for the most part, the message just isn't getting through.

THINK

THINK was one of the phrases and principles frequently used by IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Others included LEARN, STUDY, and THINK IN BIG FIGURES. THINK appeared in IBM offices, plants, and company publications (it was the name of the IBM employee publication for many years) starting in the 1920s. By the 1930s, THINK had begun to take precedence over other slogans at IBM. It gained new popularity in the 1990s when, according to company legend, a researcher took a notepad with the word THINK written on it from his pocket and came up with the idea of a small, portable tool with which one could read, write, work, and think. The rest is history.

IBM's THINK Is Rare

Most messages fall flat and miss the mark. One that comes to mind is United Airlines' "rising." Do other airlines fail to rise? Some messages come ever so close, but then ultimately fail. A good example of that is Miller Beer's "it's Miller time" campaign. When it was launched, it required a bit of adjustment as people were going into pubs and saying, "It's Miller time, give me a Bud."

Sometimes companies come really close. American Airlines' "we know why you fly" would have been perfect had they only used "we know why you fly American." Otherwise, it's a rhetorical question that many may answer "to get from point A to point B."

What Does the IT Industry Have?

Apple Computer countered THINK with "think different," which suited Apple's iconoclastic image quite well, even if it brought out the grammar police out in droves. "The Document Company" certainly matched Xerox.

Mediocrity

But a quick look at most IT-industry messages tells a different story, one that is mediocre at best. To wit:

• Verizon: "We never stop working for you."
• Microsoft: "Where do you want to go today"? or "Your potential, our power."
• Siemens: "Be Inspired."
• SAP: "The best-run businesses run SAP."
• Cisco: "The power of the human network."

What do any of these tell us about the company? Frankly, not very much. And why is Intel going away from "Intel inside" to "leap ahead"? If "melts in your mouth, not in your hands" was good enough for M&Ms for over 50 years, why not "Intel Inside"? A classic message need not be changed for the sake of change.

Memorable or Abominable?

While we're at it, please tell me about slogans you find memorable or abominable. E-mail me at messages@basex.com. In the meantime, I'll leave you with one that requires some more thought: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

About the Author:

Jonathan B. Spira, CEO and Chief Analyst, founded Basex in 1983. He is recognized as one of the technology industry's leading thinkers and pundits, having pioneered the field of Collaborative Business Knowledge, which is the intersection of content management, portals, knowledge management, and collaboration. Mr. Spira, who directs all Basex research and analytic activities, is a founding board member of the Association of Internet Professionals whose columns are syndicated widely. A recognized expert in Collaborative Business Knowledge and related market segments, Mr. Spira makes frequent appearances speaking on the future of technology and has authored hundreds of papers on technology issues. He is the co-author of "The History of Photography" (published by Aperture), which was named a best book of the year by The New York Times, and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He conducted graduate-level research at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität (Munich).

Jonathan is a long-time Expert Access contributor. When the media needs experts on knowledge workers and the knowledge economy, they call Jonathan. His Basex analysts can be found quoted in leading newspapers and magazines (e.g., The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine), technology publications (e.g., CIO, Information Week, Network World and Red Herring), the international press (International Herald Tribune, Le Monde, Wirtschaftswoche, De Telegraaf), and television news programs (e.g., "ABC World News Tonight" and CNN).

Contact Information:

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