Abstract
TAGLINES
Necessity, Formality or causality
Miss Dalimi Wary
Assistant Professor (MBA)
Bodoland University
Kokrajhar, Assam
Email: dalimiw@gmail.com
With this paper I take the opportunity to explore the idea of taglines or slogan in positioning the product or
services in the minds of different sets of consumers and their behaviours towards the same.
Branding has been considered the best positioning strategy from the very beginning of launching a product or
service. This article reviews how much tagline or slogans have helped this strategy to be successful and how
far it has come till now. The conclusion of the research shows that taglines or slogans help in a very little way
for positioning a product or service in the consumers mind.
TAGLINES
Necessity, Formality or causality
Miss Dalimi Wary
Assistant Professor (MBA)
Bodoland University
Kokrajhar, Assam
Email: dalimiw@gmail.com
Keywords: Advertising, Brand, Brand Ambassador, Positioning, Taglines.
In this Article we will be discussing about the branding through taglines and its importance in positioning of the
products and services. The research was done on the different group of people from different background with
a view to test the criteria of brand recognition, i.e.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Longevity. (time endurance)
Equity. (becoming synonymous with the company)
Portability and memorability. (influence in different aspects of society)
Originality. (ground breaking)
The research subjects of 120 consumers, were provided with a questionnaire (Annexure 1) with 30 taglines or
slogans in it and asked how many they can place or remember or recognize and how do they recognize the
products and services. The findings were very clear, highest number of recognition was due to their brand and
very few with tagline.
Tabular representation of the Brand recognition study:
Table 1
Criteria
Brand
Brand Ambassador
Jingles
Taglines/Slogan
Total
No. of consumers
44
40
11
25
120
Source: Research Study
Graphical representation of the Brand recognition study:
Graph 1
Brand Recognization Graph
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
No. Of Consumers
Interpretation of the data:
From the above data it can be easily seen that most number of consumers recognizes the products and
services through Brands and Brand Ambassadors, second being taglines and last being the jingles. This
shows that the consumers are more conscious towards the Brand name than any other aspects then ‘Why’ still
have taglines and slogans.
But first thing first, what are ‘brand’, ‘positioning’, ‘advertising’ and ‘tagline’? And how does it make the
products and service a unique part of a consumers’ life.
Brand: According to Philip Kotler, A brand is an offering from a known source. Branding means creating
reference of certain products in mind of the consumers.
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes products and services from
competitive offerings. A brand is more than a name, design or symbol. Brand reflects personality of the
company. A brand has also been defined as an identifiable entity that makes a specific value based on
promises made and kept either actively or passively.
Positioning: According to Charles Mittelstadt, positioning refers to how you want your brand ‘though about’
in connections with competitors in its product category. It needs to be specific to your brand aimed at specific
target audience.
Advertising: Advertising occurs when a firm directly pays a media channel to publicize its product. Common
examples of this include TV and radio adverts, billboards, branding, sponsorship, etc.
Tagline: Tagline or Punch line refers to a one linger marketing tool using powerful words for endorsing the
brand image. Taglines can make or break a brand image in the mind of the consumers.
In this fast lane of life the consumers don’t have let’s say luxury instead of time to read; they now rely more on
the brand and audio-visual aspects rather than the written aspects. For example: Hutch, every few people
remembers the brand name but still remember the cute friendship between the child and dog with the tagline,
“You and Me, in this beautiful World”; everyone will be concentrating on the sound ‘quickr’ and no one would
bother as to notice there is an ‘e’ in the quicker spelling or not; most of the consumers even won’t realise that
the spelling of loving and licking in McDonalds and KFC respectively is missing a ‘g’;
Taglines or Slogans are one of the most important tools of positioning a brand in the correct mind space of the
consumers. Products like Idea (What an idea), Maruti Swift (We the Swift), Mountain Dew (Do the Dew),
Maybelline New York (Maybe it’s Maybelline), Motorola (Hello Moto), Red Bull (Red Bull gives you wings), etc.
has come up with the idea of placing the brand name itself in the taglines which makes it easier for the
consumers to remember, making it dead on spot to position the products in the consumers’ correct mind set
and some brands with the originality in their taglines and slogan has also make it memorable in the mind of the
consumers like Tata Salt – Desh ka Namak; Thumbs Up – Aaj kuch toofani karte hai or Thumbs up to taste the
thunder, etc. India’s national language is Hindi and we the Indian take a great pride in ability to speak English
in our own accent and preference and hence the new trend of speaking in “Hinglish” (an amalgamation of
Hindi and English) has an added advantages to appeal to larger crowd and the firms are using this imitating
language to make their ads more memorable or difficult to forget, for example: Lays potato chips ad with the
catchy rhyme - Pal banaye magical (Make every moment magical); Hero Motocorp’s Hum mein hai hero
(There’s a hero in everyone) and the Close-Up ad with the gloomy but catchy voice with a even more catchy
tune - Kya aap Close Up karte hain? (Do you use Close Up toothpaste?); Uncle Chips jingle – Bole mere lips I
love Uncle Chips; etc.
But on a greater side, companies are losing their originality in their taglines by either coping or competing with
each, for example: Coca Cola Vs Sprite, Colgate Vs Pepsodent and many more; but they are not at their faults
either as one of the fundamentals of running a business is to survive in today’s Monopolistic market scenario,
which in turn lead the firms to follow customer orientation market instead of product orientation market. With
the increasing number of brands and products in the market, it is becoming more difficult for the providers to
position the products and services in the correct context with their taglines and for the consumers to place it.
With different brands producing homogeneous products, the consumers are finding it more and more difficult
to correctly use the correct and ideal products of their need and requirement, which in turn is leading to the
demand of new and better products and services in the market and the companies taking advantage of the
demand are producing more and more homogeneous products and services with a few improvements and
new name and tag line. All this creation of new products and services are creating an ambiguity in the mind of
the consumers as in which was what product and what that product was for. For example: every brand claims
their products to be the best and number one in the market (Coalgate claiming to be better than Pepsodent),
Vim Liquid Dish Soap Vs Dettol Liquid Dish Soap; Sprite Vs Coke; etc.
The firms are also aware of the confusion and ambiguity they are creating with their disengaging jingles and
taglines example: Nestle Maggi Ketchup’s claims of being healthy with the tagline “Make India Healthy”, Air
Canada “A breath of fresh air” how an airline can provide fresh breath of air, Dell’s “Easy as DELL” – what’s
easy as DELL?, Samsung’s “Everyone is invited or its hard to imagine” and many more. The ambiguity in the
taglines and slogans is making it harder for the brands to be recognised in the market. Due to which the firms
are coming up with new and new ideas to make them remember their brands say for example ‘Brand
Ambassadors’. Brand Ambassadors are used as brand image makers in order to appeal to the emotional side
of the consumers. In earlier times the endorsement was not a big concept but with the increase in the number
of entrainment programmes and shown portability and memorability in these programmes, entertainers have
more influence on the consumers. And with this the number of endorsements has also increase. A great
example in this issue can be that of Bollywood Superstar, Amir Khan whom everyone knows as a perfectionist,
his show “Satya Mev Jayate” showed the human and inhuman aspects of the current India which impacted a
great lot of people and with an announcement that he would be endorsing only those products and services
which only be beneficial for the society has made the consumers more inclined to those products and services
which he endorse like Godrej and Indian Tourism. If a consumer is a fan of Cricket and his favourite cricketer
is Virat Kohli than his inclination will be more towards those brands which the cricketer endorse like Clear
Shampoo, Fair and Handsome Fairness Cream (in here it can be said that since the Indian Men (not in
particular) are in the current craze of becoming fair, defying the old saying, “Tall, dark and Handsome”, has
created a new market for a fairness and beauty products for men and the companies are en-cashing on it),
Boost Sports drink, etc.
Sometimes products and services are known more by their brand ambassadors rather than their brand name
as they show the emotional aspect of the brand. In Indian market, especially in the rural, semi-urban areas and
sometimes even in the urban and metro areas consumer reference are like do you have that shampoo which
Shah Rukh Khan uses as he has good hair, that tea or soap which Kareena Kapoor uses, etc. in stores,
reason Kareena Kapoor being a beautiful lady can be an ideal for woman who wants to become beautiful.
Even the younger generation of the consumers are not left behind, with the increasing viewership of the
cartoons and animation programmes, the companies are now even endorsing the cartoon and animated
characters as their brand ambassadors or icons for example HP Ink advantage Printers and McVities Biscuits
for Doraemon, the classic Tom and Jerry characters for Parle’s Milk Shakti Biscuits and Kinder Joy, Chota
Bheem for Rangeela Tempera Colours, etc. The children and sometimes even the adults refer to the
mentioned products as Doraemon biscuits, Tom and Jerry biscuits and that colour box which is use by Chota
Bheem, thus, we can see that identifying the products through their ambassadors starts from the very early
age. The loyal follower of this concept can be said is the fast food giant ‘McDonalds’, they have been offering
latest animated and cartoon characters as free gifts with their every ‘Happy Meal’ which is especially designed
for children with small size of burger, a small size fries packet and a small size coke or Pepsi.
With all the brand advertising and monopolistic competition, the companies have forgotten all the essential
elements of marketing:
1. To create the customer, to keep the customer and to satisfy the customer.
2. Of creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers,
clients, partners, and society at large.
It has becoming more and more like the game of chess, where the companies offering homogeneous products
and services are face to face with each other; when one moves their pawns, the other makes a counter move,
displacing or destroying each other in the process.
In the end, I would like to conclude this article with a view that the even if a tagline being a one liner shows the
complete picture of what the product and it can make or break a brand so it has to be given special attentions.
Bibliography
Books referred:
1. Kotler Philip, (2000), Marketing Management Millenium Edition, Tenth Edition, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Websites referred:
1. Brand positioning and punch lines. (n.d.) http://www.wiki.answers.com//
Data Source:
Primary Data Collection through Questionnaires
ANNEXURE 1
Questionnaire
This questionnaire will be use solely for the purpose of research and article writing.
How do you recognise the products and service?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Brand.
Brand Ambassador.
Jingles.
Taglines/Slogan.
How many taglines or slogan can you recognize?
1. You and Me, in this beautiful World – Hutch.
2. Just Do it – Nike
3. Neighbor’s envy, owner’s pride – Onida TV
4. May be she’s born with it, maybe it’s
Maybelline – Maybelline New York
5. Finger Lickin Good – KFC
6. I’m Lovin it – McDonalds
7. Impossible is nothing - Adidas
8. Hello Motto – Motorola
9. Connecting people – Nokia
10. A Diamond is forever- DeBeers
11. The happiest place on Earth – Disneyland
12. The ultimate driving machine - BMW
13. Everything at once – Windows 8
14. Think outside the bun - Taco Bell
15. Red Bull gives you wings - Red Bull
16. Eat Fresh – Subway
17. Do the Dew - Mountain Dew
18. Its different - Maggie, Tomato Ketchup
19. Taking India to the World – Aditya Birla
Group.
20. Empowering people – Acer.
21. We are listening – Amway.
22. India’s International Bank – Bank of Baroda.
23. Inspiring confidence – Bajaj Auto.
24. Is se sasta aur Achcha kahee nahee
milenga – Big Bazaar.
25. Putting News First – BBC World.
26. Believe in the Best – BPL.
27. Connecting India – BSNL.
28. The one for everyone – Cell One.
29. Just right computing - Compaq.
30. Leading Innovation – Toshiba.
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