{"id":4327,"date":"2012-08-31T14:27:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T14:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=4327"},"modified":"2014-12-20T19:19:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T19:19:49","slug":"when-taglines-go-bad-the-best-buy-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/when-taglines-go-bad-the-best-buy-saga\/","title":{"rendered":"When Taglines Go Bad \u2013 The Best Buy Saga"},"content":{"rendered":"

So there I was minding my own business when I came across an article on\u00a0Fast Company<\/a>\u00a0entitled\u00a0What Every CEO Can Learn From Best Buy\u2019s (Continued) Branding Mistakes<\/a>. Written by\u00a0David Brier<\/a>, who I know to be not only a great writer but also a branding expert, the article made reference to the new tagline the much-maligned\u00a0Best Buy<\/a>\u00a0recently trotted out after what was surely an exhaustive 18-month odyssey. Truth be told the 18 months was spent \u201cworking to reframe the retailer\u2019s brand proposition\u201d and the new tagline was one item that came out of said reframing.<\/p>\n

The new tagline for\u00a0Best Buy<\/a>\u00a0is, wait for it \u201cMaking technology work for you<\/em>.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In his article Brier refers to the tagline as \u201cnot only tired, it is a death sentence that is bland, old, worn, uninspired and not reflective of a single strand of your customer\u2019s aspirations.\u201d He also, quite correctly I might add, says the tagline \u201creeks of \u201cmarketing speak\u201d and \u201ccommittee-itis.\u201d<\/div>\n

He goes on to talk about branding in general but I want to focus squarely on this\u00a0horrifically\u00a0bad tagline.<\/p>\n

By the way, is it me or does the title of my article sound like a title for a new reality show? Can\u2019t you just hear something along the lines of \u201cTonight on the Discovery Channel, advertising taglines or slogans are all around us and most of them serve to help a brand and inform the public. But what happens when something goes awry? Tonight at 9, it\u2019s the premier of When Taglines Go Bad.\u201d Cue the loud piercing female scream or shriek and an image of people running wildly through the streets.<\/p>\n

But I digress.<\/p>\n

The new Best Buy tagline or slogan, whatever you want to call it \u2013 and please don\u2019t start with the \u201cthey\u2019re not the same thing, Steve\u201d mantra, is all the things Brier said it was but it\u2019s also a line that one would expect to hear from a new company\/new brand, not from one\u2019s that been around as long as Best Buy has.<\/p>\n

If they were just starting out and they unveiled this tagline, I would laud and applaud it for it would immediately tell me what they do \u2013 in a matter of speaking. It would at the very least provide me a glimpse into what\u2019s in their DNA.<\/p>\n

But this is Best Buy, a brand that is very well known and instantly recognized.<\/p>\n

I will never understand why such an established brand sees the need to suddenly become Lucy Literal or Larry Literal, whatever the case may be. You\u2019re Best Buy, we know you. Save the sales pitch. Save the educational angle. You\u2019ve earned the right to be creative, to use an experiential tagline.<\/p>\n

The Real Thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of a soft drink called\u00a0Coca-Cola<\/a>. Well when Coca-Cola first came to the attention of the public one of their first taglines was \u201cDelicious<\/a>\u00a0and Refreshing.\u201d See what they did there? Not many people knew what Coca-Cola was other than a soft drink. But their tagline immediately conveyed the benefits one would get from enjoying some. They realized they better let the consumer know right up front what Coca-Cola can do for them.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today\u2019s tagline for Coca-Cola, which is \u201cOpen Happiness\u201d and you can see the difference. Of course there have been many different taglines employed by Coca-Cola over the years but the point is this is a\u00a0brand that is very well known and instantly recognized.<\/p>\n

They know they can have some fun and put people in the moment, if you will, and utilize experiential type of wording in their tagline for the need to inform and educate has long since passed.<\/p>\n

Named one of the\u00a0Top 100 Influencers In Social Media<\/a>\u00a0(#41) by Social Technology Review and a\u00a0Top 50 Social Media Blogger<\/a>\u00a0by Kred,\u00a0Steve Olenski<\/a>\u00a0is a freelance copywriter\/blogger looking for full-time work. He has worked on some of the biggest brands in the world and has more than 20 years experience in advertising and marketing. He lives in Philly and can be reached via\u00a0email<\/a>,Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>, or his\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So there I was minding my own business when I came across an article on\u00a0Fast Company\u00a0entitled\u00a0What Every CEO Can Learn From Best Buy\u2019s (Continued) Branding Mistakes. Written by\u00a0David Brier, who I know to be not only a great writer but also a branding expert, the article made reference to the new tagline the much-maligned\u00a0Best Buy\u00a0recently … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,1383],"tags":[42,1718,1568,1569,362,1722,1721,1719,1720,32,1724,1723],"class_list":["post-4327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-steveolenski","tag-advertising","tag-best-buy","tag-brand-managers","tag-brand-marketers","tag-branding","tag-coca-cola","tag-coke","tag-david-brier","tag-fast-company","tag-marketing","tag-slogans","tag-taglines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4327"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5739,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions\/5739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}