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Alok's Posts / Startup

Tag-Lines are OUT. Benefit-Lines are IN!

This ppt happened because I was helping ‘THE’ hottest Start Up I have met so far (await announcement soon) in their pitch ppt to be sent to VCs.

We chose a great name for the service (actually bought the domain from sedo.com) and had everything in place, EXCEPT a ‘Tag-Line’.

I wrote a Tagline, then deleted it. Then I wrote another one and sent it to the entrepreneur team. They loved it.

Just before introducing these guys and the Company, I looked at the PPT pitch again, and somehow didn’t like the Tagline I had created. I deleted it and then sent the deck to 12 VCs.

The Tagline I had created was a ‘promise’ of this Start Up that ‘would’ happen one day.

On the first call with the VC, when the entrepreneur happened to mention this promise as ‘one’ of the things they were solving for, the VC destroyed that hypothesis. He didn’t buy it all.

THANK GOD I had not marked the entire Company with that Tagline!

Then, I looked back and observed the Companies I admired and came up with this. Enjoy and PLEASE provide feedback!

Ps – This is my first presentation in Apple Keynote! yeah!!

[PPs – If you are browsing via a mobile device, click on the IN logo (linkedin) and directly view this deck on slideshare. The UX is much better :-)]

Click here to download the presentation from slideshare:
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Special Thanks (as usual) to Asha for editing and advising. (She changed the Title of this PPT :-))

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12 Comments

  1. Good one Alok 🙂

  2. Yes tru but
    How will you give the benefit line for

    BMW, DDamas diamond ring, Harley Devidson motor bike,Audi,Bose speakers and gadgets,iPad ,Bombay sapphire Gene.

    Pl explain

  3. Nice….but the clear differentiator is that the brands of the past which you mentioned are all offline businesses where as the brands of today are a internet based (the ones you mentioned)….Now the question is if I am trying to build a offline brand like selling a PEN or a DETERGENT or a CAR, i have 30 secs to show a TV ad AND explain my core benefit….Here what happens is you try and communicate Features and Advantages in the form of Benefits of the product (FAB) and then try and DRILL just one point in the consumers mind….

    E.g. Maruti over the years has drilled Mileage as their core benefit..(Since some time ‘Service Stations’ also)…

    My view says that no matter what your tag line, What one needs to keep in mind is the CORE VALUE it wants to communicate in the communication…

    Interestingly I just saw the Maruti website and the tagline is “Way of Life” but what the consumer remembers is “Kitna Deti Hai”

  4. In my own personal opinion, taglines and benefit lines are passe….we don’t enamor brands beacuse of their taglines or brand promises. Show of hands…it would be probably a destination site we go each day…say Linkedin..FB, Twitter etc..what are their tag lines or brand promise…..if you thought for a second….they have failed to drive home the brand promise or imprint their taglines in the most sought after real estate….your mind!

  5. So, what is the Tag Line of Apple?

  6. Very true……………It’s time to SELL the REAL MAAL.

  7. and without going to this link, lets ask anyone here if they knew, remembered OR EVEN CARED!!!!

  8. Yes they matter once the Brand achieves certain position.

    Eg Games2Win- JUst play it!

  9. Hi Alok, I’ll be honest, I don’t know what brand/tag line Apple has. Even worse, I don’t know what the “i” in an iPad or iPhone stands for. It’s not “i” for India, that much I am sure 🙂

    I have never used an Apple product except QuickTime player 😉 and even if I decide to buy an Apple product today, my decision will be based on the utility and the value I am paying to get the desired utility. It won’t be based on rhetoric by the brand. I never used any of the e-com sites with the knowledge of their brand/tag line.

    Hard cold value is what I seek. I want to stretch each and every rupee I spend.

  10. IMO, when the concept behind the product or service is new and unique in the market, benefit lines must be used. But when everyone knows or understands the product/service, it is no longer required or becomes ineffective. This is because the marketplace would have already become crowded with competition. Here is when the emotional edge is required and the tag lines start becoming powerful tool. For instance, a diet soda can begin marketing itself with benefit line, but with growing competition, it will need to shift to a tag line that stays makes an impression in the consumers mind.

  11. Alok, Tag lines are for a brand’s (product or a company) advertising campaigns. Brands on the other hand may/may not have a company motto or a product descriptor.

    Brands usually keep changing their advertising campaigns and therefore tag lines keep changing. Like for example Maruti Suzuki’s motto is ‘Way of Life’ but their current tag line is ‘Kitna deyte hai?’ and earlier it was ‘Count on us’. 

  12. even more to my point! does it matter when they change them like we change mobile phones? 🙂

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