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Do you know how important is tagline for any company? Earlier I was of the opinion that tagline is just few words inserted in any commercial to make the commercial long enough that target audience (bakra)remembers the brand. My brainchild theory (will be) popularly known as ‘tagline theory,’ made me change my opinion that tagline is ‘just few words’.
A theory that I would like to publish on my blog because no one else will publish it. No no… not because others will think it is rubbish …but because no one accepts out-of-the-box thinking. Galileo Galilei was imprisoned for publishing his Sun-centered theory of the universe.
According to me Tagline is a line with few but selected words that describes a product/company. All you need to do is read between the lines. Let me quote some examples to make it clear.
India’s biggest bank - State bank of India, with net profit 45.41 billion INR a year, had a tagline ‘where nation banks’ and indeed that was true. But in last few years, the nation suddenly stopped banking on/with State bank of India as few ‘Hum hai na…’ banks started their operations. There was a need to change SBI’s tagline with something that really represents them. SBI’s strength – Customer Satisfaction, IT usage, New products, extended working hours, Uninterrupted banking (no strikes) ??? Nahhh…. So SBI came up with new tagline that really suits them ‘Pure banking and nothing else’.
Do you know smoking is the single biggest cause of cancer in the world? Smoking causes lung cancer which has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers. But government would lose significant revenue if they prohibit manufacturing of cigarettes. Statuary warning ‘SMOKING IS INJURIOUS TO YOUR HEALTH’ is made mandatory in all cigarettes packets.
Don’t get defensive if you are smoker… I really don’t care about you. I am just giving analogy with beauty cream. Every other day a new beauty cream is launched into the market which may contain some carcinogenic particles if not tested before. Ohhh..is this a reason why a ‘body care’ company has started using statuary warning as there tagline? 'Garnier…Take Care'. If I am not making any sense then watch Garnier’s commercial carefully next time.
You must have heard about ‘Mahindra & Mahindra’ but not about ‘Tata & Tata’ or ‘Birla & Birla’. Before India-Pakistan partition M&M was Mohammed & Mahindra but at the time of partition Mohammed agreed to work for Pakistan automobile Industry and Mahindra for Indian automobile industry. But in a bid to save the money which would be required to replace the M & M logo on the firm's stationary and signs, Mahindra simply hired himself as a partner and renamed the company Mahindra & Mahindra. Intelligent move hahhh…
But these new breed of so called corporate doesn’t seems to have got this gyan. Recently I heard Pizza Hut planning to re brand name as Pasta Hut. Ultimately it will be customer who will pay for this multi-million rebranding. If they really want to change the name then I would suggest ‘PH’. Yahh..just ‘PH’. PH for Pizza Hut, Pasta Hut or few months down the line if they wish to introduce Paratha then also ‘PH’ will work. No need to change it to Paratha Hut.
Bharti changed Airtel’s landline business to Touchtel but after few months it was again changed back to Airtel. Mr Mittal may I suggest you a new name please. What about Confusedtel?
World’s fourth largest truck manufacturer and the world’s second largest bus manufacturer one fine day decided to manufacture car. A car was rolled out of assembly line with all expertise in manufacturing heavy vehicles. It was a bull in sheep’s clothing, a truck in car’s clothing. Bit heavy so they had to give a tagline that suits – ‘More car per car’. Yes you got it right I am talking about Tata Indica.
When Maruti Omni was launched that time brand management and marketing was not so aggressive otherwise someone would have tagged Maruti Omni as – ‘More accident per car’. A car where driver is inches away from anything coming on its way. A car with no aerodynamics and ever ready to turn turtle. A car with fuel tank at extreme rear and that too at the base. Fuel tank ready to detonate as soon as someone collides. One more tagline line I would suggest for Maruti Omni – ‘Box on Wheels’ inspired by the royal train ‘Palace on Wheels’.
Mphasis was recently acquired by EDS. A new line, ‘an EDS company’, was introduced in Mphasis’s logo. Later on HP bought EDS and EDS’s logo was changed to include one line ‘an HP company’. Last time when I visited HP’s website I couldn’t find ‘invent’ in there logo. I guess they are making space for ‘a Google company’. Hey Larry & Sergey hope you read my blog regularly.
Someone told me that Infosys has changed there tagline from ‘Powered by intellect and driven by values’ to ‘Win in the flat world’. An ex-infosion or rather outfosion, after reading my theory, asked me that have Infosys left intellect and values to win in the flat world? I immediately said NO. But he gave a ‘bitter truth’ smile.
