I also threw in a story I’d heard about how an advertising agency got the British Rail account in the 1980’s to rescue their rather poor image, which was piece of creative genius in itself.

We’ll look at the 1. brand promise (what is my promise to you, the customer), 2. brand deliverable (what can my product do to solve your problem?)and 3. brand philosophy (what is the overall belief system of the company).

Fedex’s promise is it will deliver overnight no matter what. Dove delivers 1/4 moisturizing milk. Nike ask you to cast off your fear to just to it.

Thanks for stopping by. It is very heartening that you like the blog.

I do agree with you that advertising slogan, however clever it is, will not work if the company cannot perform to the satisfaction level of the clients. Branding should be seen as a reinforcement to product quality and customer service.

I look forward to having more of your insightful comments soon. :)

I agree that slogans do work, but many companies fail to see the opportunity of reinforcing their brand promise. With regards to your top 7 slogans, I must say that the most successful companies are market leaders in their industry, ie, they’ve created a new brand category of their own. Being the first immensely contributes to a brand’s acceptance and success.

Coca-cola: World’s first cola
DeBeers: First international diamond manufacturer
Yellowpages: First business directory
FedEx: First overnight courier service
Got milk?: First to suggest milk as a “cool” drink, using celebrity endorsements.

Which brings me to Avis’ “We Try Harder” slogan. Avis was never first in the category of car rentals, which is why they had to use this slogan. It worked for a while, and the company was moderately successful. Hertz was the first, and until today, they remain the market leader in car rentals. Budget entered the market as the first budget car rental company and they have become way more profitable than Avis. Even Thrifty have overtaken Avis.

My point is, although a company has a great slogan, a successful brand needs to be the first in their category or face the cold fact that they are a no.2 player in consumers’ minds.

If you look at all the brands that have come up with are first in their category, most of them remain market leaders today. To be No.1 in a consumer’s mind is a very powerful thing indeed.