Crafting an impactful brand slogan that sets you apart from the crowd can be a daunting task, keeping even the most skilled marketers awake at night.
Surprisingly, research conducted by Bayes Business School, the University of Missouri, and the University of Arizona reveals that the most well-liked slogans often tend to be the least memorable, while the most memorable ones are often less favored. This study suggests that the effectiveness of a brand slogan depends on the desired outcome, whether it's focused on being liked or being remembered.
When it comes to preference, consumers generally lean towards concise slogans that don't explicitly mention the brand. These slogans tend to employ words that are considered both common and abstract.
However, for brands aiming for longevity, longer slogans that include the brand name and feature distinctive and concrete words are more likely to be remembered by consumers over time.
During the study, approximately 1,000 students and online workers were asked to evaluate 820 brand slogans, indicating their likes and dislikes. Five linguistic factors emerged as determinants of likability and memorability: length, brand name inclusion, word frequency, perceptual distinctiveness, and abstractness. Interestingly, longer slogans that mentioned the brand name were more frequently remembered but received lower likability scores. On the other hand, slogans like Listerine's "Kill bad breath," which used more commonly understood words instead of the medical term "halitosis," were better liked but less memorable.
Delving deeper into the research, 234 participants took part in an experiment where disliked slogans were made more fluent and vice versa. The results revealed that changing Listerine's tagline from "Kills bad breath" to "Stops halitosis" improved its likability but reduced its memorability. Conversely, altering Toyota's slogan from "Get the feeling" to "Snag the sensation" enhanced its memorability but diminished its likability. This shift occurred because participants spent more time processing less-fluent words like "sensation" compared to easier-to-read words like "feeling."
Improving the fluency of slogans could yield tangible benefits for brands. The study found that enhancing a slogan's fluency resulted in a 28% increase in click-through rates for a Facebook ad, rising from 1.3% to 1.7%.
According to Zachary Estes, a marketing professor at Bayes Business School, brands striving for recognition should employ challenging language, while well-established brands should opt for more common and abstract words to enhance ease of comprehension.
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