How cats are like your marketing slogans (and how to fix it)

In honor of the day, we’ve invited a special guest blogger to share his unique marketing insights. While we haven’t yet adopted his strategies (in part due to child labor laws), we applaud his commitment to strong branding.

By Roger Warlick

Has your business found a great slogan to market its strengths, only to have it suddenly used by a not-so-great firm, and have it then associated with that company? This can hurt your business by making you keep your old, worn-out but trusty slogan, changing slogans to a not-as-good slogan, or even making  your current slogan something people won’t get, or won’t think about. Almost like a new cat, a new marketing slogan will be there, new, cool, remembered and noticed. But as time goes by, you still notice it, but will other people?

If people see a marketing slogan enough, they won’t even register that it’s usually there anymore, because they already knew that, but if you change it periodically, it might keep attention. Like a cat that sometimes does cool new tricks, you probably won’t notice either if done so much it becomes commonplace.

For example, a marketing slogan like “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard.” is catchy, and will be remembered. But what if you heard that slogan on the radio every other day, and saw a billboard with it every 3 days? Would you even notice it after 4 months, or would you just tune it out?

Sometimes, even if your current marketing slogan is catchy and professional, you have to change just to keep business coming. Of course, there are the people who already know and trust a firm, and will use it, whether or not they notice it a lot. Just like some people will always watch and be amazed by a cat’s tricks, whether or not they see it every day. Some ways to change your slogan, but keep it remembered, noticed and on target are to:

• Try and keep a small part of your original slogan
• Let it have a nice sound to you, don’t use something that flows badly
• Include something from your firm’s name in the slogan (This isn’t a must)
• Don’t make it longer than a large phrase, or shorter than a 2 or 3 words

And of course, include a good picture! Maybe even of a cat!