A Less-Horny Tagline
September 15th, 2007 by Chief NutFor years I’ve talked about the benefits of brevity in tagline development. My usual pitch recommends the creation of a two to four word blurb. Then I usually give the one example of, what I believe to be, a great tagline that is five words long … Dodge Truck’s “Grab Life By The Horns.” These five syllables contain soooo much brand emotion, and the individual words are so short and fluid, there’s almost no detrimental impact that burdens other five-word taglines.
Well, I’ll no longer be able to use this tagline as an example anymore as the company is shortening the tagline down to the much simpler “Grab Life”.
All I can say is BRAVO! The new line is tighter, faster, easier to remember and loses very little brand impact. This is a nice transition and a bold move …. (oops, wrong automaker.)
I have to disagree with you on this one. Grab life is short and sweet. Grab life by the horns is a bit longer and not sweet at all. I don’t think of Dodge trucks and sweet in the same sentence.
The distillation has lost its hold on the ram. Horns are what made this distinctive. Grab life could be selling bran flakes.
On the west coast, there is a chain of sports equipment and clothing stores called Joe’s. Their tagline: “Seize the weekend.” I think it covers your desire to find brevity and illustrate the core value at the same time.
But, sometimes, you do have to make exceptions to rules. If it takes 5 words, use 5 words. More important the the word or syllable count is the cadence and fluidity of vowels and consonants.
BTW: Nice site. Great perspectives.
Comment by Chas Martin — October 22, 2007 @ 4:58 pm