I’ve been at trade shows and conferences as an exhibitor and attendee off and on for the last few weeks and have seen literally thousands of slogans and pitches. But, for some reason, this one stopped me dead in my tracks:
Tomorrow’s Solution Today
This might be one of the worst slogans of all time. No, I’m not going to name the company. I actually spoke them and they’re very nice people. They’re a small company with a white board product focused towards the education market. When asked about the slogan, they said they don’t have the time to put into a marketing activities like slogans. That was as far as the conversation went.
This was a large show with hundreds of exhibitors and they spent thousands of dollars to be there. Here’s how their name and description showed in the show guide:
Company Name (Which, as you can imagine, gave no indication of their product)
Tomorrow’s Solution Today
Ouch. Attendees of this show couldn’t hope to reach every trade show booth so I’m sure many of them went to the show guide to find out who they wanted to meet. I’m sure 100% of those people breezed by this company’s description without a second glance. What would stop you?
- If it’s tomorrow’s solution, why would I want or need it today.
- A solution to what? For what do I need a solution?
- What product or service? Everyone has a “solution”.
- The white board product is great, but there is nothing futuristic or visionary about it. So, why is this the product of “Tomorrow”.
Okay, enough with bashing the slogan. They’re obviously not focused on or interested in marketing (but they should get interested soon). Check out Ryan’s recent post about another bad slogan attempt.
So, what goes into a good tagline or slogan? Well, there are many opinions on this, but here are a couple tips I think are important:
- Keep it simple - Making someone think a little is a good thing, but too much complexity will drive the casual browser away.
- Stay Relevant - Keep it short, but indicate something about your product or service that might grab some attention.
- Be Unique - Find someway to make your slogan stick. Don’t be afraid to stick out from the crowd.
What other suggestions do you have for a small business that wants to create or improve their slogan or tagline?
Tags: marketing, slogan, tagline, trade show
Hi Pat,
This one makes me laugh because I know the company in question, and would have to concur that much of their time is either spend in the field setting up the product or in training.
Honestly though, how hard is it think up a slogan? This would be eating away at me every night lying in bed if I were on their team.
Garry
On the plus side, it’s not as bad as the Radio Shack one that Ryan’s mentions in the article you linked to! “Do Stuff,” what does that even mean?
“Tomorrow’s Solution Today,” is pretty bad, but at least attempts to give some vague notion of “we’re ahead of the game with this product,” even if it doesn’t give any indication as to what the solution is, nor what problem it solves.
Hey Garry,
Yeah, they’re good people that did a great job in their booth demonstrating their product. They just don’t have the marketing support that other companies have.
Hey Adam,
Radio Shack does take first prize because they actually think that’s a great slogan. They probably spent alot of time developing the concept.
Yeah, I see your point on being ahead of the game. It does say SOMETHING. I think I get hung up on the word “solution” though…that is such a dead-end marketing word.
I agree with you about the “solution” part, Pat. When neither the slogan nor the company name give any indication as to what the problem/solution is, it’s a useless, dead-end term.
It’s probably used so frequently because, “Hey! We have a product that solves a problem! It’s a solution! Let’s mention that in our slogan!” But, really, without any sort of context, it becomes a meaningless buzzword.
Patrick
Your Dad told me about your blog so I had a look tonight and this caught my eye. How about: “Achieve the Possible” this was a previous employers slogan for their annual conference?
This was a $400 million company that could do no better than encouraging customers to get out of bed, tie your shoes, eat breakfast, make it to work on time, get to lunch, punch your clock at 5, achieve the possible.
wow
good stuff.
Hey Pat - Great to hear from you! Thanks for checking out the site.
Yeah, “Achieve the Possible” rivals my example. That’s horrible. Who thinks up this stuff?
Stay in touch!
Pat
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I was recently hired by a company based in South America that specializes the trade, investment, and tourism between South America and China. My first job is to write the content for the website, and my boss is keen on having a good slogan. The main problem is that what we do is so broad that I cannot be specific at all without having a super long and complex slogan. For example, I do not think it could be something like “our expertise helps you realize your business and/or tourism objectives across the Pacific!”
As a result, everything that I have that is short is very vague. Can you guys help? A couple of my more “acceptable” ideas are:
–Your bridge/partner/link/guide across the Pacific (and beyond)
–Seize (your) opportunity across the Pacific (with us)
–Your Pacific opportunity is waiting
–Your opportunity/journey/adventure across the Pacific (awaits)
–Are you ready for your Pacific opportunity?
–Are you ready for your opportunity across the Pacific?
–Your gateway/door/opening to the Pacific (and beyond)
–Blaze your path across the Pacific
Also, this is my first time doing anything related to marketing etc! Thank you so much in advance!