Microsoft Taglines Score a Trifecta

October 12, 2009 by Jerry

microsoft_

In my blog two weeks ago, you read how Yahoo, following the example of other corporations, deployed the persuasive word “you” in the tagline of their new $100 million marketing campaign called “It’s You!” Microsoft (now a business partner of Yahoo) has a pair of taglines using the same powerful word, but theirs add two other rhetorical devices to score a trifecta.

Microsoft’s venerable slogans, “Where do you want to go today?” and “Your potential, our passion,” are successful because each of them deploys three powerful persuasive selling factors: Each of them represents a call to action for Microsoft; each provides a benefit to its customers; and each uses—by one well-established standard—the most persuasive word in the English language, “you.”

Call to action. The classic sales technique of asking for the order is usually expressed in taglines or slogans that hard sell a company, its product or service; e.g., “Acme: Best of Breed,” “Acme: New and Improved!” or “Buy Acmes Now While They Last!” These taglines are all about the vendor and not about the buyer. Both Microsoft taglines are about the vendor too, and although they are more soft sell than Acme’s, they still clearly indicate that Microsoft has, respectively, the capability to get its customers wherever they want to go, and that Microsoft has the passion to help them realize their potential. However, both of these taglines go one vital step beyond Microsoft itself by involving the buyer—with a benefit.

Benefit. An accepted fact of life in business is that most sales persons—thoroughly schooled in their product and enamored with its features—neglect to state its benefits. Ask any senior sales manager about their greatest challenge and most of them are sure to respond that it is to remind their sales force to sell benefits. Some taglines do get it right, as in “Tastes Better,” “Costs Less,” or “Works Faster.” Both Microsoft taglines are infused with benefits. The first indicates that Microsoft’s customers can achieve instant gratification, and the second that they can indeed fulfill their potential.

The third part of the trifecta, the “you” word, will be the subject of the next blog.

Filed under: Blogs, Content
Tagged:

Comments

If you want to interact, please leave a comment...
and, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!