Pages

Saturday, June 3, 2006

As Expected, Slogan Underwhelms

Friday's (2006.06.02) Madison Daily Leader reports that the employees at CommissionSoup have come up with a new slogan for Madison: we may replace "In Touch with the World" with (brace yourself) "Discover the Unexpected."

I wish I could get paid for sitting around and thinking up slogans. Apparently, I wouldn't have to think of anything terribly creative or even representative of the town, product, or service I'm trying to promote.

This new slogan fails in two ways. First, it fails in terms of content. "Discover the Unexpected" -- what unexpectedness does Madison offer? How many people have driven to Madison and exclaimed, "Wow, I never expected to find that in Madison?" I love my town, but I will admit that it is a typical small prairie town: farm and manufacturing jobs; some small shops on main street struggling to compete with the big stores out on the highway and in Sioux Falls; lakes with bullhead, walleye, and the wily carp; and a majority of high school graduates who can't wait to get out of town for their college education and better job opportunities elsewhere.

Even if a visitor with an eye less accustomed to Madison's native wonders than my own were to visit and find something unexpected, the slogan still fails on a second level, as a unique and competitive identifier of our fair city. The slogan fails to set us apart from the other communities with whom we are competing for tourism dollars and economic development.

Test the slogan this way: could we slap that slogan on any other town and still have it make sense? "Discover the Unexpected... in Brookings!" "...in Mitchell!" "...in Ramona!" The slogan makes as much sense applied to any other town as it does to Madison. Any town could claim to have unexpected treasures. Potential visitors comparing slogans to determine their next family vacation or major business investment would learn nothing about Madison from "Discover the Unexpected."

Compare the proposed slogan with another slogan, one enjoying perhaps the greatest top-of-mind awareness of any current metropolitan tagline: "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." Not only does the slogan mention the city by name (by somewhat catchy nickname), but it captures a defining aspect of the city's character, something that no other city could legitimately claim. ("What happens in New York stays in New York?" Heck no -- New Yorkers think their city is the center of the universe and want everyone to know what happens there.)

By this standard, even our current slogan, "In Touch with the World," sells the city better than "Discover the Unexpected." "In Touch with the World" fits with our local university's mission and our technological knowledge base. It promises businesses and new residents something specific and useful: connection with the broader economy and culture. "Discover the Unexpected" leaves people wondering whether the slogan is promising unexpected economic opportunity, simple distracting oddities for tourists, or maybe just a fly in your soup at Nicky's.

If Madison really wants to succeed in the arena of metro-slogans, it should make an effort to compose a slogan that reflects specific competitive advantages of this community over its neighbors. Of course, if Madison really wants to succeed in general, it should stop wasting time and money on marketing and focus on real economic improvements.

6 comments:

  1. Not for sure if the paper put in a picture of the new logo also...in case they didn't, you can see it here: http://www.kjamradio.com/images/survey/madison_logo_lg.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  2. You can see the proposed logo and cast your vote for or against it at KJAM Radio and MadisonSD.com. Alas, the survey does not offer any running vote count (come on, Chamber of Commerce -- it wouldn't be that hard to put those numbers up... or is there a reason they don't want us to know the results?). The survey also provides a link through which one can send comments and suggestions.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Grammar Note: I apologize on behalf of my community for its bad grammar. "Is the slogan & logo... a good fit for Madison?" is an obvious case of subject-verb disagreement. Plural subject ("slogan & logo") requires plural verb: "Are the slogan & logo a good fit for Madison?"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Another simple test of a slogan's uniqueness (and thus its potential to distinguish Madison) is a Google search. I type in "Discover the Unexpected" this morning and get 16,700 results. "Discover the Unexpected" is already used to promote a plethora of places and organizations, including
    Doors Open Ontario;
    Information Visualization at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (it appears PNNL claims a trademark on the phrase!);
    ICONS: A Portrait of England, an online English cultural project;
    Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia (hey! my friend Megan went there! Hi, Megan!);
    Orlando's Doubletree Hotel; shopping in Downtown LA....

    Meanwhile, I took ten seconds to brainstorm an alternative city slogan: "Mighty Mighty Madison!" Google search results: 1. Hmmm....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Alas, this KJAM report indicates that public response to the new slogan and logo is generally positive, with 65% of respondents to the Internet poll on three local websites logging their approval. Evidently the only area of public concern significant enough to warrant any change in the logo was the size of the font, which our fearless leaders will now enlarge for easier readability.

    So once again I find myself in the minority... which I suppose isn't so bad. If everyone started thinking like me, I'd have to change my worldview just to be different!

    But no more "In Touch with the World"! The slogan is dead! Long live the slogan!

    ReplyDelete
  6. For the record, this KJAM report has Sascha Albrecht naming Darin Namken and his crew at CreditSoup as the creative genii responsible for our new slogan.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are closed, as this portion of the Madville Times is in archive mode. You can join the discussion of current issues at MadvilleTimes.com.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.