The product is no longer sugar water. The slogan is far less important.
Jonathan Kleiman
· 1 year ago
What I mean is... these sites are known for their steak, not their sizzle.
Vitak
· 1 year ago
Slight mistype in Facebook's slogan: Facebook is a social utility that *connects* you, not "contexts" you.
I totally agree about the irony of MySpace, although there's nothing like a well-intentioned slogan to convince the naive.
I am a strong believer that major players in the market need short, five-words-or-less slogans that capture their essence, and Facebook doesn't do that. I wouldn't even consider what you list as a slogan, as it's just a description of what the site does. Of course, in today's world, sites like Facebook don't seem to need catchy slogans to entice new users; rather, they need to find ways to keep users from getting too bored once they're already on the site.
Zach
· 1 year ago
It would be important when analyzing the slogan that is the meat of this piece, to correctly identify it. It's not “Facebook is a social utility that CONTEXTS you with the people around you." It's CONNECTS. CONTEXTS would be very weird in this context (pun intended). Also, this is more of a description than a slogan. Look at the others you mentioned- The Hi5 and Myspace slogans are memorable. Facebook's is so long that you couldn't even remember it properly... that's probably not an effective "slogan."
Good idea to look at SNS taglines. Wow - facebook's is absolutely awful:
- No personality - The tagline is not "bigger" than the product itself. What is it about connecting people that is important? - It's too damn functional - I can just hear Zuckerberg saying it. I think they need to move towards something evocative.
Jonathan Kleiman
· 1 year ago
I stick to my story. A slogan only matters in so far as people are buying what you're selling based on the marketing of something aside from what you're actually selling (I call it "sizzle"). Facebook is all about getting what you want from a site. No catchy gimmicks. In fact, I don't think MySpace's slogan has helped very much either except in so far as it has served as a description.
Steve Spalding
· 1 year ago
Good article Anthony!
My problem was never with well thought out slogans like Bebo's or Hi5's, it was with the less thoughtful ones like -- as you mentioned -- Facebook.
A slogan is supposed to tell a story, but much more than that it is supposed to tell a story that is palatable to the demographic that you're targeting.
A good example of this is, "I'm Lovin' It." It's thoughtful and it speaks to those who McDonalds sees as its target demographic.
Now lets look at Facebook.
"Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you”
Beyond the fact that this is an extremely long winded explanation of Facebook's approach to Social Networking, it also doesn't resonate with Facebook's college demographic, which is -still- a very large percentage of its traffic.
I don't think that every company creates thoughtless slogans, I think that -many- companies would do well to clarify their vision so that their slogans are more meaningful to those who they are trying to court.
Jonathan Kleiman
· 1 year ago
I really don't think that's facebook's slogan
richardstacy
· 1 year ago
Speaking as a marketer, Facebook's slogan is very poor ("social utility" - horrible). I don't think that reflects a desire to avoid catchy gimmicks - rather a reflection that Facebook doesn't really know what it is (or has become)
All Comments
I totally agree about the irony of MySpace, although there's nothing like a well-intentioned slogan to convince the naive.
I am a strong believer that major players in the market need short, five-words-or-less slogans that capture their essence, and Facebook doesn't do that. I wouldn't even consider what you list as a slogan, as it's just a description of what the site does. Of course, in today's world, sites like Facebook don't seem to need catchy slogans to entice new users; rather, they need to find ways to keep users from getting too bored once they're already on the site.
http://blog.collegetonight.com
- No personality
- The tagline is not "bigger" than the product itself. What is it about connecting people that is important?
- It's too damn functional - I can just hear Zuckerberg saying it. I think they need to move towards something evocative.
My problem was never with well thought out slogans like Bebo's or Hi5's, it was with the less thoughtful ones like -- as you mentioned -- Facebook.
A slogan is supposed to tell a story, but much more than that it is supposed to tell a story that is palatable to the demographic that you're targeting.
A good example of this is, "I'm Lovin' It." It's thoughtful and it speaks to those who McDonalds sees as its target demographic.
Now lets look at Facebook.
"Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you”
Beyond the fact that this is an extremely long winded explanation of Facebook's approach to Social Networking, it also doesn't resonate with Facebook's college demographic, which is -still- a very large percentage of its traffic.
I don't think that every company creates thoughtless slogans, I think that -many- companies would do well to clarify their vision so that their slogans are more meaningful to those who they are trying to court.