The Perfect Tagline - It's not Rocket Science....

At SCOTTeVEST, we have been searching for the perfect tag line for 19 years. It seems easy. How hard could it be? It's not rocket science.

Or, is it?

After all, how difficult could it have been for Nike to come up with "Just Do It," or Wendy's to come up with "Where's the Beef?," or BMW to come up with "The Ultimate Driving Machine?"

Easy, right? You get the point.

So, why do I say it's not rocket science, if it's hard to nail the perfect tag line? Note the heavy dose of sarcasm. If it was easy to come up with a perfect tag line, you'd remember lots of tag lines. But, how many tag lines can you recite?

Think about that. With the tens of thousands of brands you are exposed to daily, how many have tag lines you remember?

VERY FEW.

Why? Because coming up with the perfect tag line is difficult, really difficult. In fact, it may be more difficult than rocket science.

In our case, after 19 years, we recently and finally landed on the perfect tag line. For us, it wasn't rocket science. It was dumb luck, and more importantly timing.

So, the journey to our perfect tag line goes like this:

• Every year or so, I'd come up with (or someone I know suggests) what I think is a perfect tag line. Immediately, I'd begin changing ALL our creative assets.
• We have been in business now for almost 19 years, and have cycled through at least as many different tag lines, each one less memorable than the last one. But at the time, I was convinced that they would finally catapult SCOTTeVEST to become a household name.
• Over the years, we have tried tons of tag lines, including: Dress Like a Traveler, not a Tourist: FAIL, For the Trip of Your Life: FAIL, From Chaos To Control: FAIL, BRING IT: FAIL, A Pocket for Everything: FAIL, GO AWAY: FAIL, Technology Enabled Clothing-TEC: FAIL, There's a Pocket for That: FAIL, Own Your Go: FAIL. And the list goes on. These are only the ones I can remember off the top of my head.
• Why did all of these fail? When we launched each of above, I was certain we nailed it. I thought there were clever, memorable, core to the brand, etc. But upon reflection, none of these tag lines were relatable, and thus each of them failed.
• Last year, we outsourced our marketing and media buying efforts, with utterly disastrous results. (More on that experience and lessons learned in a subsequent article.). The very expensive NY based creative agency's tag line was: "Engineered for the Everyday Adventurer," which cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars to come up with after hours of focus group feedback. (You can only image how we felt when we discovered that it was almost identical to one of our competitor's, Bluffwork's, tag line: "Built for Life's Everyday Adventure.").
• Finally, I gave up and decided not to be clever and used simply: "Innovative Pockets, Unique Features, Great Looking Clothing." Although not memorable, I decided that was fine, and moved on.
• Then, I hired an experienced copywriter to help us with the copy for the About Us section of our website. I provided the copywriter with some current versions of our About Us page and historical stuff, and several thousand dollars later, he came back with GOLD. I couldn't believe it. I LOVED it, and told him as such. In addition to perfect About Us copy, buried within was the perfect tag line.

It wasn't ROCKET SCIENCE.

Now, here's the funny part. What I loved about his work was the tag line. I asked him to redline the changes he made to our copy, and he admitted that he changed very little, just tightened things up a bit. I asked him about the tag line. He said, "it was there when you gave me the first draft. I liked it a lot, so kept it. After all, it's not rocket science!"

So, drumroll please.... If it's not rocket science, then what is it???

Well, for SCOTTeVEST, it's POCKET SCIENCE!

The tag line was buried in our About Us section for the last 7+ years. Since then, I have shared this tag line with tons of people, and universally people LOVE it. We have incorporated it into our TV Commercials, Print Ads, Digital, and people have responded extremely well.

In fact, we intend to lean in heavily using this phrase in short TV and Radio commercials, with just, the tag line, "It's not Rocket Science, it's Pocket Science, www.SCOTTeVEST.com."

I think it will be enough to get people interested in learning more and visiting the website. Who doesn't want to learn about Pocket Science. That's what we do! We are Pocket Scientists! All of our copy on our website will be revised to focus on this.

So, what is the lesson here for you.

For us, it wasn't rocket science. It was timing and dumb luck. And, it was Pocket Science. Hopefully, the next time you hear someone say, "it's not rocket science," you will think of and say, "it's Pocket Science, SCOTTeVEST".

PS: I shared a draft of this article with my friend, Hap Klopp, Founder of The North Face, and Chairman of SCOTTeVEST Advisory Board, and he responded: "I love this. I love the tag line—it’s simplicity, it’s memorable nature. The learning experience I would suggest might be one other thing. I personally feel that all great tag lines are generally sort of “personal dialogs” rather than dogmatic statements or clarifying statements. They are almost as if you and I are animatedly talking. The ones you cite (Nike, Wendy's, BMW, and your new one) all seem to be that. Namely, tag lines which are very good are usually internalized, humanized and, to a degree emotional. Those characteristics cannot be generated by groups and group think (remember my line “Search the parks in all the cities, you’ll never see a statue of committees.”). However you got there, I congratulate you. Cheers, Hap"