The Power of Polysemous Slogans
Darren Bridger
Co-Founder and VP Science at CloudArmy | Author of Neuro Design & Decoding the Irrational Consumer
There are cognitive psychology-based best practices for taglines and slogans. One of my favourites is the effectiveness of ‘Polysemous’ slogans. These have multiple potential meanings and create deeper engagement and therefore memorability even if they are simple on the surface*. Because we think about their multiple meanings, we are more likely to remember them (more thinking can = more memory formation) but we aren’t put off by them as they can still be simple.
An example of this is a tagline that the gym chain ‘The Gym’ used: ‘Find your fit’. It can mean ‘find what’s right for you’ , ‘discover you have become fit’, ‘discover you’ve become more attractive’, ‘discover that The Gym is a good fit for you’ etc.
Other examples include: A tax preparation service: "You get more in return.”, a car insurance company offering discounts/benefits: "Safe drivers get it.”, a phone provider offering better quality sound reception than traditional cellular companies: "The clear alternative to cellular."
Of course, for them to be effective, the different meanings must be relevant to the brand, and at least reasonably obvious for its target customers to decode.
Dimofte, C.V. and Yalch, R.F., 2007. Consumer response to polysemous brand slogans.?Journal of consumer research*,?33(4), pp.515-522.
Docteur en Neurosciences??15 ans d'expérience en Sciences Cognitives Appliquées ??Fondateur et dirigeant de U'FINK
1 个月I use a polysemous slogan for my company (it's French, so unfortunately it doesn't translate well into English) and I must say that people always remember it very well!
Another great post Mr. Bridger. In NLP, we call this 'ambiguity of scope': We don't know which meaning the meaning means... EG: We are confusing people. (are we actively confusing other people, or are we people who are confusing?). When I taught people to create copy this way, the structure I gave them was an unspecified verb, then an unspecified plural noun or nominalised verb. Clarifying meaning Are we clarifying the meaning, or does the meaning clarify? Once you know the linguistic format, they are easy to generate. They work because they create cognitive strain, which increases memorability and reduces our filtering capabilities, making us more suggestible.