I believe that advertisers have learned how to speak the customer's language, and as a result, the taglines are more easily remembered. If FedEx used the slogan, "Become less tense, it's FedEx", it would not be as catchy - because people don't speak in that manner.

Apple has learned how to speak the customer's language, and then some! They have learned how customers use their devices and have made that as easy as possible. They have spread this "ease of doing business" throughout their entire customer experience - which is very cool!

Finally, to the promises. It is becoming a matter of public record, it seems, when a company doesn't keep their promises! For successful business into this future, we need to speak our customer's language, keep our promises, and engage our customers in the process. Only then will we help our customers to "Have it your way" and be successful ourselves.

I was being a little more subtle in my premise. We are so immersed in marketing messages that make promises (in our language, yes) that we are ever watchful for companies that keep them... and those who don't.

No company has done a better job at integrating the product design (ease of use) with product support (ease of business) that I have dealt with.

The more companies (and sometimes agencies) figure out that advertising is about finding the core, the true value of your promise, and building from that, the better. Thank you for adding to the conversation, Becky. Good reading you here.

There's an interesting dichotomy between the two points you raise here, Valeria. The first point concerns to the memorable nature of the advertising slogans themselves. The second is, that despite the fact that they are not intended to be, each slogan seems to be a promise of performance (i.e... Campbell's Soup is promising that its products are mmm, mmm good).

It is very unlikely that the advertisers intended to be promising performance when they came up with those catchy tag lines. They were just trying to get people's attention.

The interesting thing is that it almost becomes a self fulfilling prophecy at some point. The easily remembered promise creates interest in the product. So long as the company comes close to providing the promised result, the public associates the result with the company.

FedEx is a great example of this. There are dozens of overnight shippers, many of whom deliver reasonably well. But the combination of good service and the association of "when it has to be there overnight" with FedEx has made FedEx the first name associated with the concept. Campbells is the same. There may be a lot of good tasting soups, but only one tastes "mmm, mmm good."

This is a very good analysis, David. In branding we talk about aspirational statements. Behave or say you're going to behave as the brand you wish to be... or something like that. The slogans I picked are definitely also on the results you get side. In the mind of the consumer, the benefit becomes an expectation, doesn't it?

I suspect that part of the reason why the slogans are so powerful is that they indeed intended to deliver on something that was unique -- something the competition could not do. That's what we call the differentiating factor.

Because of the aspirational component, the prophecy is near to fulfilled. Remembering that employees are also subject to the repetition and use of those slogans. Hey, we are the guys who make that soup that is "Mmmm, Mmmm good"!

For FedEx the advantage was definitely that of first movers... and doing something that nobody else did before with their name -- they changed it to respond to the way customers were using it.