Points of Parity

What really drives successful marketing programs is an essential understanding of what makes the product or service different from and better than alternatives.  It's a wonder, then, why so many marketing campaigns come up with taglines and positioning statements that are generic and, worse yet, boring and expected. 

If you've go a really great tagline or positioning statement, you shouldn't be able to substitute another brand name in the line and have it make sense.  When I did the advertising for Hawaii, our agency inherited a tagline: 

• Hawaii ... the most beautiful islands in the world.  

On the surface that sounds pretty good - but there's a problem.  Beautiful islands aren't unique to Hawaii.  Let's apply the substitution test.  The Mauritius Islands, the most beautiful islands in the world.  The Greek Islands, the most beautiful islands in the world.  The Caribbean, the most beautiful islands in the world.

 "The most beautiful islands in the world" flunks the test as a Hawaii tagline.  Not only was it substitutable ... it wasn't very believable.  When we tested the line with focus groups, a common reaction was "who says they're the most beautiful islands in the world?"

We changed the tagline to:

• Hawaii ... the islands of aloha. 

Try the test again.  The Mauritius Islands, the islands of aloha. 

Nope.  Can't be substituted.

That tagline was the signature and positioning statement until recently when the line was changed to (are you ready?):  "The Hawaiian Islands."  Well, yes, that's the name of the island chain.  But, alas, this time the tagline is devoid of another essential element:  a benefit.

It's not just Hawaii that's developed indistinct taglines and positioning statements.  I'm working on developing a position for Kapiolani Community College and in the course of my work I checked out the taglines of other colleges and universities.  There are hundreds of taglines that tout "success."  Can you envision any particular college associated with these taglines?

• Your path to a successful career starts here!
• Your path to success
• Success Stories, One student at a time
• Success depends on your next step.
• A Culture of Success
• The Character of Success
• Your Bridge to Success
• Connect with Success

The list goes on and on, but the point is that all of these positions are touting something that's a point of parity, not a point of difference.  By that definition, they're not very strong.