from Hacker News

Slogans trigger resistance, Logos don't

by marksu on 8/4/11, 2:33 PM with 3 comments

• by cjlars on 8/4/11, 4:55 PM

  A slightly different interpretation is that slogans that aren't fully true trigger cognitive dissonance, which in turn triggers distrust.

  For example: "Save Money. Live Better." It isn't obviously true that living better follows saving money -- perhaps the money is better spent for a premium product. Yet the logo, essentially big text that says "Walmart," is very obviously true: It's a big store called Walmart.

  Logos generally don't make a statement and there's nothing to disagree with. So when you're shown a logo, you're free to draw on your own interpretation of the brand, but when your shown a slogan, you often experience this dissonance, which manifests as distrust.* Similarly, even the word "slogan" is enough to trigger this distrust, since you've been lied to so frequently in the past. I'd be curious how the effect differs from a true slogan, like "we are farmers," vs an untrue one like "the ultimate driving machine."

  *Note that the above is essentially "The Law of Candor," from the classic book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Reis and Jack Trout.

• by skalpelis on 8/4/11, 4:16 PM

  That reminds me how Ogilvy wrote in Confessions of an ad man - how his copywriting style was more successful (sales-wise) than others even though his copy was lengthier and more descriptive than others'.

• by intellection on 8/4/11, 4:11 PM

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