Off the Cuff: What’s In a Name? Part 4 of 4: Descriptors

SALES & MARKETING

Off the Cuff: What’s In a Name? Part 4 of 4: Descriptors

April 26, 2010
By Mark L. Venit, MBA, Contributing Writer

In Parts 1, 2 and 3, our discussion covered considerations in naming or re-naming our company and using tag lines to better position and define your enterprise in the minds of your customers and prospects. Now, let’s look at putting your tag line to work for you to help make your case in the minds of prospects and customers.

The classic tag line developed by industry pioneer Dan Gray, better known as “Daffy Dan,” in the 1970s focused on the famous Cleveland entrepreneur’s innovative concept of imprinting his “DD” icon on sleeves of the shirts that his company decorated. Say "Daffy Dan’s" to someone from Cleveland and they’re likely to smile and say out loud in response, “If your T-shirt doesn’t have a DD on the sleeve, it’s just underwear!”

Daffy Dan is still a well-recognized celebrity in Cleveland, known for his signature handlebar mustache. But he's even more well-known for his company’s catchy, memorable and powerful tag line that has been hard at work in helping to position the firm ever since its debut. And despite its age, it is still proudly proclaimed in all the firm’s advertising and marketing materials. And the company’s shirts still get the double-D icon treatment.

In a campaign I designed several years back for a Midwestern U.S. client, I developed the tag line “Instant Answers, Fast Quotes, and Guaranteed 3-Day Delivery.” Radio was the primary medium used to get the word out; the airtime budget was $16,000, run over eight weeks on three stations: soft rock, country, and the Rush Limbaugh Show on a news-talk station. The tag line addressed the frustration prospects had with the competition, which consistently proved slow on response and evasive or impossible on giving quotes to callers seeking information and pricing. Typical competitors’ phone responses included “We don’t quote over the phone,” “We have to see your art before we give a price,” “You have to speak with the owner and he’s out until about 4[p.m.]” and “We’ll beat any price.”

The campaign struck a nerve and scored more than 40 new accounts, whose purchasing volume in 12 months (measured from the onset of the radio spots) totaled $141,000. And that was in addition to the business stimulated from former customers and existing accounts. Given that some 80% of these accounts will continue to buy from the company (data source: Apparel Graphics Institute 2008 survey) for many years, the value of this campaign could easily chalk up a half-million dollars in five years, as well as generating more volume through referrals.

Here are some tag lines I’ve used successfully for decades, many of which still popular with my clients.

• Targeting business customers? "We make good companies look great!"
• Targeting teams and leagues? “The best-dressed teams in town come to [your company name]”
• Positioning against slower competitors? "Guaranteed 3-Day Turnaround"
• Positioning against low-balling competitors? "Get the good stuff”

The all-time most popular tag line among my clients for the past 30 years? "We sell attention!" It sometimes takes the form of "We sell attention! You get results!"

(Editor's Note: "We sell attention!” is protected via copyright and its use is restricted only to companies who’ve secured legal authorization. For details on obtaining a license, please contact the author).

Differentiating Your Company From the Pack
Each of the tag lines above and, of course, those you’ll develop on your own help differentiate your company. Why is this effort necessary?

Let look behind that tag line “We sell attention!” for its goal or goals. The offer, claim and positioning strategy addresses specific aspects of prospects’ perceptions about what they’re buying. Or, rather, what they think they’re buying.

“We sell attention!” is designed to jog would-be buyers minds’ to expand their thinking past the notion that all sellers and producers of decorated apparel do the same thing on the same products — with the same results. The typical unknowledgeable buyer believes all he needs to know to differentiate one vendor from another is the prices they’re charging. He believes that you, what you sell and what you do are commodities. His thinking here goes that if he’s buying flour, sugar, eggs, milk, gasoline, salt, tissue paper or toilet bowl cleaner, it’s all pretty much the same. So why pay more for any of these commodities? That’s essentially the same thinking they have about apparel decorators and apparel decorating — we are simply, in their minds, a commodity.

When pressed to think that there could be differences among any of the commodities suggested above, folks might adjust their thinking, although not by much. That’s the thinking that you need to combat the commoditization factor to successfully differentiate your company from the others. Your failing to change this perception leaves prospects committed to one main standard of differentiating you from the next guy: price.

Differentiation is a critical function of positioning; think of it simply as explaining why you’re different, or better, or friendlier, or easier to do business with, or smarter — or whatever else sets you apart from the pack. You need to say it, show it and prove it if you are to make your case successfully.

Descriptors
A descriptor is a significant word, phrase or specific terminology used to help your customers and prospects get a quick handle on just what it is that you do, sell or offer in the way of other benefits and services. It’s easiest to explain it by presenting it in conjunction with a company name.

True North Custom Apparel and Promotions sells and does lots of different things. To get people who see their ads, Web sites, signage or other materials zoned in quickly, True North has added a few words that get right to the point.

True North Custom Apparel & Promotions
SCREEN PRINTING • EMBROIDERY • GRAPHIC DESIGN • PROMOWARES
We make good companies look great!

Kinda says it all, doesn’t it? Hopefully by reading Parts 1-4 on company names, tag lines and descriptors, you’re now on firm ground to effect a better position for your company. Run with the ball!

Mark L. Venit, MBA, is president of Apparel Graphics Institute Ltd., Ocean Pines, Md., which provides management and marketing consulting and proprietary research to apparel graphics companies throughout the Americas and Europe. He also is the chairman of ShopWorks Software LLC, a provider of industry-specific business software. Venit teaches pricing, strategic marketing, salesmanship and other business management topics at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. You can contact him at markvenit@cs.com.

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