Tag Line for Serious Strength

May 13, 2006

I’ll tell ya – I’m stumped.

I’ve hired 2 professional companies to think of a Serious Strength tag line and neither one could not come up with anything better than I could.

Right now we are using ‘Results. Not Typical.’ But I don’t like it. You’ll understand why later.

Some were so bad I was shocked.

"Yeah, like what?!" I’m sure you’re thinking.

OK – I’ll indulge. Here’s a couple they came up with:

"The Workout That Doesn’t Work."

"The Body That Builds You"

Some were OK, but most lacked punch and more importantly, an overt benefit.

What is an overt benefit? An overt benefit directly addresses a strongly felt need.

Let’s take Fred’s Shoeshine Shop as an example. A feature of my shoeshine shop is that I alone use Spanky’s shoe shine cream. However, Spanky’s shoe shine cream is a feature – not a benefit. I mean, so what that I use Spanky’s shoe cream – who gives a hoot?

What does Spanky’s cream do for the customer?

Spanky’s cream allows for a faster shoe shine. AH – a benefit emerges. Fast shoe shine.

Now we’re talking.

But a fast shoeshine is a mere benefit – not an overt one.

How fast of a shoeshine is the question.

A 30 second shoe shine

Now that’s overt.

So on my shoeshine shop sign I remove:

Spanky’s Cream Shine

and replace it with:

The 30 Second Shine

Business triples in a week.

Of course, I’d better be telling the truth or biz will crash to a halt pretty fast.

But here is the problem. You can believe a 30 second shoe shine is possible.

Most people cannot and will not believe the concept of a 30 minute a week fitness program. In fact, it directly opposes the world view of how much exercise is needed or why bother.

And when your product’s major selling point sounds like major snake oil, you’ve got a major problem. Result: You are ignored.

None of the marketing pros I hired got either concept all that well.

I’ve made a personal commitment to you that that every single blog you read will educate and offer you something of value, hence the title: "This Blogs For You!"

So here’s the value of this one.

Anyone who submits a tag line that gets used as the Serious Strength tag will receive an autographed book and DVD and 5 complimentary training sessions with me personally at Serious Strength which NEVER expire. So for all you ‘out of towners’ you can always come to the gym whenever you visit NYC.

Those who can never make it to Serious Strength will receive an autographed book and DVD and may gift the 5 sessions to a local friend.

You’ll also have the satisfaction that you created the tag when we go public – someday.

Send all submissions to [email protected]

I’ll alert the winner, if any, on this blog. You may offer as many tags as you like. Alliteration is always a plus as is honesty.

Reminder: "Just Do IT" is already taken.

Think Overt Benefit. Think honesty. Think gut level. Think easy to understand and grasp.

Folks these days, according to Seth Godin are so inundated with information they will ignore everything they see unless a product is so different and overt it is like a purple cow in a valley of brown ones.

Even then…

Good luck to all! I’m excited!

Contact Information

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New York, NY 10024

212.579.9320
[email protected]

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25 Watchung Plaza
Montclair, NJ 07042

973.233.1013
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