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The Mind Music of Meter: Creating Catchier Tag Lines and Slogans
by Marcia Yudkin
Ever look at a company's tag line and wish it were punchier or perkier? I sure have.
For example, here are three slogans pulled from Memoryhooks.com that have a lot going for them:
Growing profits, reducing taxes.
For employees a cut above the rest, call us and we will send the very best.
The Mortgage Broker with the 'Can-Do' Attitude!
In each case, their core idea is creative and appealing. Say them out loud, however. The rhythm clunks. The words need to be tightened up and rearranged so that the slogan has a regular, musical rhythm. Since there's no melody – we're not proposing to turn them into radio jingles – the pattern of emphasis and de-emphasis we're looking for is what English scholars call "meter."
There's no need to bore you with a list of the various types of meters, because most people can instinctively perceive the difference between a line with meter and one without (or one whose meter is flawed). All you have to do is listen carefully as you say the words aloud, and transform the line into a series of downbeats and offbeats. For instance, "Growing profits, reducing taxes" becomes "DUM de DUM de, de DUM de DUM de." Now you can see why it didn't feel quite right: The second phrase in the slogan has an extra syllable at the start that prevents it from being regular and balanced.
Readers and listeners don't count or analyze syllables and stresses, of course, but the mind unthinkingly registers these patterns as well-ordered or jumbled, the same way we recognize when someone has hit a dissonant, wrong key on the piano in a series of notes.
To make it catchier, you need to fiddle with the wording so the slogan has the rhythm, "DUM de DUM de, DUM de DUM de" or some other arrangement with the same pattern on both sides of the divide. The possibilities for the first example include:
Growing profits, cutting taxes.
Grow your profits, cut your taxes.
Higher profits, lower taxes.
Earn more profits, pay less taxes.
In the second example, "For employees a cut above the rest, call us and we will send the very best," it's difficult to find a meter because there is way too much word clutter. To improve this tag line, identify the crucial words – employees, rest, send, best, perhaps – and try to get the idea across with a tighter rhythm and as few additional words as possible. A first attempt:
Employees a cut above the rest. We only send the very best.
That's better, but it still stumbles at the beginning. Consider instead:
Staff a cut above the rest. We only send the very best.
DUM de DUM de DUM de DUM. de DUM de DUM de DUM de DUM.
A huge improvement, don't you agree?
Now let's consider "The Mortgage Broker with the 'Can-Do' Attitude!" Analyzing the rhythm, it comes out as somewhat of a mess: "de DUM de DUM de de de DUM de DUM de de." Again, identify the fundamental words in the slogan, discard the clutter and rebuild it with a regular pattern of emphasis:
The "Can-Do" Mortgage Broker
de DUM de DUM de DUM de
Although these examples rely on what we could call a double rhythm – DUM de or de DUM – triple rhythms certainly make for catchy tag lines and slogans, too – DUM de de or de de DUM.
Elegance in a slogan comes from getting the meter right.
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms catchy tag lines, company names and product names according to the client's criteria. For a systematic process of coming up with a compelling new name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm .
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