Could UPS Have the Worst Tagline Ever?
Funny, I thought the United Parcel Service delivered parcels.
- Vague: Sounds like it was written by a marketing committee.
- Self centered: No suggestion of a benefit to their clients.
- Immodest: “we are the sun in the solar system of commerce”
- Hard to read: Long words + moving vehicle = missed opportunity.
Al Ries said good branding requires two elements: a visual hammer and a verbal nail. The brain stores ideas as words, so brands need to be distilled to their essence, a verbal nail. I’d suggest the entire brand experience, not just the visual branding, should drive this message home.
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10 Responses to "Could UPS Have the Worst Tagline Ever?"
July 7, 2009
UPS does a lot more than deliver parcels. You would be surprised.
July 7, 2009
Sounds like a good title to me…it’s showing that they are prepared to help businesses move forward in this negative economy.
July 11, 2009
>>it’s showing that they are prepared to help businesses move forward in this negative economy.
Then I’d suggest using the word “VALUE”….or “working harder or you”. “Synchronizing commerce” is a long way from helping business advance.
>>UPS does a lot more than deliver parcels.
I wish their tagline could explain this in tangible language.
The Fed, FTC, or electronic funds transfers might “synchronize commerce” — UPS still seems to deliver goods efficiently.
July 16, 2009
This sounds more like a mission statement than a good tagline. There’s a difference between being accurate/descriptive and being inspiring/motivational. The tagline is meant to capture the essence of the brand. So I would agree that this doesn’t posses the “wow” factor like Nike’s “Just Do It” or the old “Coke Adds Life.”
March 6, 2010
I guess “we synch world commerce” wouldn’t make it, especially on UPS ships.
July 4, 2010
they do lots of different things, they are great
June 1, 2011
I just had to comment that I really laughed aloud at Anonymous March 6, 2010’s comment.
December 1, 2011
[…] 2011June 2011May 2011April 2011March 2011February 2011January 2011 We always knew UPS had the worst tagline.“Synchronizing the world of Commerce”Al Ries said it was…Vague Sounds like it was […]
January 13, 2016
I totally disagree; it’s a great tagline / slogan.
The name of the company, a TLA (which is *the* most wellknown TLA, and so forth…) of course, is not escpecially well chosen, though, but that’s too late to change, I believe.
In Danish (and I guess, a lot of other languages), “ups” is the same onomatopoeia as “ooops”! Yeah… ooops – from the start – UPS!
August 1, 2017
[…] We always knew UPS probably had the worst tag line. […]