“What happens on your iPhone, Stays on your iPhone” announces an Apple ad looming over CES (a major tech trade show) in Las Vegas. A clever take on the “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” theme that every corporate attendee to every event in Vegas has had thrown at them. Never mind that the sleazy stories do inevitably leak out. After all, though the iPhone itself is very secure, the dodgy third party apps that we download are a big fat door to let out our secrets.
But leaving aside the accuracy, the Apple tagline or slogan is an amazing narrative coup, because it gets everyone talking about security rather features or the lack thereof.
Back in 1986 Apple used “The power to be your best” which was a great capture of their corporate mission. Then in 1997, partly in response to IBM’s Think slogan, Apple launched their “Think Different’ campaign. Brilliant.
(The 90s produced many fabulous Taglines – check out our top 9 tagline picks. And yes, Apple is in that list!)
But then Steve Jobs was a superb marketer who admired the tagline of another company, Nike, and explained why in a video during the launch of the Think different campaign.
Steve Jobs understood the power of the Apple tagline. Many new brands don’t have one. And old brands like Wipro have dropped the tagline. Time to think different?
