20. Microsoft Slogans Score a Trifecta: Three Persuasive Techniques

Microsoft’s venerable slogans, “Where do you want to go today?” and “Your potential, our passion,” are successful because each of them deploys three powerful persuasive selling factors: a call to action for Microsoft, a benefit to its customers, and the most persuasive word in the English language: you.

• Call to Action. The classic sales technique of asking for the order is usually expressed in taglines or slogans that hard-sell a company, its product, or its service. “Acme: Best of Breed,” “Acme: New and Improved!” or “Buy Acme Now While They Last!” These taglines are about the vendor and not about the buyer. Both Microsoft taglines are about the vendor, too. Although they are more soft-sell than Acme’s, they still clearly indicate that Microsoft has, respectively, the capability to get its customers wherever they want to go and that Microsoft has the passion to help them realize their potential. However, both of these taglines go one vital step beyond Microsoft itself by involving the buyer—with a benefit.

• Benefit. A constant fact of life in business is that most salespersons—thoroughly schooled in their product and enamored with its features—neglect to state its benefits. Ask senior sales managers about their greatest challenge, and most of them are sure to respond that it is to remind their sales force to sell benefits. Some taglines do get it right, as in “Tastes Better,” “Costs Less,” or “Works Faster.” Both Microsoft taglines are infused with benefits. The first indicates that Microsoft’s customers can achieve instant gratification, and the second indicates that they can indeed fulfill their potential.

• You. Chapter 2, “Obama and You,” referenced an unsubstantiated Yale University study of persuasive words, with you leading the list. Yale never actually conducted such a study. The first unconfirmed and unattributed reference to a similar list is from an ad in the New York Times in 1961; only later was the list attributed to Yale—again unconfirmed. Over time, the list has taken on a life of its own, and now it has become a full-fledged urban legend—a vivid example of pre-Web viral marketing.

Unsubstantiated or not, the persuasive power of you is undeniable because it addresses the end user of the statement directly. Microsoft involves its audience—the existing and potential customers of its products—with the you in “Where do you want to go today?” and in “Your potential, our passion.”

The first tagline ran from 1994 to 2002; the second began in 2003 and is still active today. Just before the launch of the latter slogan, the New York Times ran a long profile of the company called “Microsofter,” in which CEO Steve Ballmer “laid out a new mission statement for the company: ‘To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.’”^F20.1

The statement prompted Steve Bodow, the writer of the New York Times article, to comment, “This extraordinarily expansive statement was notable for how little it specifically said about software or computers. Instead, it was about values and corporate culture.” Mr. Bodow was describing a soft-sell call to action and a set of benefits.

By mixing those two features with a liberal dose of you, Microsoft created two picture-perfect and powerful marketing brands.

Take a lesson from the Microsoft slogans: Ask for the order, offer benefits to your audience, and use you as often as you can.