Submitted by Peter Lawrence Thompson
DLP Tourism spokesman Richard Sealy is mistaken. He leaked the report from the Hilary Beckles led committee to come up with a new tourism slogan in the hope of embarrassing the Government; however the committee has actually done an amazingly good job.
See Link to Nation newspaper story – Sealy: Slogan an embarrassment
I actually feel that I owe Professor Beckles and his committee an apology because I stated publicly that they were not up to the job, having little relevant expertise among the unwieldy membership of 18. Sorry Dr. Beckles.
They came up with three alternatives; “It’s A Bajan Thing”; “ Live Like A Bajan” and “Barbados: Feel Free”. This reminds me of the oldest consultants’ trick in the book: make three suggestions of which two are so obviously garbage that the client has no choice but to select the third.
The third suggestion, “Barbados: Feel Free” is a better tourism slogan than any we have ever had in the past. In fact, it is one of the best I have ever encountered globally. Let me explain.
A slogan needs to follow the the guidelines below and be:
- Brief
- Memorable
- Allusive (because it needs to mean subtly different things to different segments of your audience)
- An appeal to emotion (because buying decisions are all made with the emotions and then rationalised intellectually afterwards)
- A call to action
If you doubt me just take a look at the most successful marketing slogans of our lifetime:
- Nike – Just Do It.
- Apple – Think Different.
- Wendy’s – Where’s the Beef?
- Coca-Cola – Open Happiness.
Each one follows the guidelines that I pointed out.
“Barbados: Feel Free” is better than any tourism slogan that we have ever had. “Feel Free” is an explicit invitation to drop by for a visit, and it is the sort of relaxed invitation you extend to social equals: to family or close friends. The feeling of freedom appeals to every psychographics and demographic because everyone invests it with what feels like freedom to them. It can appeal to locals as well as visitors because that feeling of freedom is aspirational for every human being.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.