Testimonials Matter More Than Taglines

In business, it's understandable why there's always a catchy phrase. Taglines make it easy to remember a certain product or service. Now I can go and repeat the same tagline of "It's More Fun in the Philippines" which is catchy but preposterous... it's better served as a mission/vision than a tagline. Let's think about how testimonials will matter over taglines. The problem of the tagline as I said, is it's overly used and abused when there are many taglines that are not misleading yet inviting, credible yet inviting. It's very misleading because you are suggesting that the Philippines is the best place on Earth. The tagline "Yours Truly Singapore" and "Uniquely Singapore" don't brag Singapore to be the best place on Earth. Even Singapore has its issues... no country is ever spared from issues. Now here's the problem of the tagline when the testimonial comes in.

Now let's think about the experience of some tourists to the Philippines. Now what if they didn't go to nice places like Cebu, Bohol, Surigao, Bacolod or Iloilo? What if they ended up in Tondo? Let's just say the Department of Tourism published the tagline "Tondo Manila, Best Place in the Philippines" and "Pagpag: The Worldwide Famous Filipino Food". Now anybody who doesn't know about the Philippines' situation is going to get duped like those butthurts who ate some yucky Filipino food and said they'll never eat Filipino food again, missing the fact that there are delicious ones. Now a tourist goes to Tondo, Manila thinking it's paradise and found Tondo was NOTHING like the tagline!

Yes Tondo, that crime-infested little Bangadlesh of the Philippines. Other places in the Philippines have warm, hospitable people and squatters aren't much of a problem. But what about Tondo? It's a place where slums are abundant, crime is rampant... and anybody who thinks it's really the best place on Earth is an IDIOT! Worse, such a tourist got to taste pagpag and here's what happens. The angry tourist blogs, "WTF! They say Tondo, Manila is the best place in the Philippines! Puh-lease! I can't believe how deceitful the Department of Tourism is! When I went there... it was so inhospitable and I lost a lot of my money stolen by crooks! I had to ask for help from my friends in Japan and the Philippines to bail me out! I spent the night really alone and cold... and for that pagpag? They call that a delicacy?! I vomited tons of puke! WTF! I will tell my folks that if they are planning to go to the Philippines, Tondo is NOT the best place in the Philippines!"

That proves that testimonials matter more than taglines. While taglines do matter, testimonials will matter more. You can have all the fancy dancing yet if the tagline and the product don't match then don't expect returns. Make sure your tagline matches your product.