I saw a billboard on the way home from work the other day that made me think. It was for a custom home builder and had a slogan like: “Homes designed as thoughtfully as they are built.”
At first glance this looks like a warm-fuzzy statement. However, it is actually a fragile house of cards.
Comparisons are Tricky
Let’s take a look at this slogan and see why it could lead to trouble. There are two pieces to the puzzle: the house design and the house construction.
The slogan tries to convince us that the new homes are designed and constructed thoughtfully. After all, our homes are very personal to us and we’d hope that great thought was put into their building.
Unfortunately, where the slogan takes a misstep is that the thoughtfulness of the design relies on how they are built. This seems a little backwards.
What does the customer see?
Customers may never know, care, or think about how a home is designed. The process an architect goes through in designing a house is probably completely foreign to most people.
However, many of us have seen a house being built. We’ve probably driven down a street with some construction going on.
Beware of Visual Imagery
Typically, home construction sites are a mess. Debris and trash, raw materials, and dusty workers are scattered all over a site. “Thoughtfully” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when I see a construction site.
This custom home builder has hinged their quality statement on an image that doesn’t quite resonate with customers. “Thoughtfully” does not equal the chaos of a construction site.
Use with Caution
Are you trying to communicate the quality of your product or service by comparing it to something else? If so, try to ensure that the object of comparison has positive feelings and emotions in the hearts of your customers.