The Marketing Phrase I Hate

You see it all over.  It’s a platitude.  It’s presumptuous.  It’s trite.  It’s ineffective.  When you are faced with an advertising deadline and you need a catchy phrase, I hope you’ll think twice about publishing a public ad that starts with the word “YOUR.”  For example, “Your hometown jeweller” or “Your source for Canadian diamonds” or “Your favorite place to buy jewellery.” 

I can just imagine a consumer driving down the road when they spot your bill-board.  They look at the tag-line.  Their eyes open zombie-wide, when they read “Your source for Canadian diamonds.”  They then solemnly repeat “my source for Canadian diamonds …  my source for Canadian diamonds … my source …”  as they cut across three lanes of traffic, turn their car around and seemingly against their will, they drive to your store and buy a $10,000 Canadian diamond.

We wish.  The truth is, nobody wants to belong to a club that would have them as a member.  By starting your ad with the word “your,” what you’re saying is; in order to become a member of your store’s valued clientele all they have to do is read your ad.  I hope that being one of your valued clients carries more prestige than that.