out a place in retail history. I remember when I purchased my first car. I had worked and saved and wanted to make sure I purchased a quality car. I hadn’t spent hours researching, because in my mind, quality equaled Volkswagen. I had seen the ads. I had read the words, Das Auto. The tagline became a symbol of the brand’s dedication to quality engineering. A Volkswagen was literally The Car I needed. I was sold.  I didn’t even bother looking at other car manufacturers. If it wasn’t a Volkswagen, I didn’t want it. I felt confident in my decision to purchase the car because I knew Volkswagen made quality cars. How did I know this? Because Volkswagen told me. I had somehow found a sense of connection and trust in Volkswagen, influencing one of my biggest purchasing decisions. On the other hand, when I surveyed my bathroom the other night and read the labels of the products that sat like soldiers in a perfect line – Nécessaire, Salt & Stone, CeraVe, Aesop, Bioderma – I tried to think of the taglines that accompanied these brands and fell short. Silence. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. I looked at my Hay bathrobe, peered over at my Joseph Joseph storage containers and realized I couldn’t, for the life of me, name a tagline associated with any of these brands. Why? Because today’s brands are molded differently. Taglines are a thing of the past. Consumers are no longer comfortable being sold to by corporations. Instead, they choose to be sold to by people they follow, people they know and people they often find on their illuminated phone screens. For example, just the other night, when I should have been asleep, I purchased a $70 body wash, because my favourite TikTok gal told me she found it hydrating. TikTok gal had cut through the noise. In seconds, I was sold. I sat with this for a second and realized I had just purchased from a brand I had never used before. But somehow, since watching that TikTok video, that testimonial played on a loop in my head until I received my order confirmation email. After listening to TikTok gal, I was suddenly intrigued by this brand, I felt like I needed this brand, and I couldn’t wait to try this brand. Yet, five minutes prior to opening up the app on my phone, I hadn’t even thought of this brand. Not once. Powerful? Absolutely. So, let’s take a look at the similarities between the old-school tagline and new-school testimonial. They both create a statement about the brand. They both make you feel a certain way about a brand. They both sit in your subconscious like building blocks on their way to a conversion. But the most glaring, obvious similarity is that they both managed to communicate a singular consumer benefit. Volkswagen had successfully sold itself as a quality vehicle and TikTok gal had sold me the body wash on the premise of it being hydrating. When brands are working on marketing campaigns, they often seek to be everything to everyone, completely dismissing the power of simple. And if you’re a creative you’ll be familiar with the dreaded eye-roll when you see a single-minded proposition in a creative brief written as anything but. Many brands have become obsessed with ticking boxes to make sure they’re messaging illustrates sustainability, diversity, innovation, authenticity – the list goes on. Here’s a thought. What if your brand just focused on one consumer benefit?  Nothing complex. Definitely nothing wordy. Just a simple benefit that a customer can rely on when it comes to experiencing your brand. What would happen if you made that the single driving force of all communication? It’s not a revelation and it’s not a new theory. It’s as old as time and a helpful reminder. ‘Keep it simple’ is the one thing the branding gods have taught us over the generations. Whether it be from a tagline or a testimonial, consumers will always connect with clarity. So, what’s your message going to be? Further reading: How brands can identify the North Star that will connect and convert consumers