I’ve been taking a class in marketing and have learned a lot.  Marketing for handmade guitars such as the ones I make has not been well studied.  The luthier’s slogan is the luthier’s initial statement about his work to the yet unseen customer that creates the all-important first impression; and the crucial importance of The Right Slogan is often overlooked.  Slogans are effective insofar as they are concise, immediate, and serve to encapsulate a complex message into an easy to assimilate sound-byte sized phrase or sentence.  It is the way of the new millennium, and everybody knows this.

The raison d’etre of the slogan is to get the client’s attention and invoke a receptive mental state in him.  An effective slogan is formed by strict adherence to principles of marketing long known to professionals in important fields such as advertising and politics.  These are: pithiness, contrast, understatement, humor, hyperbole, mellifluous glibness, humility, claim to excellence, authority of tone, and flat-out lying. There’s also Putting Down The Competition … but we’re honest people and we don’t do that. We leave that to the politicians.

We have received a Glossary of Advertising Terms and Their Exact Meanings from the Sum, Wan, & Orother Advertising Corporation of Compton, California.  It is a primer for education about some basic building blocks to successful sloganeering.  Amazingly, all their examples apply to lutherie. Here is a sampling:

Improved: some of the most obvious faults eliminated

New Improved: we also changed the box

All-purpose: does a mediocre job in several ways

Jumbo: too big to fit in the airplane’s overhead compartment

Compact: understanding or agreement (such as our no refund policy)

Disposable:  can be used only once

Durable: can be used twice

Delicate: breaks easily

Fine:  imposition of a monetary penalty

Subtle: inaudible or invisible

Compensated nuts and saddles: these have been paid for