Recently, I came across an article in Ad Age covering Best Buy’s most recent branding efforts.

Here’s what stopped me in my tracks:

“For the past 18 months, the U.S. marketing team, led by Drew Panayiotou, senior-VP marketing, has been working to reframe the retailer’s brand proposition. Now it’s ready to unveil its efforts. Best Buy’s new tagline, rolling out this summer, is ‘Making technology work for you.'”

And with that, the article continued with: “We want to be a brand that’s about more than that.”

I Hate To Kick A Brand When It’s Down

I do. But when you’ve spent 18 months and come out with “Making Technology Work for You” as the new tag line, we have to take a cold, hard reality check.

Best Buy, your culture is about unloading inventory, not helping the customer. Taking a page from Apple’s retail strategy by adding “Central Knowledge Desks” will not replace doing something real and authentic. My personal experiences unfortunately have not changed what is inbred into your culture

But let’s get more fundamental: That slogan is not only tired, it is a death sentence that is bland, old, worn, uninspired and not reflective of a single strand of your customer’s aspirations. It reeks of “marketing speak” and “committee-itis.”