Confession: I follow GoPro far more than I should. From missing its IPO entirely (I would have invested at $24, sadly, I don’t follow the tech IPO market that much) to missing buying it at $30, $40, $50, $60 and then $70, GoPro has become a major part of my daily routine. Speaking of which, I love how they tried to place the blame for Michael Schumacher’s accident on his GoPro camera; next, they’ll be blaming the snow for being too slippery or the sun for shining too bright. Is it honestly that hard to understand that someone made a mistake? If you crash head first at full speed into a rock, you are in trouble, helmet or no helmet and camera or no camera (although the helmet does helps).
Anyway, I know absolutely nothing about cameras and photography in general, but I do know that GoPro’s slogan is “Be a hero.”
What kind of slogan is that? Don’t get me wrong: it’s not bad, but we’ll agree it’s not the slogan of the century. If you looked only at the image above, you’d believe GoPro make some cool thing like immersive video games, high-end tech cars or some kind of secret spy tools, but no, they just make what 1,000 companies have been doing for the last 50 years: cameras.
Make no mistake: I have no doubt GoPro makes excellent, and perhaps even outstanding cameras. In fact, if I ever had to buy a camera, I would go with GoPro 100% sure. GoPro is probably very good at whatever it is that it is doing, but at the end of the day, it’s just a company that makes cameras.
In case you’re curious (I was), its slogan is based around its product line, called “Hero.” That’s one way to name a camera, I suppose. Next year’s line is going to include “Champion,” Savior,” and “Martyr.”
GoPro: Be a Martyr
But anyway, the main point of this article was that its slogan sucked. You’re not going to be a hero for carrying a camera with you. If you listened to the news closely, these days, everyone is an hero. You go to fight in Iraq? You’re a hero. You beat cancer? You’re a hero. You crossed the street without getting hit? You’re a hero. You got a camera with you? Yeah, right. Unless your camera is magical and manages to help you save a child from drowning, it’s not going to help you become a hero.
Compare GoPro’s slogan to some others from well-known companies:
Can we agree those are much, much better that GoPro’s? Even if you had no idea what “Dupont” was, you’d know it has something to do with science. Some research facility, perhaps? For Porsche, you’d know it’s some kind of high-end product and for Wal-mart, you’d know they offer low-prices. Even Nike’s slogan shows that it’s about doing something, so you could probably guess it’s a sports company. All those slogans, in fact, illustrate exactly the message the company is trying to convey.
But GoPro has nothing of the sort. Which is why I propose my own slogan:
Here. You can thank me later, GoPro. I’ll take a couple of thousands of shares off your hands if that helps.
GoPro or go home
This slogan is in my mind far better for a few reasons:
- It challenges the reader. Don’t want to buy a GoPro camera? Well, go with the low-end, cheap, crappy products then. In other words, go home.
- It’s a false choice: You can either a) Go Pro, i.e. instantly become a pro or b) Go Home and remain a loser
- It expresses that this is an outdoor product. Nobody is going to be excited about a camera to film their boring indoor daily lives.
- It doesn’t play on the overused, trite “hero” statement.
- It shows that it’s a high-end product. I should note that the company’s name in itself is perfect. It really gives you the impression that “pros” use $300 cameras.
- It’s catchy and much more rememberable than “Be a hero.”
- The “go home” part is not capitalized, to show just how less desirable that option is.
I don’t get it. What’s the point of naming your company GoPro if you’re not going to use that slogan? Might as well not bother writing one.
On a completely unrelated note, I am not bitter at all that I didn’t buy the IPO at $24 when it kicked to $98 months later. That’s one way to make a nearly 400% return in three months.
Exactly!! A soldier is a hero, not someone who films themselves for validation