Robert J. Smith, BBA, MBA, MFA, Ph.D., is a business consultant and founder of Robert J. Smith Productions and Smith Profits.
The IMDb logline for Somebody Up There Likes Me, starring Paul Newman, Pier Angeli and one of my all-time favorites Everett Sloane is, “Boxer Rocky Graziano’s biopic, based on his autobiography, from childhood to his World Middleweight Championship title win at age 28 in 1947.”
It’s nice to see what life may have been like in the year both of my parents were born. The year 1947 was the beginning of the baby boom. Post-World War II, America was indeed the land of opportunity.
The film’s tagline, “A girl can lift a fellow to the skies,” may have inspired its star with an eventual tagline for Newman’s Own Pizza and the Newman’s Own Foundation. Both carry what I consider to be one of the best taglines of all: “100% profits to help kids.”
Tough Times
The years leading up to 1947 were another story. Rocky Graziano, whose real name was Thomas Rocco Barbella, was often in trouble with the law. Rocco, as he was originally known, was in and out of reform school, jail and prison.
The middleweight, who initially fought under his real name of Barbella, reportedly punched an officer and went AWOL from the U.S. Army. At the same time, my grandfather, Robert J. Smith Sr., only punched officers in the ring and became the U.S. Army Air Force Middleweight Boxing Champion. Barbella eventually began using the name Graziano when he fought. In Somebody Up There Likes Me, Rocky tells his eventual trainer that his last name is Graziano, “like the Italian wine.” However, I’ve seen some accounts claim that he simply took his grandfather’s last name, while others say he took the last name of his sister’s boyfriend.
Ah, the magic of movies. As for the Graziano Family of Wines, they market their business by saying, “Our wines reflect an artistic blend of our Italian heritage with a touch of California flair.” As far as business after boxing, the story goes that Graziano opened a restaurant when he retired from the ring. That New York restaurant was named Rocky Graziano’s Pizza Ring. I haven’t found the taglines that Rocky used to turn that restaurant into a successful franchise.
Tough Fighters
In my last article, “Requiem For A Heavyweight Tagline,” I covered the business taglines of two other retired professional boxers, George Foreman and Lloyd Ellett. Here are additional phrases that each of these fighters and businessmen have used:
• George Foreman’s grill: “Knock out the fat!”
• Lloyd Ellett’s Fight Shape Project: “Helping Executives Perform Like A Champion.”
Have you come up with a proven tagline for your business yet? If not, spar with Rocky and come up with one for Rocky Graziano’s Pizza Ring. From there, you’ll gain the experience to develop a new tagline for your business.
Here are some tips for creating effective taglines:
1. Differentiate your company from the competition. Don’t sound like everyone else. Stand out from the crowd.
2. Keep it short. War and Peace is for the library, not for your packaging, website or advertisements. Aim for six words or less. “Think” – IBM.
3. Make it memorable. The more your customers see your tagline, the more likely they are to remember it. Affix your tagline to your logo on your website and in all of your marketing and packaging materials.
By contrast, learn from these mistakes:
• Dr. Pepper Ten: The “It’s Not for Women” campaign alienated more than half of the population.
• AM/PM: “Imagine More Snacks Than You Can Imagine” must have come from the “Department of Redundancy Department.”
Tough Taglines
Of course, the purpose of your tagline is to influence customers to buy your products and services. Effective business taglines are not well suited to influence political or cultural views. Effective business taglines are at their best when they influence consumer behavior. The more effective the tagline, the more the tagline influences consumer purchases, the higher the sales, revenues and profits.
Influence is a topic that we will cover in great detail in future articles. For now, let’s consider Rocky Graziano’s influence on acting as well as boxing and business. When preparing for the role of Stanley Kowalski, the washed-up boxer in A Streetcar Named Desire, the great Marlon Brando based his portrayal on Rocky Graziano. In fact, it’s been said that Brando went to Rocky’s gym to study him. Of course, Graziano paid no attention to the young actor. However, Brando gave Rocky two tickets to the film premiere, and when Rocky saw the film, he’s known to have said, “The curtain went up, and on the stage is that son of a bitch from the gym, and he’s playing me.”
Another Brando and Malden film, One-Eyed Jacks, was partially written by Rod Serling, writer of Requiem for a Heavyweight. Of course, these days, Brando is the actor many believe to be the all-time greatest. As for Malden, he was as famous as a pitchman for American Express as he was for his 63 films. “American Express Traveler’s Cheques—don’t leave home without them.” As traveler’s cheques went out of style, that famous tagline evolved into a tagline for the AmEx credit card with many spokespeople promoting the tagline, “American Express, don’t leave home without it.”
Title Punch
If you’ve seen the film Somebody Up There Likes Me, you know that the title punch, which you learned about in my “Requiem” article, is spoken at the end of the movie. As Rocky and his wife, Norma, wave to adoring fans in a ticker-tape parade for the new world champion, screenwriters Ernest Lehman, Rowland Barber and Rocky Graziano himself have Paul Newman and Pier Angeli speak this dialogue:
Rocky: “You know, I’ve been lucky. Somebody up there likes me.”
Norma: “Somebody down here, too.”
There you have it. Get your business publicized, create a memorable tagline and somebody up there will like you, too. Do both the right way, and your customers and clients will like your business as well. Do both well and you and your business will be champions in your industry.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
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