Our “great taglines” series continues with Kikkoman Soy Sauce. Connect with Kikkoman on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Soy sauce isn’t normally something we give a lot of thought to. Typically, Jina Yoo perfects our dish so we’d feel guilty putting any kind of additional seasoning on it. We enjoy anything related to the Iron Chef brand, and so we spent the Sunday eveningbetween Christmas and New Year’s watching the Next Iron Chef (side note: Congrats to Alex Guarnaschelli for taking home the title of Iron Chef) when this ad from Kikkoman popped on our television:
Other than the length, this “film” really jumped out at us. The tagline used here, “Make Haste Slowly” is a complete contradiction in every way imaginable. After watching that though, it makes complete sense. Kikkoman is committed to doing things correctly, and worries more about doing that than with the amount of time it takes. When someone tells you to make haste, you’re not being told to hurry up. You’re being told to excel as quickly as you can.
The message delivered here is to excel as quickly as possible while using as much time as it takes. That’s truly a wonderful way to go about your business. It ensures success in an expedient manner; but that manner is concerned more with quality than moving quickly. The sense you get from Kikkoman is that it truly cares about the product it produces in Wisconsin, Japan, or wherever they may be located. A great tagline tells you everything you need to know about a company. Make Haste Slowly. That tells you all you need to know about Kikkoman.
