diff --git a/cli/dcoscli/marathon/main.py b/cli/dcoscli/marathon/main.py
index 540d144..74e5b8d 100644
--- a/cli/dcoscli/marathon/main.py
+++ b/cli/dcoscli/marathon/main.py
@@ -547,7 +547,8 @@ def _restart(app_id, force):
     if desc['instances'] <= 0:
         app_id = client.normalize_app_id(app_id)
         emitter.publish(
-            'Unable to restart application {!r} because it is stopped'.format(
+            'Unable to perform rolling restart of application {!r} '
+            'because it has no running tasks'.format(
                 app_id,
                 desc['instances']))
         return 1
diff --git a/cli/tests/integrations/cli/test_marathon.py b/cli/tests/integrations/cli/test_marathon.py
index e95f13a..92659e7 100644
--- a/cli/tests/integrations/cli/test_marathon.py
+++ b/cli/tests/integrations/cli/test_marathon.py
@@ -377,8 +377,8 @@ def test_restarting_stopped_app():
 
     assert returncode == 1
     assert stdout == (
-        b"Unable to restart application '/zero-instance-app' "
-        b"because it is stopped\n")
+        b"Unable to perform rolling restart of application '"
+        b"/zero-instance-app' because it has no running tasks\n")
     assert stderr == b''
 
     _remove_app('zero-instance-app')