Taglines position your brand. They are a few descriptive words that set your business apart from the competition and arouse consumer interest. Exceptional taglines can remind potential customers about your brand without mentioning your product, service or company name. Remember ‘When you care enough to send the very best,’ ‘The quicker picker-upper,’ ‘We try harder’ and ‘Just do it!’? (Hallmark, Bounty, Avis and Nike.)
Basically, a tagline should communicate your company’s positioning. What is the unique benefit that your product or service offers your target audience? Remember the 7-Up tagline, ‘The Uncola’? These two words clearly identified the positioning of 7-Up as different from cola drinks. It was memorable since the words could not have been used to describe another soft drink at that time.
This is vital to a good tagline – It is clear which product it defines. Thinkmor, a frequent contributor to KHE whose expertise is in branding, reiterated this thought in the KHE Forum question. “The test of any good tagline [is that it] should be perceived as totally incompatible under a competitor’s brand name.”
“Typically, a tagline is used to communicate or explain the main positioning benefit the company or brand provides – especially when the company/brand name doesn’t do a particularly good job of communicating that message. In that case, it’s important to go back to the positioning statement and make sure the target audience is clearly and narrowly defined, and the benefit is really one that’s important to that target audience,” Mgoodman, a Top 25 Expert in the KHE Forum, advised in a recent interview.
He later added, “Simply looking for a ‘catchy tagline’ that customers and potential customers will remember is like looking for a joke to open a show. It’s quickly forgotten unless the subject matter and substance are important to the target audience.”
What makes one tagline better than another?
- They are short, pithy and easy to remember.
Dawn claims, “As a rule, taglines need to be short and sweet, yet descriptive enough that they get your message across … They almost serve as your 3-second billboard.” (See question.)
The goal is to have your company’s name be the first one that customers think of when making a purchasing decision. Can you name a company other than DeBeers that makes diamond jewelry? Probably not. Why? It’s tagline, ‘Diamonds are forever,’ is in magazine, TV and radio advertisements.
If you had 500 words, anyone could craft a compelling statement about their product. The best taglines have less than 10.
- They clearly state why your product or company is superior.
A good tagline immediately tells customers why your company is better than competitors. Polaroid achieved this with the tagline, ‘We don’t have negatives.’ In the days before digital cameras, this 4-word phrase clearly differentiated Polaroid from other cameras.
- They provide a call to action.
Both AT&T (‘Reach out and touch someone’) and American Express (‘Don’t leave home without it’) are classic examples of suggesting an action to the customer.
- They promote a positive feeling about your product or company.
Adguru stated this in KHE “First and foremost, your tagline is your promise. It defines the emotion which accompanies or is triggered by the use of your product/service.”
Puneetmehra2004 provides an example in a question when discussing Nike’s ‘Just do it!’ tagline. “There is no other better way to boost the self-confidence the way Nike has put through their famous line. The line simply communicates that using Nike can improve your performance by enhancing the self-confidence.”
- Creates a sense that the product is greater than goods and services.
In another question, MANSING points out Apple’s ‘Think Different’ makes a statement about the type of person who buys an Apple computer.
Many small businesses want a tagline, but can’t afford to hire an agency to help them. Mgoodman suggests, “MarketingProf’s Know-How Exchange Forum has dozens of experienced marketing experts who have addressed these issues for hundreds – maybe even thousands – of products, services, and companies and they’re ready to do it for you,”
Intrigued?
In order to get the best results from our experts, here are some tips of what you can do to facilitate the process:
- Define your positioning.
- What differentiates your product or services from your competitors?
- Why would customers purchase from your company rather than another one?
- Define your target customers in detail.
- Who is your prime audience?
- What is their most important unmet need that your product or service can satisfy?
- Define what you want your brand to represent.
- In the future, when someone hears your company or product name, what image should come to mind?
- “Get in touch with your customers. Find out why they bought (or buy) from you. What is it about (your product or service) that appeals to them?” claimed Jon Aston in his response. Using information from current satisfied customers was also mentioned by Thinkmor, who responded in question, “Engage them [satisfied customers] in the process to generate a tagline that will be unique.”
Mgoodman believes that thinking through these questions is the crucial first step to developing a tagline. “Taglines shouldn’t just be a clever set of words. They should be a way to punctuate the key benefits your customers will realize.” (See question.)
Before embarking on developing a tagline (either on your own or with assistance), Mgoodman recommends, “Ask yourself, 'How will I know when a tagline candidate is a winner?' What criteria will you use to determine which taglines are right … and which are not? The reason to ask this question before you begin the sifting process is that you’re still in an objective strategic frame of mind and you not likely to be swayed by a very clever, but off-strategy tagline candidate.”
The Best Way to Solicit Suggestions from the KHE Forum
In order to get the most benefit from the KHE Forum, provide a clear picture of your positioning, target audience, and what you want your product or service to represent. An example of this done well can be found in the following question.”
“I own a mid-sized home health care company in business for 20 years. Looking for a memorable tagline that conveys our position. Competitors are large hospitals and Visiting Nurses Association, which is the Kleenex of homecare and has been around for 100+ years. They market their technical expertise, ‘Quality u can trust,’ ‘We care,’ and ‘We put you first.’
We are smaller and more personal. Our goal is to bring life into the home. For example, a lonely 90-year-old woman lives alone and has a wound. The doctor orders short-term home care. We’ll heal the wound, but while we’re there, we also focus on finding ways to bring vitality back to her life long after we’re gone. We believe that everyone can live vibrantly on some level. We are holistic, fresh, and innovative.
My dilemma is that I want a tagline that conveys this message while giving a clue as to the function of the company as well. Final dilemma: We need to appeal to a very broad audience: patient and family, other community health providers, discharge planners, and health care professionals.”
Since the asker had done such a great job of defining his company, its positioning, and the target market, 28 Forum members responded.
The KHE Forum also a great place to test out a tagline, as OctopusJuice.com discovered when she posted in her question. cdenny also discovered the benefits derived from a review of his recommended tagline in this question.
Sometimes the suggestions won’t be exactly what you want, but will help you find the path as jpoyer did in this question. Her suggestion, ‘Your Loan Signing Authority’ was adapted by the asker to ‘Your Local Loan Signing Specialist.’
Look at these examples on KHE to see the type of assistance our experts can provide:
jennrus’ suggestion ‘Secret Recipe - A family bakery’ was a serious contender in a question where the asker wanted help naming her bakery and coming up with a tagline.
D4Demand’s suggestion ‘Life’s a beach. Live there.’ captured the asker’s fancy in this question.
Here’s what the asker of one question had to say about vic’s recommended tagline. “Wow, those were all great! Thank you so much everyone for contributing. You all have creative minds. ‘The REAL secret about the beauty of Willow Glen’ is perfect, I couldn't ask for more. Thank you so much.”
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We could not possibly have listed every response from KHE Forum participants. The ones selected are representative of the wealth of help and assistance so readily provided by our members. Thanks to everyone who actively responds on the discussion boards.
Special thanks to Michael A.Goodman for agreeing to let us pick his brain yet again.
