Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

What's more useful to you is what questions your customers are asking - that your business is the best answer to. That's when a tagline resonates with them.

A word of warning. You have experience in industries. So do I. Ask yourself why someone needs a press release for the next morning - what went wrong that led to them only having one day and not two weeks? Who forgot what and why? Who wasn't doing their job properly?

What size company is likely to hire you?
Why can't they do the task in-house?
How would they find your practice?
Why would they entrust you with solving their problem (instead any of your competition)?

Answering Jay's questions is critically important if you expect real input from us.

A couple of thoughts:

1. You probably will need to segment your target audience pretty quickly, because the fact that you do everything isn't what your prospective client wants to hear. He/she wants someone who can do what THEY NEED. All the other things just get in the way and confuse the issue. Individual landing pages for each segment will be imperative.

2. If you do a really good job of segmentation, the tagline will be a lot less important, because the benefit promise(s) on each of your landing pages will do the heavy lifting for you.


Also, we would need to know the company name before we can deal with the tagline. Ideally they work in conjunction with each other to communicate a clear benefit and an emotional payoff. When you try to encompass a range of benefits and a range of target clients, it's really hard (if not impossible) to be most relevant to all of them.

Thanks for your candor and quick responses. Of course, I'm still working through the market niche/biz plan. I will grow this biz organically, one project and one client at a time, so all of your feedback is helpful. MORIARTY - I used the press release only as a hypothetical example, and although many companies plan for PR task, at times - especially small- to medium-sized orgs, realize they need a pr issued for an upcoming event, but don't have the skills or resources to manage it. Where I was coming from with "all" the examples was to demonstrate the breadth of our offerings. While large PR firms, occupying corner offices on Wall St/Bay St (toronto), focus on specific industries, i.e. finance or technology, with lots of overhead, our small practice, with experts across the country, can provide the same services, but at a much lower fee. JAY - most will be mid-sized companies without the PR/comm resources in-house, local government who issue rfps, one or two large international companies to develop their corporate citizenship programs. They will find my practice via website and social media, through the network, networking, personal connections, personal outreach.Those who know me already will entrust me based on past work. Companies through the network will trust the individuals in the network as well as testimonials and referrals. Many jobs will come as referrals. MGOODMAN: Not sure I agree completely with your first statement because we can do everything as long as its PR/Communications/community relations, but you're right about segmenting target market. Maybe I should focus only on three or four, but if and when opportunity comes knocking from an unexpected industry, we consider it. Website will explain our collective experience and skills. Yes, we've been working with the company name/logo to come up with either three key words or a short tagline for the company name CAROB COMMUNICATIONS. Although carob in itself is a substitution for cocoa or chocolate, its name was imagined by combining the first three letters of my first name and first three letters of my last name. Thanks for the ongoing dialogue.

Thankyou for your response. It did not tell me what your customers think of you though. (How about you ask them? Just flick them an email and ask what they like about you. Works wonders).

You say

"can provide the same services, but at a much lower fee" - please do not demean yourself; there are people out there who only respect money. Put yourself too low and you will drive away the very people who you can do most for. I'm in your niche and am not entirely comfortable with the amounts I charge people - mind you, they make 3-5x as much from implementing my stuff. (Two years ago I was still a furniture maker).

"Many jobs will come as referrals." - this is the best news yet. It means you have some cache. Find out why they are (apart from bland things like "trust"). Find out why they choose you *specifically*. I want to know what it is and then I can put pepper under your tagline.

I LOVE "Carob" - it's short, punchy and somehow distinct and special without being unknown. Well done with that.


Okay, so fill in a few of those details and I will get my imagination into gear and give it a go.

I think Carob is fab.

Thanks Moriarty - "lower fee" meaning the going rate, but without the overhead (I don't have to pay for office space, employees, etc). As I'm launching this business "organically" and on the side right now, I don't yet have customers. I want to wait until I have my website up, my business cards printed and my business and marketing plan in place (maybe not so much my biz plan as this will be a working document over the next few months) and then customize my promotional approach to A) companies where I have contacts b) companies through the network c) potential new customers and d) website/social media. Testimonials from both large and small companies that I've worked for describe me as a passionate, consummate PR professional, with a creative "can-do" attitude. I'm both strategic and tactical (all of my network professionals are that's why I hand-picked them to be a part of this), dependable, responsive. I can see the big picture and bring it down to tactical details to achieve company goals and objectives, on-time and within budget. I think that sums it up. Thanks!

Jay - OMG too funny. "Go beyond Vanilla PR" - or "Beyond Vanilla PR" it's risque, but I kinda like it. It talks to Carob and the structure of the network - in a non traditional sense. For a more traditional approach I also like " PR In-A-Pinch." Just have to consider if that's what I want people to remember the most about our services. Like that's it's punching. Keep the ideas coming Moriarty and Mgoodman - appreciate all ideas.

You're going to print business cards and create a website BEFORE you have a marketing plan? What if the marketing plan would indicate website content/design that's different from what you create? Don't you have it backwards?

I'm a one-person show so working through the marketing plan simultaneously. I will most definitely finish the marketing plan before completing the website (I'm not commissioning the website, it's a DIY with simple templates, five pages of click thrus, etc). I'm just starting to populate the website with information I already know/have to get the ball rolling. The business cards are standard, but will have the branding (name/colours) - not sure if I'll include a tagline yet.

You wrote: "... Not sure I agree completely with your first statement because we can do everything as long as its [sic] PR/Communications/community relations,"

I wasn't suggesting that you couldn't do everything, only that this isn't a benefit for anyone who comes to your website. Anyone who makes it to your website wants THEIR problem solved. They don't care what else you can do. (They won't care if you speak Swahili either, or if you type 75 wpm.)

The more you can give people exactly what they want, the more likely they are to trust -- and hire -- you. If they're looking for product publicity in Kingston, they don't care that you also do crisis management. In fact, if you come across as too much of a generalist, they'll probably move on to find someone who specializes in whatever it is they want.

All the more reason, with all the things your group can do, that you have different landing pages for each sub-specialty.

And as for the name CAROB, I'm not as crazy about it as Moriarty. For your target audience it's almost a nonsense name, and it misses the opportunity to communicate something meaningful about what you do or what benefit your target audience can expect. If you're going to keep it anyway, you should "explain" it with the tagline, as in "Go Beyond Vanilla PR." (Nice one, Jay.)

Thanks for your feedback, MGoodman - and it's Carob Communications not just "carob," so needs less of an explanation than if the name stood alone, although a tagline or key words will help tremendously.

Let's have a go.

Carob Communications. It isn't chocolate you're looking for. Get the right advice, from the right people

Carob Communications. Marketing insight that's better than chocolate*.

What do you think? M

*I doubt myself sometimes. Put me next to some chocolate and see who wins.

Just closing this by thanking all of you for your responses. May use "Beyond Vanilla PR" or a modified version. Still working through it, so thanks!!