Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Dear Moriarty,

thanks a lot for your thoughtful response and I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of a divorce.

I named my business "The Happiness Project" since I believe that everybody, regardless of their circumstances, strives for overall well being (i.e. happiness) and each person takes an individually unique path towards it (i.e. project).

This is the umbrella company under which I offer different counseling services (e.g. depression, grief, etc. ). Currently, I am focusing my marketing efforts on divorcees (and more specifically divorced parents) and look for a tagline for this speciality. I saw a trademarked tageline "not bitter but better". and am interested in something along those lines. The tagline is not supposed to reflect the name of the company but of the specialty (divorce in this case). I hope this helps!! Thanks.

Dear Jay Hamilton-Roth,

Thanks for the suggestions. Please refer to the response I posted to Moriarty. In it I give an example of the type of tagline I am looking for.

Dear Steve Byrne,

My target market is divorced parents not their kids. Thank you.

Yes, as you stated, YOUR target market is "divorcing professionals", but who are these PARENTS focusing on, caring about, being motivated by to do things right? The kids!! You said it yourself, it is the main theme in your initial creative input post. And it seemed like a credible differentiating benefit strategy ... at The Happiness Project Coaching and Counseling, we "minimize the negative impact divorce can have on their children".

So, if the kids well being is not the focus, then what is your differentiating strategy in this crowded market segment?

Good morning!

Now: in your response, you say: "I believe that everybody, regardless of their circumstances, strives for overall well being" - I need to know if this is something your prospective customers are thinking about. I know that when I got divorced, mediation wasn't high on the menu; I'd struggled for years to try and squeeze my way in between the thick plates of armor. I didn't rate anybody else's chances very highly.

I really need to know this because if you used "not bitter but better" in my mind it contradicts the name you're using. You need a harmony across the path created by your name and tagline that leads them from their perceptions to your service.

Now you do all kinds of counselling: are divorcees your biggest slice in terms of customers? I'm just asking. Put simply, I don't know! You know full well that people have the strangest ideas for doing something and counselors among them ;-)

Now since you were so kind to respond, I'll have a try at some taglines. Maybe one will help you. Maybe not. Let us know which you like (or not) and quite as importantly why. More to the point, do your prospects like them, and which one (if any) speaks to them??

The Happiness Project: Dealing with divorce in a pleasant way
dealing with divorce hte pleasant way
putting the kids first so they safe
divorcing is nasty, let's make it easier on everyone.
happy people don't divorce;
helping divorce make you happier
helping divorce make you and your children happier.

What do you think of those?

Good luck, and don't forget to ask your customers/clients what they think of it all!

M

Dear Steve,

At The Happiness Project Coaching and Counseling, we "minimize the negative impact divorce can have on your children" - Yes this description is spot on.

My typical client is either a single-parent or divorced couple struggling with the exact same emotions, pains, shames, fears every other divorced person goes through AND they are people who do not want the aggravation and bad feelings they have for each other to spill over into their children. In short you could say they love their children more then they hate each other. This impels them (often from the get-go) to seek professional advice and therapy to help them achieve this goal.

My job is to help them move through the divorce process with dignity, confidence, and purpose (this includes working through a plethora of emotions including grief, loneliness, worry, anger, etc). I provide my adult clients with strategies and understanding so that they can live a life in which they can support their children while supporting themselves.

Dear Moriarty,

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Yes, divorcees are the biggest slice of my clients and I want a tagline for the work I do in this context, independently from the name of my company. So - the tagline doesn't have to reflect anything about happiness, etc. and should be a strengths based, optimistic idea.

Thanks again,
Rebecca

Helping you make a life after divorce
Making lives after divorce
Divorcing doesn't mean dying!
Everybody lives after divorce: make the most of it.
Putting kids first doesn't always work. Respecting them does.

Rebecca, I understand what you are saying. The problem is you are describing (defining) a practitioner's segment that has many practitioners (competitors) in the same segment. And while a tagline such as "not bitter but better" sounds great, in truth you and hundreds of others could claim and use this same solution BECAUSE it is generic. It offers little to no differentiation.

My job is to help clients discover that one unique positioning strategy that will ring true, uniquely benefit clients and be highly relevant to a specific target audience's needs. When you have a clear "positioning statement" of whatever length, it becomes relatively easy to reduce it to a short phrase, a tagline.