Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

What happened to cause you to rebrand your school?
Who chooses to send their children to your school? Why?
Who is the tagline for: the students, the families, the community, donors, or ?

New growth and new leadership has moved the school to a different level. Families who are seeking a safe environment for their children, an academically excellent program and for a successful athletic program are the top choices for the school. Hoping the tagline can be all encompassing. A statement that describes the school in four to six words.

How about simply, "Spirit-Infused Learning & Athletics"?

Grace Christian - where pupils are enclosed in learning and movement

well ... it's all encompassing but about 18 words too long ...

- an atmosphere of learning and sport
- a spirit of excellence in learning and sport
- for excellence in learning and a spirit in sport [not so sure on that one]

Do these look any better? What are your thoughts, and what would you add (deduct)?

Was wondering if the statement could carry a broader interest. Example: Changing lives that change the world. Even though families like the successful athletic program, I'm not sure using the sport theme flows but I do like the use of the word spirit. It has several applicable meanings.

A Spirited K-12 (Private) School

Randall,

your reaction to this issue is quite reasonable given their general usage: most of them are meaningless rubbish. Yet a good tagline can give a young entrepreneur a lot of confidence in themselves. Furthermore, when used carefully, it can set you apart from the crowd and tell people exactly what you do.

Everyone knows "A fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed". Today it's pretty ordinary, well know. In the 1970s it was an earthquake for Domino's.

This taglines was tested, and tested again and regularly checked to see if they were working well. So let's have a look at what's really going on here. Because all too many marketers do not understand this: you cannot determine the effect of your advertisement before it is published. Final. Put bluntly, you cannot determine its *value*. Value, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder.

Only your market can determine the effectiveness of your advertisement. In the old days of direct marketing this was a tough job - so tough that most people couldn't grasp it or simply didn't see the point. Many still don't and the modern internet marketing phenomenon of the split test - which was developed around 1890 (not 1990!) - is still extremely poorly executed. You only need look at your Google search page to see that! People like Claude Hopkins were using it effectively in the 20s - just as Glenn Livingstone does today. He regularly gets CTRs of 25% and more - the industry average is around 3%.

That means people like Glenn have taken note of what the marketplace has told them. They know what connects brain impulses to movement, and understand the panorama of possibilities that it brings. Because marketing isn't about what people say to someone bearing a clipboard, it's about which one they'll buy when they're looking at a line of products. They'll choose the one that appeals to them. It may - or may not be branded.

Most people prefer the comfort of being in a group where everyone thinks the same. There aren't that many people who are prepared to stand out in this way. They don't like standing out in the crowd because they might make a mistake. I stand on the moderator's hitlist for precisely that reason. I make mistakes.

But wait! What if your tagline isn't effective, it's just the same as everyone elses except that it's a different color? Like the supermarkets, you go in one, you go in them all. The only difference is that one's got an offer this week that the other hasn't. That's marketing where value's been eviscerated.

The point is that with value being "so hard to determine" for most marketers that they simply avoid the question and say it's not possible. That generations of marketers have thought this has led to a situation where it's forgotten. In a world that will pay handsomely for just this, marketing's on a roll.

The end result of this is that people do not know that their taglines need testing. They put up all kinds of things that please the board of directors and the result is people yawning. It's what the board of directors wanted, and still want. So there's still a big market for this kind of marketing!

My point is that a well executed tagline can be effective.

Extremely effective. The tagline "Corns gone in 5 days or your money back" is a little advertisement that's run in the National Enquirer for six decades. They tried "five days" it didn't work as well. I split test my own advertisements, and I am extremely careful who gets to hire me because if they don't have a feel for the split test and what it implies, it's unlikely they'd be a good customer. I use my skills to my own ends.

Thank you for your input. Taglines, although difficult to measure success on their on merits, do help a consumer remember who you are. "Have a Coke and a Smile" has stood over the ages and that is something we are looking to find. A statement that will be remembered for years to come. I appreciate all of your insight and expertise!

"Taglines, although difficult to measure success on their on merits" - see my response above. Sadly such bland statements as "Have a Coke and a Smile" took a very large amount of money to force on the market because it didn't say anything about what Coke was.

Letting the marketplace determine these things for you forms a secure short-cut. "A fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed" made it for Dominos, it didn't need saying twice or branding on the marketplace: it was clear and direct in a way that spoke to those who wanted a warm, sizzling pizza delivered to their door. It would have been a clear winner among the alternatives, and refined from then on over a few months. The effect on their sales was instant and way more than they'd spent on its advertising.