I did some research on brand taglines for a professional requirement. Am sharing some info I collated. Hope its useful to someone.
Tagline is an often repeated phrase associated with an individual, organization, or commercial product.
A tagline should do some or all of the following:
- Clarify (what you do, how you are positioned, etc.)
- Express an important brand attribute
- Support your positioning
- Help people recognize and remember you
- Emphasize a compelling customer benefit
- Brand promise
- Remind your organization of key focus
- Amplify central marketing message
Helps to visualize what the tagline should be :
- Think of a tagline as an opportunity to articulate your differentiation, express your personality or convey some other important brand quality
- One of the few ways a company can explicitly articulate its brand promise express your company’s vision or unique market
- Think of your tagline as a final exclamation point that wraps up your elevator pitch
- Think of your tagline as a promise
- Value of a great tagline to be two-fold—it helps explain your brand to your customers, and it continually reminds you of your brand’s ultimate focus (what you are trying to be)
8 Ingredients of a Great Tagline
- Keep it short
- Convey a single simple idea or benefit
- If possible, be specific
- Be sure your claim is believable
- Avoid generic or clichéd statements that could apply to other businesses
- Support or explain your positioning
- Make it memorable
- Stick with your tagline for the long haul
Characteristics of a good tagline:
- ‘sell the sizzle, not the steak’ (benefit vs. feature)
- not be usable by a competitor
- impart positive feelings about the brand
- differentiate the brand
Examples:
- “Innovation” (3M)
- “Better things for better living, through chemistry” (DuPont)
- “Disease has no greater enemy” (Glaxo/Wellcome)
- Holiday Inn: “Pleasing people the world over”
- Karry-Lite: “Takes the ‘lug’ out of luggage”
- Polaroid: “The fun develops instantly”
- The Economist: “Free enterprise with every issue”
- British Rail: “We’re getting there”
- Cheese Council: “Anyway you please it, cheese it”
- Timex: “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking”
- Metropolitan Home: “Mode for your abode”
- Apple: Think different
- TAZO: The reincarnation of tea
- FedEx: The world on time
- Saturn: A different kind of car company
- eBay: The world’s online marketplace
- Target: Expect more. Pay less.
- GE: We bring good things to life
Test for a good tagline:
- Is your tagline consistent with your brand name and brand positioning?
- Will your target audience understand the language you’ve used?
- Are you communicating one simple idea?
- Will your tagline stand out in advertising and corporate communications?
- Have you tried out the tagline with clients and prospects?
- Does your tagline differentiate your firm from the competition?
- Have you removed all acronyms and jargon?
- Are you using specifics rather than vague words or generalizations?
- Lastly, check if your tagline communicates your brand promise to your prospects and customers. And helps them choose YOU in a cluttered marketplace.
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