Today is the 60th Birthday of longest-running prime-time game show, “What’s My Line.” In celebration I thought it would be interesting to discuss Taglines. Taglines are important to our business for a variety of reasons. A tagline is one of the most effective ways to communicate our brand message to our prospects and customers. Taglines enhance the value of our brand, extend our brand’s reach, tell our audience what makes us different than the competition and done correctly can convey the solution to a need or want.
Effective taglines communicate a single message that when done correctly will resonate with target audience. Taglines, also referred to as mottos or slogans, should tell your audience who you are, what makes you special and why they should care in the first place.
While some experts insist that it’s okay to change taglines to go with the changing landscape and demographic of its target audience, I believe that those that continue to have close variations on their original tagline will continue to be memorable to the world. An example is Allstate’s “You’re in Good Hands.” They are currently using “Are you in Good Hands?” which still reminds people that Allstate is not a fly-by-night or flavor-of-the-month company. Or Nike’s “Just Do It.” People feel a sense of security in the familiar.
And yes, taglines can even change from time to time with the changing of a company’s direction or vision or product line. And that too can be important if and when the old tagline is no longer working or relevant.
Some examples include:
UPS – Old taglines: “Deliver More”, There’s help in here. Real help,” “What can Brown Do For You?” and their newest tagline: “Synchronizing the world of commerce.” UPS may have an identity crisis because they seem to change their tagline every few years.
Even the United State Army changed its tagline! Old taglines: “Be All That You Can Be” and “Army of One” to their new tagline: “Army Strong.”
And still other companies are returning to their taglines of days past. Avis, the auto rental company has returned to “We Try Harder,” and Citi (formerly Citibank) resurrected its 1977, “Citi never sleeps” tagline
What’s the point? if you have a great tagline, you should keep using it, until there’s a really good reason to change.
Tips to create a good tagline:
♦ Keep them short – 3 to 4 words make them repeatable, and no more than 7 words if you want to remain memorable.
♦ Make your tagline unique – it should fulfill a promise your competition does not or cannot
♦ Make it relevant – companies who are bringing back their old taglines are doing so because they are again relevant to today’s audience.
♦ Test your taglines – get a focus group or a group of current customers to rate your tagline before you change all your marketing materials
♦ Make sure your deliver on the promise of your tagline. If Burger King says “have it your way” and you can’t have it your way, people loose trust in their promise and the company looses market share.
Want to test your knowledge of Company taglines? Take the “Find That Slogan! Wordsearch Challenge Today!
What’s your company slogan? Feel free to leave a comment and share your slogan and link to your website below!
More great marketing ideas can be found in the Quirky Marketing Calendar ~ How to Use Zany and Non-traditional Holidays to Promote Your Business 365 Days a Year!
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