Seth Godin once said: We don’t have an information shortage; we have an attention shortage. Double your business? Just thinking about what that would take is scary, isn’t it? You must have a dramatic tagline design.
Almost regardless of whom you are or what you do, you have competitors that have good to great marketing. The market leaders.
And if you have no competitive advantages, no understanding of the secrets of unique selling propositions (USP’s) or dramatic tagline design, you really will have a difficult time competing.
Lots of our clients confuse a unique selling proposition with a business tagline. But they are not the same. A tagline is a simple representation of the brand. One whose objective is to draw attention.
A unique selling proposition, on the other hand, is a business differentiation that is designed to be the reason a customer will want to buy your product or service. It’s objective is to market in a way that makes the product or service stand out, pure and simple.
The art of tagline development is to distill the meaning of a big idea into a cogent message that’s easy to say, easy to understand, and easy to remember.
To ensure your brand expression is impossible to forget, use the following checklist to avoid the most common mistakes that plague aspiring taglines.
Tagline, strapline, slogan… Whatever you choose to call it, it’s all the same. It’s the key phrase that identifies your business by capturing the essence of three elements:
Your mission
Your promise
Your brand
Coming up with a great tagline is a struggle many people face. More often than not, they get it wrong by focusing on what their product or service is and neglecting what it offers.
Taglines can help or hamper your marketing efforts. They must be clear and relevant. Some taglines make you scratch your head, some don’t make you think at all, and some, the ones that work, make you think.
You know what’s insanely difficult? Being succinct. Seriously … it’s ridiculously hard. But do you know what’s even more difficult?
Expressing a complex emotional concept in just a couple of words. In other words, coming up with a tagline. Yeah, it’s a head-scratcher.
But that’s why we have a lot of respect for these brands that did it right. So if you’re looking to get a little tagline inspiration of your own, take a look at some of our favorite company taglines — from past and present!
To ensure your brand expression is impossible to forget, use the following checklist to avoid the most common mistakes that plague aspiring taglines.
The most useful definition of a good tagline is the why people should notice you and take the action you’re seeking. Be clear, not clever.
This way, it guides your decisions much more clearly and can be used as the basis for marketing messages.
For example, if your online bookstore has an average selection, decent prices, delivery, a guarantee, good customer service, and a website, why would anyone buy from you? There’s surely a competitor who beats you in at least some of those aspects.
You don’t have to be the best in every way. Sure, it’s great if you are. But realistically, it’s difficult enough to be the best couple of ways.
However, if you’re the best in at least several ways, you’re the best option for the people who value those promises.
You must have some promise that you can make that is unique. Something has to make you the best option for your target customers.
Otherwise, they have no good reason to buy from you.
Tagline design … heart of the proposition
The heart of a winning taglineis the result value a business intends to deliver to its target customers. The result of the experience. Ask yourself this question: “So what?”
The answers you’ll come up with are the benefits a visitor (or potential customer) receives from staying on your site
A unique tagline needs to be articulated for customers… not for your products, services or business processes. Products, services, processes are the vehicles for your tagline delivery.
Become your Customers
“Become” your customers instead of just asking them what they want from your business. Listen, observe and study to creatively infer from what customers DO to help derive your unique promise.
Tagline design … utilize a tagline properly
People won’t ever buy from you if they don’t even understand why they should pay attention to you. And they notice you only if you have a unique tagline.
The usual definition of a unique tagline is incomplete. It is a promise of something the competition cannot or does not offer. It must be strong enough to move the masses, i.e., attract new customers.
A unique tagline becomes the internal tool that guides your decisions to the best direction to maximize your customer utility.
Demonstrate the proof
If your tagline states you have the best pizza in the state; will people flood your restaurant? No. They won’t believe the tagline.
Without proof, you can’t say much before it starts to sound like marketing talk. No one pays attention. Or remembers. They don’t believe. No believing, no trust. It is all downhill after that.
For example, I recently saw a digital marketing competitor site where their tagline claimed to be the secret weapon of digital marketing for the most successful companies in the world. We doubt anyone can take that seriously when nothing supports the claim.
As long as you don’t prove your claims, people are unlikely to believe them. And your tagline design becomes just another short sentence.
Use studies, testimonials, and common sense, among other methods, to prove your claims. Impressive numbers can be the right choice, but they don’t always work.
Instead, a few expert testimonials make the idea credible. They can even take away the need for you to make any claims’ the testimonials can make the claims for you. Similarly, you can use testimonials to build your products’ overall perceived value and take away the last doubt people might feel about your promises.
Many businesses don’t help people see what sets the company apart from its competitors. This always amazes us.
They are better than others, and they could prove it. They don’t do it.
Instead, they try to persuade people with general promises, corporate babble, and feature lists. If your website doesn’t clearly tell visitors what makes you worth their attention, they won’t spend the time to figure it out on their own.
Tagline design … be clever in communicating your claims
It’s your job to hit people in the head with what makes you different and worth attention. Clever ways to communicate your claims. In believable ways.
When people understand why they should buy your product instead of any other, they’ll do it.
So, if you were wondering where to put your marketing time and energy to optimize how to win customers from your competitors, focus on defining and delivering winning taglines.
We have a lot of respect for these brands that did it right. So if you’re looking to get a little tagline inspiration of your own, take a look at some of our favorite company taglines — from past and present.
See Food Differently
I see food differently. The tagline for this campaign is Sea Food Differently. I think this is tagline writing at its best: clever, play on words, and RELEVANT. They are saying that Red Lobster does seafood differently (presumably better) than other restaurants. Perfect.
The uncola
A brave and somewhat bold way 7-Up’s tagline design distinguishes its product from the cola competition. Taste wise it’s not cola, and that is 7-Ups promise.
Snap, Crackle, Pop
Kellogg’s Rice Krispies’ fantastic tagline that doubles up as a jingle, and also is descriptive – they actual do Snap! Crackle! and Pop!
This is more of a slogan, a classic slogan example. It’s very advertising orientated – very product specific/descriptive! And the promise is freshness as the sound says.
Dreams come true
This is just one of many of the dream makers at Disney, for they have so many elements and areas of operations, from Disney World to a range of other media and wonderful creations.
Disney is a dream company, while the word dream strike similarity with Dreamworks, it works best for the Disney promise.
We make IT happen
IBM’s clever use of playing on IT (Information Technology) doubling up as IT (as in that’s it).
Just do it
Instantly, Nike’s tag line’s message began to resonate. It is no longer about just a shoe or a pair of shorts; it is about a state of mind. You don’t have to be an athlete to be in shape or tackle an obstacle. If you want to do it, do it. That’s all it takes.
The Ultimate Driving Machine
For BMW, the fact they call their vehicles “machines” shows a real truth, coupling with the word ultimate, the tagline is a well-oiled machine that works!
We try harder
This is a really strong tagline for Avis. It differentiates the brand as “going the extra mile” (this would be a relevant but more obvious tagline). It evokes that it genuinely does try harder
The bottom line
So, if you were wondering where to put your marketing time and energy to optimize how to win customers from your competitors, focus on delivering dramatic tagline design.
Please share a story or two from your customer winning experiences with this community. Perhaps a comment or a question to add below?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
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