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The Key to Branding: Does Your Tagline Pass The Test? |
 By Dave Barbush
Branding is a vast and varied topic to discuss, let alone accomplish,
and there are as many ways to attempt it as there are companies that
try. But there’s one very critical, very small part of the process that
sets your position, your course, and ultimately, the outcome of any
branding effort for years to come, and that’s your tagline. It’s where
the branding rubber hits the road, and all roads to branding pass
through your tagline. All three or so words of it.
To be clear, some people call taglines by other names; their slogan, positioning line, or value statement. It’s that thing that Darren Stevens would struggle with over almost the entire Bewitched episode. It seemed so damn hard, elusive and mysterious to nail down the tagline that he needed his wife’s otherworldly powers to get it done. Good taglines are hard to come up with, and it does take some special talent, but it’s not impossible.
Simply said, a great tagline does two things: it tells customers what you do, and what you do for them.
And that’s the simple litmus test you can apply: does yours do both? Think about what you do – your features – and what you claim as your value to the customer, your benefits. Does your tagline convey this feature/benefit statement in an emotionally engaging way? Does it have a good ring to it as well as being strategically sound? It should. So how do you get it there if it’s not?
We start with researching your USP – unique selling proposition. The role of the tagline then is to shine a bright light on the USP. The USP has to be organic to your company, it has to spring from within and truly be of and about your company. Your tagline becomes defensible, supportable, and drivable back into the very internal organization from whence it first came. It’s all connected.
Think of this new organic tagline as the spine of your branding efforts. All marketing, advertising, PR, internal and external branding efforts must successfully attach, live and thrive off this spine. With this strong spine or anchor, you can venture into new territories, go with renewed vigor into places you haven’t been able to penetrate before, and find new markets to dominate.
 The Key to Branding: Does Your Tagline Pass The Test?
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