This article first appeared on July 21, 2011.
Just Do It. Life’s Good. Think Different. The chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand.
If you can name the brands associated with all of these catch phrases, then you can probably understand the power of a great tagline.
While many companies rightly pour hours into the design of their logo and their company colours, taglines are less common among smaller businesses.
Perhaps this is because they are often dreamed up by highly-paid advertising agencies that start-ups can’t afford. But there is nothing stopping you and your team sitting down for a few hours and workshopping some tagline ideas.
You might start the process by thinking up words that you want to associate with your brand or your product.
If you’re all about innovation, try and reflect that. If you sell green products, reflect that. If you concentrate on price or service, reflect that. Your tagline might even relate to your location if you concentrate on a particular geographic area.
Most of the best taglines are concise – rarely more than a few words – so brevity is recommended.
And don’t feel you need to come up with something ultra creative, such as “Just Do It” or “Think Creative”.
A tagline such as “Sydney’s cheapest printers” might be just as effective as something the marketing gurus at Apple could come up with.
Get it done – today!
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
