If you’re running a business, you’ve probably thought about your logo, your website, maybe even your social media. But how much thought have you given to your tagline or strapline? Believe it or not, these little phrases can pack a big punch when it comes to building your brand, standing out, and connecting with customers.
This article reveals some of the theory behind the use of brand taglines and straplines, and the process involved in creating the right line to help to propel your business forward.
Table of Contents
Brand Taglines, Straplines, Headlines and Slogans – What’s The Difference?
The most honest way to answer this question is to say that the difference does not really matter! In different countries, in different companies, in different agencies, different people tend to blend and confuse these four terms to the extent that they have lost any definite clarity.
For the record, the purists among us would say that the formal difference is as follows:
Tagline
A tagline is the company’s clarifier, its guiding principle or its mantra. It is often positioned adjacent to a company logo, and sometimes integrated into it.
Straplines
In very many instances, people refer to straplines in exactly the same way as they refer to taglines. Technically speaking, a strapline is a secondary line used in addition to a headline, usually in a periodical publication. The same is true for marketing purposes when used as a secondary line beneath the headline on an advertisement, in a conventional printed advert or any type of digital format.
Headlines
In line with the above, a headline is the large copy at the top of a page or an advertisement outlining its content, then supplemented by an optional strapline below and the body copy.
Slogan
The word slogan is really a catch-all phrase of any short combination of words used to describe an entity, or a campaign. The terms ‘motto’ and ‘catchphrase’ mean pretty much the same, with ‘mantra’ being a little more specific in containing words which guide the actions of its owner.
How To Create A Brand Tagline
First – Naming Your Company
Before you start to create a tagline for your business, you first need to think very carefully about naming your company. In many instances, your company name stands alone in representing and, hopefully, promoting your company.
New companies are in the fortunate position of being able to integrate an element of marketing when creating their brand name from the onset. The name is an important aspect of this and provides an excellent opportunity to set the direction for your marketing activity.
To look into the detail of how to think about naming your company, there is some advice here on names which ‘Says What It Does’, are ‘Distinctive’, ‘Future-Proof’, ‘Legally Secure’, ‘Positive in All Markets’ and ‘Search Engine Friendly’. It goes on to explain the rationale for using different types of names including ‘Founder’s Name’, ‘Invented’, ‘Descriptive’, ‘Evocative’ and ‘Acronyms’.
Combining Names and Taglines
Naturally, it is essential to have named your company and checked all the legal connotations before starting work on your tagline. One key objective for this exercise is to make sure that the name and tagline work in harmony, and combine to make the whole bigger and better than the sum of its two parts.
The name of your company could well have a major influence on the role of the tagline. For example, if your company is called ‘We Buy Any Car’, then the role of the tagline would be very different than if your company is called ‘AB Smith’ which buys any car. The name is doing the heavy lifting in the former, whilst the tagline needs to do it in the latter.
What Does Your Company Do?
For most of our clients, we go through a process with them in which we help them to understand the relationship between their ‘features’, which can be recognised as ‘what we do’, and the benefits created by those features for the customer – also being ‘what we do’. A simple version of this would be to say that the feature for a car workshop is that they are qualified to mend cars, but the benefit for the customer is that their car is kept safe, reliable and compliant.
However, in some cases, the tagline and the marketing proposition can be very much related to the features of the product/service. For example, for an online novelty cufflink retailer, it would be perfectly reasonable to use a tagline like ‘The Widest Range of Novelty Cufflinks Available’ – being the feature, rather than ‘Novelty Ways to Hold Your Cuffs Together’ being the benefit.
In some cases, the same company uses the same core capabilities to provide different services to different customer personas or segments. So in these situations, it is necessary to create a tagline that captures the breadth of the offering and the different customer segments.
Types of Brand Taglines
Here are five different types of tagline that you might consider.
Descriptive Taglines
Particularly important if the company name is generic, for example the founder’s name; a tagline can describe the product of service.
Examples: Lush – fresh handmade cosmetics, TED – ideas change everything.
Call To Action Tagline
Taglines can be used to entice consumers to use the product or service provided by the company or brand.
Examples: Nike – just do it, YouTube – broadcast yourself.
Leadership Tagline
This is for organisations that want to assure stakeholders of their leadership within their sector.
Examples: British Airways (legacy) – the world’s favourite airline, BMW – the ultimate driving machine.
Superlative Tagline
Essentially self praise to promote all that is great about your product or service.
Examples: Budweiser – king of beers, KFC – it’s finger-lickin’ good.
Provocative Tagline
Thought-provoking lines and questions designed to challenge and sometime shock.
Examples: Underarmour – I will, Dove – you are more beautiful than you think.
Brand Taglines: 7 Top Tips
Here are some essentials that you need to consider when creating brand taglines.
- Keep it short and sweet. When it comes to brand taglines, less is more. The best ones are super simple yet powerful. They get straight to the point without trying to say too much. Look at Apple’s “Think Different.” In just two words, they’re saying, “We innovate, we’re unique, and we push boundaries.”
- Connect with your target audience on an emotional level. Great brand taglines do more than describe the business—they evoke emotion, and emotions are powerful drivers of decisions. Take John Lewis’s “Never Knowingly Undersold.” It doesn’t just say, “We have great prices.” It gives customers confidence that they’re always getting the best deal. For smaller businesses, this emotional connection might come from speaking to what your customers care about most—whether that’s quality, convenience, or sustainability.
- Consistency is key. Once you’ve got your tagline, use it everywhere. Put it on your website, your email signatures, your business cards—anywhere people interact with your brand. The more they see it, the more they’ll associate it with your business.
- It must be distinctive. As with your brand in general, it should be Distinctive, Compelling and Enduring.
- Of course, it must be different to any competitors for both marketing and legal reasons.
- People must find it simple to remember and to pronounce.
- It should be legally protected as your intellectual property.
Take a look at the Mackman Group’s article: The Power Of Authentic Brand Straplines In Retail.
Brand Tagline Tricks
Only a tiny percentage of people take any English writing courses after the age of 16 – these being A Level and University students, professional copywriters and people who enjoy writing as a pastime. So writing a tagline which will enable your company or brand to be distinctive and understood can be a daunting task. Here are some pointers.
Keep It Clear, Not Clever
Of course we’d all love to be able to write clever and cool brand taglines, but that does not always come easily; so, if in doubt, make sure it says what you want it to say as concisely as possible.
Think About The Tone
Are you a company that is in a sector where humour is acceptable? Or might it be off-putting? Should the wording seem highly professional or ought it be colloquial, or even slang? As part of this, think about the people that you want your tagline to impress and inform; how will they want you to speak to them?
Consider Double Meanings
Some of the most imaginative and memorable taglines use double meanings that serve to either double the value of their message or add an additional dimension, usually humour. Examples range from the suitably irreverent and smutty ‘It’s a bit of an animal’ for long, thin sausage Peperami, to the elegant, timeless and unmatched ‘Diamonds are forever’.
A little alliteration…goes a long way
Using alliteration and assonance delivers higher levels of recall and memorability which can be really valuable for your business. Examples include ‘Intel Inside’ (Intel), ‘You’ll never put a better bit of butter on your knife’ (Country Life Butter) and the exceptional ‘The best four by four by far’ (Land Rover).
It’s not permanent
Most successful companies change their brand taglines as they and their markets evolve. If you don’t get it right first time, you can change it in time and create a new tagline – but there is cost attached to making this change. Getting it right first time is highly recommended, but still not as important as getting the name right, as changing that is much more complicated.
In Summary
In conclusion, brand taglines and straplines may seem like small details, but they can have a big impact on the way your brand is perceived. A well-crafted tagline can help set your business apart, connect with customers emotionally, and stick in people’s minds. Whether you’re launching a new business or refreshing your brand, it’s worth investing some time into getting this right.
If you find it difficult to manage this yourself, Mackman is here to help. Give us a call on 01787 388038 or pop us a message on our contact form.