The transformative power of a great tagline.

7 tips for creating a top tagline from a copywriting expert.

 Tagline. Strapline. Slogan. Catchphrase. Whatever you call it, these few words can be your brand’s most powerful asset. Get them right and your simple, relevant and timeless tagline will stick in customers' hearts and minds - and stick around for years, or even decades.

A great tagline does a lot of the heavy lifting for brands, especially if the brand name is abstract or uninspiring. It can explain what a product or service stands for, strives for, or believes in – and most importantly, what’s in it for your customers.

After decades of creating more taglines than I can remember, here are my seven top tips for creating a meaningful, timeless tagline for your brand:

1. Know your brand. Know your audience

Don’t start brainstorming taglines until you have a clear understanding of your brand's core message, values, benefits, and target audience. What makes your brand unique? What emotions do you want to evoke in your customers? If you’re not sure, hire a brand strategist to point you in the right direction – it could be the difference between success and failure.

Once you’ve figured out your brand proposition (ideally in just a few pithy words), you can start playing with those words to create a tagline. But make sure you…

2.    Keep it short & simple

The most memorable taglines tend to be short. And succinct. Take Spark’s ‘Hello Tomorrow’ and Toyota’s ‘Let’s go places’ … just two or three words can speak volumes.

For sustainable cleaning brand, klen.co, I recently created the line 'Cleaning up cleaning' – three simple words that sum this sustainable cleaning brand's vision, mission and customer benefit. Likewise, ‘We spot change’ for MoleMap is a simple, clever way to demonstrate the MoleMap difference – and convey the powerful, emotive reason to have your skin checked.

There are plenty of longer taglines out there (think Mastercard), but the discipline of creating a tagline in two to three words is a very good place to start. Or, if you’ve come up with a wordier line, can you shorten it with losing the meaning? Less is more.

3.    Focus on ‘you’, not ‘us’

If it’s not about ‘us’, it can only be about ‘you’, the customer. Dig deeper and find out what your customers are looking for, rather than trying to describe what you do. What need does your product or service answer? If you’re unsure, carry out some market research – Stickybeak is a great place to start.

A great example of a customer-centric tagline is “I’m lovin’ it”. It doesn’t tell me that McDonald’s sells hamburgers, but it tells me that I’ll love the food, the service, the experience, and the brand.

4.    Avoid corporate blah

You’ll never create a compelling and memorable tagline if you use clichéd words or corporate jargon (even if you’re a B2B business). Generic taglines like ‘we’re building tomorrow’ will never stand out or stick in the minds of potential customers.

For Impact Lab, a New Zealand company that estimates social value, I created the tagline ‘Do good, better’. They could have used ‘Understand your social impact’ or ‘Measure, Compare, Invest’. Instead, this short, sharp line nailed what’s in it for their customers – not-for-profits striving to do good, better.

5.    Make it memorable

This is the hard part … and a very good reason to avoid AI tagline generators. Sure, you can start with a generator to fire up your brain, but remember that most AI-generated taglines are likely to be clichés.

To create a truly memorable tagline, it helps to get playful with words. Some simple tricks include:

• Alliteration – alliteration is a terrific tool to craft a catchy catchphrase (see what I did there?). ‘Maybe it’s Maybelline’ is a famous example. ‘Slip, slop, slap’ is another. The simple alliteration takes it to a whole new level of catchiness.

  
  

• Rhyming – ‘Beanz meanz Heinz’ is perhaps the most famous example of a rhyming (or rhythmic) tagline.  A local example is Genesis Energy’s ‘With you, for you’ strapline – four short, succinct words that speak volumes about their customer service.

  
  

• Repetition – such as ‘Have a break, have a KitKat’. While this strapline is a whole six words long, the repetition is what makes it memorable. And of course, it has inspired decades of award-winning ad campaigns, making it one of the world’s most enduring and recognisable taglines.

  
  

• Onomatopoeia – or in other words, naming something by imitating the natural sound it makes. ‘Snap, Crackle, Pop’ is a brilliant example of this – your brain immediately pictures a tasty bowl full of snapping, crackling, popping rice bubbles.

  
  

• ‘Opposites attract’ is another handy technique for creating a memorable tagline. ‘Expect more. Pay less.’ for Target says it all, while ‘Say yeah, nah’ totally reflects the Kiwi drinking psyche.

6.    Inspire emotion, or action

Good taglines aren’t always clever or catchy. Sometimes, they’re simple and authentic. Aim to build a powerful emotional connection and inspire people to feel something – whether it’s excitement, empathy, hope or happiness. Or even better, to take action.

AirBnB’s ‘Belong anywhere’ is so simple, yet deceptively powerful. To ‘belong’ is to feel at home, wherever you are. Apple’s ‘Think different’ was a call to arms to early adopters to break with convention – inspiring generations of creatives and rebels to choose Mac over Microsoft.

For not-for-profit organisation, Ngā Tāngata Microfinance, I created the tagline 'Fairer, Kinder Loans', to powerfully connect with low-income Kiwis trapped in the cycle of high-interest loans and prey to loan sharks.

When a tagline taps into a real emotive need, the magic happens. Which leads me to the next point…

7.     Have great tagline, keep great tagline

In my humble opinion, the best taglines are the truly timeless ones that have been used for years, or even decades. Nike’s ‘Just do it’ is arguably the world’s most famous example of a tagline that has become a mantra for millions of athletes (and not-so-athletes too).

Or my personal favourite, ‘Should’ve gone to SpecSavers’, is a consistent, highly memorable and engaging slogan that’s loved and recognised across the globe, even by those with dodgy eyesight.

On that note, many brands seem to change their taglines as often as their T-shirts. There are many reasons for this; either to reflect a new vision, a new offering or new audiences, or simply because the old tagline wasn’t working. 

However, it’s been proven time and time again that a powerful, enduring tagline can improve help brand recall. So if your customers know, love and respond to your tagline … don’t be in a hurry to ditch it.

And, if you can’t nail a great tagline yourself, feel free to get in touch with The Namery. In the words of our tagline, it’s ‘where brands begin’.

Sarah Walter is founder/creative director of The Namery®, a boutique New Zealand consultancy specialising in names, taglines, tone of voice, and bringing brands to life through words.