Deep Thoughts About Tag Lines
Your brand building effort is all about creating an emotional connection with your audience. Your tag line is supposed to conjure up images; every prospective customer should create his/her own unique image. For example, "Life is a Journey, Start Here." doesn't say Kick Ass Coffee in the Heart of Downtown. Bellatazza's location, product, and service delivery reinforce those elements of Bellatazza's brand promise. Therefore, take care not to be too "on the nose," in other words, don't describe exactly what you do with your tag.
Tag line creation is challenging because of the nuance in what you say, how you say it, and where you say it. Keep your tag line short. Use it to spawn imagery. Use words as symbols too. Imagine for a moment that your product is food. "Love Every Bite" impresses something quite different than "Love in Every Bite." Love Every Bite gets the eater thinking about taste -- a fairly easy conjecture for the customer to make. Love in Every Bite is more about what the chef puts into the food -- literaly ingrediates over which the customer has little control. Your tag, subtly, should involve customers' feelings and experiences.
Firms often expect people to change their consumption patterns and behaviors. Yet the current system, so far as customers are concerned, does not feel broken. In other words, customers don't even realize they have problems your company solves. It would be great if customers read and comprehended your firm's white paper "5 Problems You Didn't Know You Had." Wouldn't that help prime the customer for your unique selling proposition?
When you want to change your loved ones' behavior, you don't just tell them what to do. You have to get psychological on them. Do the same with your customers. Try working backwards when creating tag lines: brainstorm lists of benefits that your firm provides for prospects. Benefits may include peace of mind, time or cost savings, looking good on the job. Your tag line then articulates these benefits (not literally, but rather symbolically).
Features and functions, bells and whistles, are easily copied. They are cognitive benefits. Feelings, on the other hand, are harder to replicate. With reinforcement, they are more indelible too. Your tag line is not explicit nor should it simply restate what your name implies.
Think benefits. Think emotions. Feel words. Taste words.
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