A Great Tagline is the Best Brand Communication Tool

By Jay Ehret on July 7, 2008

On this episode of Power to the Small Business, we welcome Jim Morris. Jim creates compelling, evocative advertising. He also writes a weekly column for the Advertising for Peanuts blog. His specialty is creating taglines. His most famous tagline is for Flintstones Children’s Vitamins: We Are Flintstones Kids, Ten Million Strong . . . And Growing. Jim has created taglines for both large and small companies.

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Guest:

Jim Morris – The Communicaterer

Length: 28 minutes

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Taglines & Your Brand

I asked Jim about the importance of having a tagline. He believes that a good tagline is the single-most powerful, condensed, compact expression of your brand that you can have. Taglines show their value when you need to get your brand in front of people and connect with them in little space and time. The tagline is the first articulation of your brand.

However, a tagline is not an explanation and shouldn’t tell a long story. It needs to encapsulate the feeling you want people to have about you. For that reason, you should take great care in creating one. The key is having a clear sense of what your brand is.

The Don’ts of Tagline Creation

  1. Don’t brag or engage in chest-beating. Talk to the customer and not yourself.
  2. Don’t participate in tagline fads. Avoid formulas and plays on words based on popular sayings
  3. Don’t use one-word taglines.

The Do’s of Tagline Creation

  1. Start with a creative brief: a one page document that identifies:- Your goal- Your target- Your most compelling attribute
  2. Translate your brand promise into a tagline filtered through your brand personality.
  3. Decide on a voice, face, personality, and attitude of your brand.
  4. Find a professional to help you develop a good tagline
  5. Once you get a tagline, commit to it and put it on everything you do.

Jim Morris – The Communicaterer
TaglineJim.com

Jim’s personal website with examples of his work and contact information

Tagline Blog
Jim’s pithy column on taglines

 

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