The power of a tagline

The power of a good tagline is hard to deny. To see why, just look at a few examples:
“Just do it.” “Think different.” “That was easy.”

That’s three different brands with three different stories, and billions of dollars of market value, all in just eight words.

Understanding the ins and outs of this vital branding tool is the first step in creating a business tagline that’s concise, meaningful, and impossible to forget.

What is a Tagline?

A tagline is a short phrase that communicates a brand’s value proposition memorably. An effective tagline is both familiar and unique, making a brand recognisable while differentiating it from its competitors.

Taglines appear in everything from marketing collateral to website homepages to TV commercials and beyond. And their power lies in their clarity, their meaningfulness, and—most of all—their memorability.

What’s the difference between a tagline and a slogan?

While the two words are often used interchangeably, and definitions vary, taglines generally represent a brand, while slogans represent a product or marketing campaign.

The difference between a tagline and a slogan, then, is one of specificity. While taglines tend to represent a brand and all of its offerings, a slogan is specific to either a product, a use case, a category, and/or a unique customer segment.

Generally, brand taglines have longer lifespans than slogans, as well. In the same way that branding is a longer-term endeavour than marketing, taglines are designed to withstand the test of time, while slogans come and go.

Take Nike, for example. Everyone knows the brand for its timeless “Just Do It” tagline, but Nike has leveraged dozens of different slogans over the years to communicate messages to specific audiences. “Hit the ball as hard as you can” is one such slogan that Nike uses to target tennis players.

Why your business needs a tagline

Not every business has a tagline, but once you understand how powerful they can be, you’ll probably wonder why more of them don’t. A good business tagline boils all your brand’s benefits down to a few punchy words—and delivers them in a way that’s hard to forget.

Let’s look at some of the tangible business benefits these high-level messages can deliver.

Boosts brand recognition & awareness

Two of the most salient benefits of a good brand tagline are that it makes your brand recognisable and memorable. It’s essentially the title to your brand story.

But here’s why this is so powerful: Because the human brain is wired for narrative, stories are usually easier to remember than just words alone.

Every time you see the words “Just do it,” only one brand comes to mind, along with a rich narrative of performance and achievement. Nike has owned the phrase to such a degree that they can use it without an accompanying name or logo.

Like a brand name, a logo, or even a unique colour, a strong brand tagline becomes an essential cue for customers to bring your brand—and all its positive associations and benefits—to mind.

Concisely communicates positioning

Taglines succinctly convey your brand positioning: what your company does, the value you provide, and/or how you’re different than your competitors.

As mentioned above, a good company tagline is a compelling, fully realised story told in just a few words. Nowhere else in marketing can you get so much from so few words.

Its conciseness is also its strength; it succinctly and unambiguously asserts your brand promise or competitive advantage.

Creates positive brand associations

A brand is more than just a name, a logo, or a line of products or services. It is the bundle of associations that all of these things evoke. Brand associations are ideas (positive or negative) that are forever tied to your brand in the minds of your customers.

A good tagline creates positive associations such as trust, credibility, and humanity in a fraction of a second. Associations like these play a large role in fostering brand loyalty and building brand equity.

Facilitates purchase decisions

When customers are evaluating your brand against a competitor (or simply trying to decide whether or not to buy), a good tagline in the back of their mind can help to push them over the line.

Last line

Business taglines are easily remembered signifiers of your brand’s benefits. A strong tagline can help your business, and its stickiness is what makes it so effective, especially at critical moments like a purchase decision.