How to Develop a Tag Line

 

Tag lines are a way to communicate your brand idea to your customers and potential buyers of your company. Tag lines are an effective way to communicate your brand’s Value Proposition in a powerful, succinct and memorable way.

 

tagline

 

I recommend you simply pay the money and hire a creative agency or an expert in branding.  If, however, you don’t want to do this, and you are not particularly creative yourself, then here is a six-step  system you can use to try your hand.

 

Six Steps to Writing a Powerful Tag Line


1. List Words Associated with Your Strategic Position


Go back to your Market Segment Analysis, Segment Attractiveness Analysis, Ability to Compete Analysis and Strategic Position Analysis.

 

List the words that are associated with your products, services and most importantly, words associated with your Strategic Position.  Group these words into nouns, verbs and adjectives in three separate columns.

 

2. List Words Associated with Your Point of Difference


Go back to your Point of Difference Analysis and list words associated with your ideal customer’s:

  • Decision criteria or motivators
  • Usage Behaviour
  • Decision Process
  • Barriers/Concerns
  • Key Influences.

Now list words associated with your product or services attributes that make them distinct from other  all the other products’ appeal or acceptance in the market (this could include size, colour, features, functionality or service offering). Group these words into nouns, verbs and adjectives in three separate columns.

 

3. Decide on Whether Your Positioning is Functional, Aspirational or Aligned with a Category


Look at your ideal customers in your ideal market segment:

  • Are they motivated to buy in the functional sense in that they might think, “I like food.  KFC is food.  ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ is a tag line that appeals to me in the functional sense and some sort of pre-eminence in the fast food category is also implied.”
  • Are they motivated to buy in the emotional sense in that they might think, “All my life I have wanted a luxury car to fulfil a deeply held emotional need.  BMW is a luxury car that promises to fulfil that emotional need.   ‘Sheer Driving Pleasure’ is a tag line that promises me self-actualisation as a successful person.”  
  • Are they motivated to buy in the rational sense in that they might think “I want a product that is aligned with high-end sound systems.  Bose is a high-end sound system. ‘Better Sound Through Research’ is a tag line that appeals to me in a rational sense and some sort of pre-eminence in research is also expressed.”  

Decide on your positioning and list words associated with that positioning.  Group them into nouns, adjectives and verbs.

 

4. Take Combinations of Words and Start Putting Them Together


Take the words generated and start numerous possible tag lines with nouns, then verbs, then adjectives (ie: Noun = “Finger” in “Finger Lickin’ Good”, adjective = “Sheer” in “Sheer Driving Pleasure” etc).   Make sure the tag lines all appeal to the functional, emotional or category sense you selected.

 

5. Test Possible Tag Lines


Go to your ten best customers and put  the ten best tag lines on a single page and ask them to rate each one of them out of ten.  Look at their top three tag lines and ask them, “What does that tag line make you feel?”  Make sure the emotional response lines up with what you want to convey.

 

6. Test The Five Best Tag Lines on Google AdWords


A  great way to see what the world thinks of your tag lines is to put them on Google AdWords.  Put the five best tag lines in the “headline” of Google AdWords, but keep the body of the text in each Google AdWords advertisement the same.  Once you have 500 click throughs, you will have an idea of which tag line appeals the most by seeing which one they click the most.

 

Conclusion


Don’t just rely on Google AdWords or your ten best customers.  Try your tag line out on as many of your target market as you can. Put some science around selecting your tag line so that you can justify it to potential purchasers of your business.

 

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Contact us now and ask how we can help you achieve your goals

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