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Avoid These Five Tragic Tag Line Misfires

Article Description:
====================

A tag line is the little slogan that follows a business name on a
web site, in ads, on company stationery and elsewhere. A prime
branding opportunity, it should say something that encourages
ideal customers to do business with you.


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845 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line
Distribution Date and Time: 2009-07-14 13:24:00

Written By: Marcia Yudkin
Copyright: 2009
Contact Email: mailto:marcia@...


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Avoid These Five Tragic Tag Line Misfires
Copyright (c) 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Creative Marketing Solutions
http://www.yudkin.com/



A tag line is the little slogan that follows a business name on a
web site, in ads, on company stationery and elsewhere. A prime
branding opportunity, it presents one of the biggest challenges
in marketing. You want something that's catchy, appropriate,
appealing and distinctive. The tag line should say something that
encourages ideal customers to do business with you.

Be sure to generate a lot of possibilities, and eliminate any tag
line candidates where you are forced to answer "yes" to any of
the five questions below. While I'm illustrating these points
using U.S. state slogans (For instance, "Delaware: Small
Wonder"), the criteria apply as well to small businesses,
medium-sized companies, large corporations, solopreneurs,
ecommerce sites and nonprofit organizations anywhere in the
world.

Five Common Tag Line Blunders

1. Does it flunk the uniqueness test? A tag line needs to single
out your strengths. If your tag line could reasonably apply to
your competitors, it doesn't drill down deeply enough to what
makes you different. For example, which state would you match up
with "More Than You Can Imagine"? You'd have as good a chance
at getting this right by picking a state randomly as by trying to
guess according to its intended meaning. This is a tag line used
by Maryland, but it could equally apply to Nebraska, Idaho,
Michigan or any other state with an unglamorous reputation.

Consider also the similarity between South Carolina's slogan,
"Smiling Faces. Beautiful Places" and South Dakota's, "Great
Faces. Great Places." The word "faces" in South Dakota's tag
line probably refers to the presidential heads depicted on Mount
Rushmore, and "great" appropriately applies to them. But this
tag line is so close to South Carolina's wording that it's easy
to see the South Dakota marketers didn't bring out the unique
implications of those faces well enough in their tag line.

Some tag lines heavily suggest just one owner because of
recognizable associations. Because of the popularity of the
movie, The Wizard of Oz, for example, "There's No Place Like
Home" evokes Kansas much more than any other state.

2. Is there a questionable double meaning? Not one but two
slogans of Colorado become problematic because of this factor.
"Rocky Mountain High" and "Enter a Higher State" both use the
word "high" in a way that implies not only geographical
elevation but also (at least to many in the Baby Boomer
generation) marijuana intoxication.

Another state tag line with this weakness is "Oklahoma is OK."
To many people, "OK" implies "just OK," which is such faint
praise it lacks the power of invitation. Likewise, to someone who
believes the American Midwest is boring, Illinois's "Mile After
Magnificent Mile" evokes the idea of mile after mile after mile
of sameness.

3. Emotionally, is it a clunker? "Utah! Where Ideas Connect"
used to be that state's tourism slogan, and it's significant
that they inserted an exclamation mark to try to generate some
excitement, since the concept itself is flat and unemotional. A
tag line should convey positive energy rather than simply state
some facts.

Connecticut's slogan "Full of Surprises" doesn't score well
on uniqueness, but it does have emotional oomph. Ditto for
Maine's "The Way Life Should Be."

4. Does it have an inappropriate tone? "Say WA" (for Washington
State) is a prime example of a slogan that sounds like chalk
scratching on a blackboard to anyone older than a teenager.
Remember that people with nothing better to do than to hang out
at a street corner high-fiving their friends are not the logical
target of a tourism campaign.

"Live Free or Die," which appears on New Hampshire's license
plates, is a brilliant and highly emotional evocation of the
no-sales-tax state that epitomizes Yankee independence and
political autonomy. However, this slogan doesn't work well as a
lure for tourists. Normally it doesn't make a pleasant
impression to be reminding people of their mortality in the same
breath as saying "Come visit!"

5. Are you junking the previous tag line for the wrong reasons?
Simply being tired of it is the worst possible reason. Apparently
weariness is why in 1985, Governor Anthony Earl decided that
"America's Dairyland" would no longer do as Wisconsin's
slogan. Very often, politicians or tourism officials decide to
jettison something that's working, then spend a fortune hiring
brand consultants to come up with something their constituents
hate and that bombs in the marketplace. Don't you follow in
their footsteps!

Coming up with a tag line that passes all of these elimination
tests is not easy. If I had to select a winner from all the state
slogans I've looked at, I'd award first prize to Mississippi's
"The South's Warmest Welcome." Only a few other contenders
could claim this applied to them, and it's unquestionably and
strongly inviting. Second prize goes to Alaska's "Beyond Your
Dreams. Within Your Reach." In a positive way, this counteracts
the belief of so many in the other 49 states and abroad that they
might not easily have the opportunity to experience its charms.

Good luck with your own tag line and branding!




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Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that
brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines
for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an
appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of
"19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line"
at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm


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