7 Keys to Marketing Genius: Tagline
The following is an excerpt from The 7 Keys to Marketing Genius by Michael Daehn
The tagline is a distillation of the competitive advantage into a single word or sentence. The tagline will appear on every piece of promotional and organizational communications material. For the tagline to be effective, it must reinforce the unique competitive advantage of the company. A simple and easy to remember tagline is best. Try to use literary tools like rhyming and alliteration. It is also helpful if it clarifies the purpose of the business when the name does not clearly do so. The purpose is to get the company’s competitive advantage stuck in the heads of customers. The more complex and convoluted the tagline, the less likely this will happen.
Many taglines do nothing to clarify the advantage of the company. Nike says to “just do it.” Just do what? And what does this have to do with their advantage? Why is this company a better choice for me as a consumer than their competitors? The answer to all these questions is “I don’t know.” I don’t think they could tell me why they are better if I asked the CEO himself, probably because they have not gone through the SWOT process. That’s great if you have a few hundred million dollars a year to spend on advertising to keep your company in the mind of the consumer, but most companies don’t have such resources. Nike is a major market force today, but they are weak on this point of promoting their competitive advantage. A savvy marketer could give a competitor a way to overtake the shoe giant and give Nike a run for its money (pun intended).