Protecting & Promoting: Taglines are Advertising’s Poetry

Reinforcing brand personality and position

There are great taglines with simple, single meanings that are memorable (The Freshmaker – Mentos; Expect More, Pay Less – Target) but more often, really effective taglines have a double (A Diamond is Forever – DeBeers; Have a break…Have A Kit Kat – Kit Kat) or multiple (Just Do It – Nike) meanings.

We have always had a few rules when developing taglines for VFC client brands — one is to avoid the negative.

“You don’t want the target audience associating your offering with anything negative even if it’s juxtaposing your brand against a negative alternative,” we often caution.

The United Negro College Fund’s, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste, is negative but it was named by Forbes Magazine as one of The 25 Best-Loved Advertising Taglines proving, yet again, that rules—especially rules about advertising— are made to be broken.

You will recognize many in the Forbes list but, I suspect, many are there because of the multi-million dollar campaigns that helped to ingrain them in the American cultural lexicon—not because they’re especially clever or even memorable. Where’s the beef?, however, becomes memorable with Pavlovian precision on the hundredth impression.

Think about McDonald’s and what a big deal it becomes when they change their tagline every few years. Remember when the fast food giant went from Have You Had Your Break Today? to Did Somebody Say McDonald’s? in the late 1990s?

It’s also interesting to note that they used a question as a tagline in successive campaign years. Perhaps posing the tagline as a question is a part of McDonald’s own specific criteria…

What determines success in a tagline?

Is it increased revenue? Enhanced market share? Owning a category?

Taglines, we contend, are unique animals in the marketing arsenal that can help with multiple marketing goals and evolve and grow with a brand. And, as we have seen with the case of McDonald’s, they’re the one branding component that can change completely without sacrificing awareness.

Sometimes brands launch a tagline with a real specific objective in mind.

Take Magic Marker’s tagline, for instance. The pen company wanted to use the tagline as a device to separate themselves from dozens of knock off brands when they used the slightly negative, If it doesn’t say Magic Marker, it isn’t.

The topic of the best taglines of all time recently came up in LinkedIn’s Advertising Professionals Group and, much like Forbes, posters focused on the best known rather than the best.

Unless it is determined that we should attempt to use tagline development to reach a very specific goal, which has been the case from time-to-time, VFC employs a hierarchy of criteria to develop the lowest common denominator of all possible phrases that still cleverly and creatively describes a product or a company.

VFC Naming & Tagline Criteria

  • Support the brand’s unique personality.
  • Present memorable meaning or multiple meanings.
  • Support the brand’s marketable position.
  • Clearly and cleverly illustrate the brand’s offering.

Throughout our twenty one year history, VFC has started providing a creative brief with nearly every conceptual project that we present to a client– including taglines. With everyone from the local sign shop to commercial printers claiming to be creative content developers nowadays, it’s important for us to demonstrate our marketable difference at every opportunity.

VFC is focused on strategy

We don’t just build a website but we build a website that will achieve specific objectives and support a complete and custom campaign strategy. We bring big company thinking to small businesses and that includes the strategic development of brand taglines developed to meet very specific objectives.

We don’t just whip up some words and say, “here’s your new tagline,” like those newer competitors of ours might. Instead, we undertake actual competitive research, trend studies and market testing to present options within the VFC criteria that will perform for the brand.

In some cases we also named the company using the same strategy and criteria but here, in one place, are a few of Virtual Farm Creative’s more memorable taglines:

  • Safely Leading the World to Work

    Arbill Safety product equipment distributor
  • The Last Name In Fly Fishing

    Rumpf, Fly fishing equipment distributon
  • When We’re Done, You’re Playin’

    ASE, Athletic complex installer
  • Home Technology Made Simple

    Hoishik, Home automation supplier and installer
  • Good People. Better Bankers.

     New Century Bank, Regional community bank
  • Your Future is Worth it

    Main Line Financial Advisors, Personal financial services
  • Up all night

    Steel City, Local coffeehouse
  • Organization Through Innovation

    Storage Squared, Patented storage system
  • Read It! Invent it! Change It!

    APCS, Charter school group
  • Your building’s best friend.

    Budget Maintenance, Property management company
  • Konell Can!

    Konell Insurance, Insurance broker
  • Where your pet is part of the family

    Primrose Lane Farm, Doggie day care
  • Accessories for the Good Life

     Twisted Leaf , Retail cigar shop
  • Workplace Safety Innovations

    Truline, Safety product manufacturer
  • In Community with Nature

    TDP, Municipal landscape planner
  • Call Faust First!

    Faust Landscaping, Residential landscaper
  • Your tailgate recycling team

    Lot Squad, Event recycling services
  • Sit, Stay, Enjoy!

    Lucky Lab Tavern, Canine themed restaurant
  • Comprehensive Payroll Processing

    Express Data Systems, Business support services
  • Understanding behavior, improving profits

    CoreProfit, Banking service provider
  • Forging a Phenomenal Future Together!

    PABA, Business affinity group
  • Monstrous selection of lacrosse gear!

    Laxzilla, Consumer lacrosse equipment
  • Always the Right Call!

    The Official’s Corner, Consumer officiating equipment
  • Funding for our future

    OJREF, Educational foundation
  • Building Beautiful Dreams

    Tummillo & Sons, Custom home builder
  • Welcome to ideaville

    TEDxPhoenixville, Regional speaker conference
  • Law with people in mind

    Porter Law, Lawyer
  • Eat. Drink. Gather.

    Fork and Ale, Restaurant
  • Better than Fast!

    Rapidough, Pizza restaurant
  • Your Community’s Bank.

    Phoenixville Federal, Community Bank
  • The Outdoor Enthusiast’s Choice.

    Sly Fox Beer, Regional Craft Beer
  • Integrating People & Service

    IPS global, Print and projector experts
  • Staffing with Higher Standards

    UpGrow, IT staffing agency
  • Come out for a cause.

    LGBT Equality Alliance, LGBT Equality Organization
  • Snack Smarter!

     PAIA Healthy Vending,  Vending Machines
  • A family of innovators

    J-Tech family of companies,  Trucking Industry
  • Making Roads Safer Workplaces

    J-Tech Highway Safety Division, Highway Safety
  • Caribbean Crafted

    Leatherback Brewing Company, Craft Brewing Company
  • Behind Every Great Athlete is Great Coverage

    A-G Administrators, Sports Insurance Specialists
  • Real Deal Southern Style!

    Uncle B’s BBQ, Restaurant
  • Concept to Completion Dream Builders

    Dilworth’s Custom Design, Home Remodeling Experts
  • Managing the expected, Responding to the unexpected

    Lewis Environmental, Environmental Services
  • Stay Independent

    Mainstay Independent, Regional Craft Brewer
  • Pioneers of the Good Life

    I Pick Pottstown, Economic Development Campaign
  • Collaboration for Positive Action

    Sarcinello Planning and GIS services

  • Uniquely Amazing, Amazingly Unique

    Trading Post, Custom furniture
     

And, let’s not forget Virtual Farm Creative’s own tagline which was recently changed. For the first ten years we used, Where Ideas Grow! attempting to convey that we were pure creative strategy but recently we elected to try to be more descriptive and creatively focused on exactly what VFC does for our clients… Growing Brand BUZZ!

—————

Backed by years of solid agency experience, VFC is an innovative and energetic team of award-winning copywriters, designers, illustrators and programmers prepared to grow your brand and your business. VFC delivers strategic marketing, advertising and public relations campaigns for a diverse roster of clients from a 170-year-old, high-tech renovated farmhouse in the heart of Chester County, Pennsylvania. For more information call 877-GROW ART or visit VFC on the web at www.virtualfarm.com.