What is a tagline: questions and answers
What is the definition of "tagline"?
As much as branding is becoming more and more professional, some wordings are going more visible too. Among them, there is the term "tagline". But what is exactly a tagline, in a context related to brands?
​
A tagline is a very short text formed by an expression of very few words transporting the mission of a brand, as well as its personality.
A tagline is often displayed with the logo and in the official content presenting the brand. The tagline encapsulates the essence of a brand.
What is the difference between "tagline" and "slogan"?
The differences between a tagline and a slogan is not very clear. Even marketers mix them often.
​
This is beacuse the tagline and the slogan have the same purpose: they both raise awareness regarding a message that the brand wants to promote. In addition, as they are both very short and well-built, the tagline as the slogan make the idea memorable.
​
However, tagline and slogan are used differently in marketing. The tagline is valid for a brand as a whole. It is part of the long-term corporate branding. The slogan is linked to a marketing campaign and therefore, is limited to a certain time.
What is a tagline used for?
In branding, marketers use taglines for 3 main and complementary reasons:
​
-
The tagline reveals the purpose of the brand, as well as its personality. This is a very productive marketing asset to create a lasting emotional connexion between brand and audience. It helps directly for the brand recognition and the brand awareness.
-
The tagline often makes a strong impression on the audience and contributes to making the brand stand out.
-
It helps to indirectly deduce the sector or area of competencies of the company, in the case where the audience is not familiar with the brand. It brings clarity.
What is a good tagline?
For a marketer or a marketing team, it is key to create and promote a very powerful tagline. However, this is a long and complicated process. However, a good brand tagline responds to 3 criteria that can be considered as best practices:
​
-
The tagline has to be short. Most of the successful taglines contain up to 3 words. In addition, not only the quantity of words is very limited but also, the terms that are used are often very short (one to three syllables).
-
The tagline is catchy and makes a strong impact on the audience. You cannot remain indifferent to a good tagline.
-
It changes the opinion of the audience or at least, opens toward new perspectives. In this sense:
​
Taglines drive change.
​
However, it is easier said than done. Maybe the best way to get started and create a good tagline is to look at examples.
What is an example of tagline?
I love examples: they are great ways of learning fast and in a focused way. This is even more true with brand taglines, where practice and inspiration are key.
​
You may know the examples of iconic brand taglines by Nike (with "Just do it"), or Apple ("Think different"). So as examples of taglines, I decided to look at brands that are maybe not so much in the spotlight, but whose taglines are very good too. I focused on b2b taglines, as this is what I like the most.
