There’s no marketing or advertising rule that says you must have a tagline. That said, a good tagline can make a big difference. You’re in Good Hands with Allstate, The Ultimate Driving Machine, Finger Lickin’ Good, Just Do It. All of these tags, and many others, have beautifully positioned the brands they describe, strengthened their perception, built on their awareness and become part of the culture. They are among the best. Coming up with a good one is far from easy. We have enough experience with taglines to know that while there’s a process, there’s no formula. Sometimes, you catch lightning in a bottle, sometimes you blow a fuse. The good ones we remember because they have a long shelf life. The bad ones are unintentionally funny, but also instructive. Bad ones illustrate what not to do. So, what follows is good for a laugh, and a lesson.
Good luck.
From our friends at Uzbekistan Airways. No company in the transportation industry should ever, ever, ever use the phrase, “good luck” as a tagline. It wouldn’t work in the medical field either!
Do stuff.
Radio Shack was once a great resource for those who knew what Hz means. This tagline is ridiculously mundane.
Drive one.
Generally, you want a tagline to be short and simple. This one, for Ford, was much too short and much too simple.
Our passion is food. Our secret is people.
This was the tagline for a small company called Moxie’s Classic Grill. That secret ingredient is a bit disturbing.
Ask about it at work.
This was for Aflac, the insurance company. The idea doesn’t seem so bad until you find out that research showed no one knew what to ask. The takeaway? Do the research first.
Dieting doesn’t work, Weight Watchers does.
The problem here is that Weight Watchers is a diet.
Hi.
A slogan for the Dodge Neon. They were going for cute; they accomplished really short.
It kills bugs dead.
This was for the bug-spray, Raid and it’s about being emphatic. On the other hand, how else can you kill something aside from dead?
I shoot people and pets.
It’s for a photography studio. Not the best way to frame the message.
Building better kids one punch at a time.
This was for a martial arts studio. No comment necessary.
Imagine more snacks than you can imagine.
AM-PM, the convenience store actually used that tagline. It’s literally impossible to do. Thinking about it will give you a severe headache. All they really had to do was drop the first “imagine.”
Travel should take you places.
Hilton did this. What else can travel do?
Hong Kong will take your breath away.
Hong Kong Tourism came up with this. The problem was that the tagline was introduced in 2003, right when Hong Kong was experiencing a SARS epidemic. SARS, a respiratory syndrome, literally takes your breath away.
We speak fish.
Fast seafood franchise Long John Silver’s put this out. You probably shouldn’t personify something you cook.
If you are thinking of creating a tagline for your business don’t try to highlight or focus on multiple benefits your company offers. Keep it to one. Keep it simple and relatively short. Once you have a few good ones, check to see if they are trademarked. Or call us. We do taglines right.