A Great Tagline is Your Best Brand Communication Tool

Episode #14 of Power to the Small Business (podcast)

The Internet show about small business marketing.

On this episode of Power to the Small Business, we welcome Jim Morris. Jim creates compelling, evocative advertising. He also writes a weekly column for the Advertising for Peanuts blog. His specialty is creating taglines. His most famous tagline is for Flintstones Children’s Vitamins: We Are Flintstones Kids, Ten Million Strong . . . And Growing. Jim has created taglines for both large and small companies.

7 Up Flickr photo by kevindooley
Photo Credit: Flickr photo by kevindooley

Guest:

Jim Morris – The Communicaterer

Length: 28 minutes

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Press the play button on the player above and get started. Do you know of a great local tagline? Please share it in the comment section below.

Taglines & Your Brand

I asked Jim about the importance of having a tagline. He believes that a good tagline is the single-most powerful, condensed, compact expression of your brand that you can have. Taglines show their value when you need to get your brand in front of people and connect with them in little space and time. The tagline is the first articulation of your brand.

However, a tagline is not an explanation and shouldn’t tell a long story. It needs to encapsulate the feeling you want people to have about you. For that reason, you should take great care in creating one. The key is having a clear sense of what your brand is.

The Don’ts of Tagline Creation

  1. Don’t brag or engage in chest-beating. Talk to the customer and not yourself.
  2. Don’t participate in tagline fads. Avoid formulas and plays on words based on popular sayings
  3. Don’t use one-word taglines.

The Do’s of Tagline Creation

  1. Start with a creative brief: a one page document that identifies:- Your goal- Your target- Your most compelling attribute
  2. Translate your brand promise into a tagline filtered through your brand personality.
  3. Decide on a voice, face, personality, and attitude of your brand.
  4. Find a professional to help you develop a good tagline
  5. Once you get a tagline, commit to it and put it on everything you do.

Jim Morris – The Communicaterer
TaglineJim.com

Jim’s personal website with examples of his work and contact information

Tagline Blog
Jim’s pithy column on taglines

Listen to all of our previous shows:
Power to the Small Business Archive

Related information on branding & taglines:
The Tagline Creation Process
The Importance of Taglines in Branding
The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand?

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Trackbacks

  1. […] A tagline is an entry point into the mind and the decision process of the consumer. There are other entry points too, such as word of mouth and advertising, but taglines, good taglines, can be your brand’s spear-point. Your brand has to fight for the attention of the distracted customer. As my friend, Tagline Jim Morris says: “A Great Tagline is Your Best Brand Communication Tool” […]

  2. […] A Tagline is Your Best Brand Communication Tool A good tagline is the single-most powerful, condensed, compact expression of your brand that you can have. Here are the do’s and don’ts of tagline creation. …read the full article and listen to the podcast […]

  3. […] We have stumbled upon a fascinating new revenue model at Urbane Apartments. We think this is classic Guerilla Marketing. IF…… you already have a Brand Presence locally, this technique will work for you too. If you have yet to create Brand Awareness, start with a good tagline first. […]

  4. […] A Great Tagline is Your Best Brand Communication Tool Learn the do’s and don’ts of tagline creation from tagline specialist Jim Morris in this podcast interview. Listen to learn more about taglines… […]

  5. […] persona and let your brand personality show. Garfield and Levy provide a system for that as well as brand communication. But, first start with the three questions above and focus on who you […]

  6. […] #14 – Jim Morris: A Tagline is Your Best Brand Communication Tool […]

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