How to Help Customers Remember Your Brand

We all recognize some taglines. Think about “We try harder," “When you care enough to send the very best," and “The quicker picker-upper” (Avis, Hallmark and Bounty). The moment you hear those taglines, you get a mental image of a product or service.

Michael Goodman states, “A tagline is used to communicate or explain the main benefit the company or brand provides, especially when the company name or brand name doesn't do a particularly good job of communicating that message. In these cases, it's important to review the positioning statement to make sure the target audience is clearly and narrowly defined, and the benefit is one that's important to that audience.”

Goodman offers these guidelines for creating taglines:

• They should contain no more than 8 or 9 words.
• Communicate or enhance the positioning benefit.
• Paint a word picture. Choose words that are easy to remember.
• Cute and catchy is not as important as meaningful. People remember big ideas about things that are important to them long after they forget cute phrases, puns or jokes.
• Try including the brand name as an integral part of it—like Procter & Gamble did with “Please don't squeeze the Charmin.”

The Po!nt: The right tagline can lock your brand in the minds of your customers. Craft one that tells your audience what you will deliver.