One of our local employers was on the front page of the Monadnock Ledger last week regarding a $400,000 settlement with OSHA for worker safety violations. Ouch! They not only have to pay the fines, but they also must take corrective actions & improve the safety of their workplaces for all of their employees. They have agreed to get a full time safety &...
Clever Tag Lines
Submitted by TWP on Wed 11/16/11 9:47 am
A tag line should help people remember a company. No one has trouble recalling Nike from the tag line "Just Do It." But the perfect tag line can be elusive. I'm a professional writer, yet I worried for months over a tag line until "Our Words Mean Business" jumped out at me. It actually took me more time to find a tag line for myself than for the many companies I work with.
For example, for HR Compliance 101, I came up with the tag line: Workplaces That Work for Everyone. For Monadnock Occupational Therapy Services, I provided the tag line: First We Listen, Then We Help. For a maker of wireless portable sound equipment: You Will Be Heard. For a nonprofit that prepares people to join the food industry: Now You're Cooking!
What makes a great tag line? First, it is clear. I'm a great proponent of clever but clear comes first. As with all marketing materials, your tag line gains in power and recognition if it uses the ordinary words of everyday speech.
Second, it captures a part of what you do. That means you have to understand the main focus of your business--and you have to be willing to change your tag line if your business focus changes. A tag line that tries to capture every aspect of a business providing multiple products and services will become so generic as to be useless.
Which brings us to the third element: Your tag line has to feel uniquely yours. Every company in the world can boast about "Quality Solutions" or "One Stop Shopping." Those marketing messages are overdone and there is no sense of a personality behind them.
Having trouble with your tag line? write [at] twriteplus [dot] com (Contact )TWP Marketing & Technical Communications. Our words mean business for you!