OneTaskPublished
Writing a tagline that sticks, and the five shapes most of them take
A tagline has one job: to make the name next to it mean something. "Just do it" is not a good sentence on its own. Next to a shoe brand it becomes a philosophy. The best ones look obvious afterwards, which is why writing one from a blank page is so hard.
The good news is that most taglines, including the famous ones, fall into a small number of shapes. Knowing the shapes turns "write something catchy" into a set of exercises you can actually do.
Shape one: the promise
A verb-first instruction or promise to the customer. "Think different." "Just do it." "Taste the feeling." These work because they put the reader in the sentence. The verb does the work, so choose a strong one and keep the rest short.
Test: does the verb belong to your product? "Sleep better" is a promise a mattress can make and a coffee shop cannot.
Shape two: the contrast
Two halves that pull against each other. "Small batch, big heart." "Less noise, more signal." "Expensive taste, sensible price." The contrast makes the line feel complete, and the repeated structure makes it easy to remember.
Test: are both halves true? Contrast taglines tempt you to claim the opposite of a weakness ("Big flavour, small price") when the price is not actually small. Customers notice.
Shape three: the place or the person
"Where good things start." "For the curious." "Made for the long haul." These describe who the brand is for, or where it sits in someone's life, rather than what it does. They suit businesses whose product is obvious from the name and whose differentiator is attitude.
Test: would your competitors say the same thing? "For people who love coffee" applies to every café in the world.
Shape four: the plain description
Sometimes the most effective tagline just says what you do, clearly. "The honest cup." "Bread, properly." "Accounting for sole traders." It is not clever, but it is never confusing, and for a new business that nobody has heard of, clarity beats wit. A clever line on an unknown name leaves people guessing what you sell.
Test: if someone only saw your name and tagline on a van at 50 km/h, would they know what you do?
Shape five: the sound
Rhyme, alliteration and rhythm. "Beanz meanz Heinz." "Have a break, have a KitKat." These lean on sound rather than meaning and can be hugely memorable, but they date quickly and can tip into novelty. They work best for consumer products with a light tone.
Test: say it out loud ten times. If it starts to annoy you, it will annoy customers too.
Tagline or slogan?
People use the words interchangeably. When they are separated, a tagline is the long-lived line that sits with the logo, and a slogan is a campaign line that might last a season. The shapes are the same; the difference is how long you are prepared to live with it. Write a tagline as though you will still be reading it in ten years.
How to test a shortlist
Generate or write far more than you need, then cut hard. A process that works:
- Write forty. Use every shape above. Do not judge them yet.
- Cut to ten by removing anything a competitor could also use.
- Cut to five by reading each one next to your name and logo. Some lines that look fine alone clash with the name: a contrast tagline next to a name that is already a contrast is too much.
- Read them aloud and count syllables. Most memorable taglines are under eight words and many are under five.
- Check the obvious things: is it trademarked, does it mean something unfortunate in another language your customers speak, and does it read badly when the words run together in a URL or hashtag?
- Show three people who are not on the team and ask them what the business does. If they cannot tell, either the tagline or the name has to do more work.
Where a generator helps
A generator will not write your final tagline, but it is very good at step one. Writers get stuck on the first few ideas; a list of forty in different shapes breaks that. The slogan and tagline generator produces lines in each of the shapes above, so you can see which shape suits your business before you start polishing the words.
If the name itself is still open, sort that first: a tagline written for one name rarely survives a rename. The business name generators cover everything from cafés to trades, and the marketing agency name generator is a good source of short, brand-shaped words even if you are not an agency.
The one-line version
Pick a shape, write forty, cut anything a competitor could say, and read the survivors next to your name. The tagline that is left is usually simpler than the one you started trying to write.