Tag lines: Do you need one?

Maybe not.

When tag lines are de rigeur, when virtually every company has some poetry tacked onto its name and logo, you can actually gain distinction by not having a distinctive tagline.

I notice that some adventurous companies are choosing to go without these dangling modifiers. 

It oozes confidence just to say your company name and leave it at that, like the Brazilian soccer player going by Ronaldinho, without benefit of surname or sobriquet.  As if you see no great need to explain yourself.

Most companies will continue to want tag lines, however.  And they are willing to expend surprising effort and budget contriving them.  Do taglines have any effect on customers?  No one knows. The ultimate coup seems to be an elegant double or triple double-entendre that can be interpreted six different ways, all good. Like Moen's Buy it for looks. Buy it for life.

If you are charged with doing a tag line, here's what I recommend:

1. Try skipping the philosophical poofiness and describe what you offer.  There is less cachet to this approach, but it's more useful for customers.

eSurance.

Quote. Buy. Print.

2. Don't make the tagline about YOU. Or YOUR market share or YOUR attributes, or YOUR view of life. That's self-centered.  And customers aren't much interested anyway.

Make it about what the customer gets.  Make it about THEM, not you. 

3.  Be contrarian.  Everyone puts their tagline after the company name.  Put your tagline in front of it.

Good to the last drop. Maxwell House

Think different.
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