The (higher) power of a great tagline

A great tagline will help sell your product, and when it is really great, it will also make you memorable. If I say “just do it” you immediately know it’s Nike’s tagline. Not many companies can claim a great tagline like that one.

Developing a great (or even a good) tagline is no easy feat. You need to be succinct, clever and find the essence of what you are trying to communicate. A good tagline “tags” you–that is, it identifies you, easily and immediately.

An online dating service catering to Christians, ChristianMingle.com, has come up with a really good tagline: Find God’s match for you.  The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi has written about it today in “Evoking God has been good to ChristianMingle.” Farhi writes:

It might be the most audacious, and perhaps the most presumptuous, ad slogan ever devised.

“Find God’s Match for You,” sayeth ChristianMingle.com, an online dating service that suggests in its advertising that its computer-generated matches are, well, made in heaven.

Farhi then goes on to report on whether the tagline can be construed as false advertising.  Read the article to see why.

But whether or not a tagline can be accused of setting up false expectations, I think that a strong (memorable) tagline (one that immediately communicates your objective ) is one of the strongest tools in your marketing communications arsenal.

Take a look at your tagline today. Is it powerful? Is it memorable? Does it identify you?