How I write memorable taglines

Taglines are a challenging beast to write. Not only do they need to get across the value and purpose of a brand, but they need to be catchy, memorable, powerful, short, and simple.  

I've been working on a brand repositioning project lately, helping to define the tagline and campaign for a large institution. So I'm sharing the steps that I took to help make the process a little easier!

As a reminder, a good tagline must be the following:

• Distinctive: Is it easily identifiable?

• Differentiated: Is it unique and different to what’s out there?

• Connection: Does it create an instant connection with intended audiences?

• Memorable: Is it easy to remember?

• Short: Is it catchy? Can it be shortened?

• Borderless: Does it translate well across borders?

📜 1. Research.

The process starts with research into the brand and company. Start to scour the internet for any interesting and relevant information you can find about the brand and its audience. Specifically, look at any past campaigns they've done, previous taglines, their website messaging, purpose and mission statement, values, and public strategy documents they've developed, and any PR about the brand. Write down anything interesting you find, especially any language or sentences that stand out. You then want to research the brand's competitors, and following the same process, explore their messaging, how they talk about themselves, previous campaigns, etc. 

✍️ 2. Direction. 

From your initial research, start to identify any key themes that have come up and make a list of potential categories/routes for your tagline. For example, innovation, inclusion, focused on the future, empowering you, the best, a friendly face, get it done, etc. You want to start to develop a strategic route for the brand, especially if they haven't already got one or they want to reposition themselves in the market. Think about what the competitors are all doing, and where the white space is – the space that no one is in, that you could move the brand into. Then circle the 2-3 concepts/routes that would differentiate the brand the most from its competitors. Start to think also about the type of tagline your brand needs, i.e. descriptive, emotive, aspirational, superlative, etc. It helps to have defined 1-2 types of straplines that would work best for the brand. 

🗺️ 3. Explore.

After doing the initial research, write everything that comes to mind about the brand. You can use bullet points or just write a single paragraph. Describe what the brand does, who it's for, the history of the company, the product, how it works, and why it's beneficial. Collecting all your research and weaving it into a paragraph or set of bullets will help you start to get a clearer picture of the brand. 

💭 4. Word clouds. 

Start to form a word cloud, taking the most important or interesting words from step two and adding them to the relevant cloud. Then using sites like Word Hippo or Thesaurus, keep exploring similar words and adding them to the cloud. You want to start to collect a bank of words that feel relevant to the brand and could be interesting choices for the tagline. If any words stand out on the page, circle or highlight them. 

🎲 5. Word play

Using the words in your word cloud, start to look at combining different words until you get a tagline you like. At this stage, don't worry about your taglines being perfect, just get as many down as possible. Then, you can start to categorise your tagline ideas under the concepts or routes you identified before, or you might add some new concepts. When you've got a list longer than your arm, circle the strongest ones, and run them by your team or some friends to see which one is the most popular.

Then, it's just a case of cross-checking your tagline with the bullets I mentioned at the start, to see if it's doing its job well.

I hope that helps you create a memorable tagline, good luck!