Steve Cone, a chief marketing officer who has helped build power brands such as CitiGroup and American Express, wrote an interesting article in Advertising Age on the state of taglines in advertising today, as well as why he thinks taglines today are no longer as powerful as they were in the past and how we can change this.
Among his advice, are his four principles of creating compelling taglines:
- You are different; say so. Don't use common words.
- Have real attitude; bypass wishy-washy phrases (Inspired, Motivated, Involved, anyone?).
- Be everywhere, or you are nowhere (For a line to make a lasting impression, it must appear at all customer touch points and ideally be the headline of every marketing promotion).
- The best taglines come from individual flashes of inspiration.
