Your Tagline Doesn’t Matter.
How many of these brands do you know? What are their taglines?
One of the most frustrating things I've experienced when developing brands is the fixation on the tagline. "Oh, we need a catchy tagline." "We need a funny tagline." "No, we're looking for a more straightforward tagline."
It's nonsense. All of it.
Taglines mattered when typewriters mattered. Back when the only source of information you could get about a brand was the brand itself.
Nowadays? Headlines matter. Messaging matters. Content matters. Being helpful to your customer matters.
Taglines? When the hell have you ever bought something because of a freaking tagline? Do you even know any brand taglines?
I understand this is sacrilegious to many creatives, especially copywriters like myself, so let me prove my point even further.
Hubspot has a great tagline quiz. 16 taglines/slogans (not going down that rabbit hole on what's the difference between the two), you guess the famous brands behind the slogans. I once had everyone at the marketing agency I used to work for take this quiz. I got high score with a grand total of 4.
Four. Cuatro. Arba.
Taglines. Don't. Matter.
Headlines matter. Your search and display ads, your content headlines - they matter. That's what grabs attention. That's what piques people's interest and sets them on the buying path.
Not your stupid tagline that will either languish in boardroom hell at worst, or get prime real estate crammed underneath your logo on your company letterhead.
Now, does that mean you shouldn't have a tagline? I actually think you should have one. It's a good internal marketing mechanism. A strong rallying point for your employees. Most of all, it's a good foundation for your brand and marketing messaging.
But to get hung up on it, go through a million revisions to get it right? Ridiculous.
Focus on what actually sells, not what makes your pompous a** feel good.
Honestly, the amount of brands and projects I've seen stall due to internal arguments over a tagline is so frustrating, because it ultimately doesn't matter.
I have no idea what Amazon's tagline is, and even if I did why the hell would I care? I have no idea what Apple's is. Wal-mart? Target? No clue.
And I don't care.
And neither do your customers.
