Tag Lines and Messages: 
What You Say Should Support Your Brand Vision

So you’ve developed a professional image in your logo and the style of your presentations, ads and web site. You use it consistently in all your communications. So, what is it that you are saying about your company?

Your brand message is the set of words that you use to communicate about your company and its products or services. A tag line that accompanies the logo can be important, but it’s only one small piece of the total message. All your communications should convey the same message about your business and your products.

To develop a really effective brand strategy, you need to develop a clear set of messages that capture your brand promise, your business strategy and your core values. These must be known by all your employees and consistently conveyed to your customers and business associates. Most importantly, they must address the questions and concerns of your customers.

Tag Line

As with the logo, many companies try to develop a tag line that “says it all” — something that captures the essence of the entire company; something that is as memorable as those of the ever-present consumer brands that have been around for decades: “You’re in good hands” (AllState Insurance); “The Real Thing” (Coca-Cola); and “Just Do It” (Nike).

It’s a hard task to come up with something that is ageless. As a young company you can afford to try out some tag lines before you make a commitment to one. Choose something that is both appropriate and believable. Test it with your first customers. See if it sticks. See what customers say — they may come up with something better! Unlike changing the logo — which has a huge visual impact — modifying a tag line can be more subtle.

Beyond the Tag Line

The tag line is only a few words meant to be catchy and memorable. But what do you say in all your other communications — both written and oral? By developing a message platform you create a set of clear and consistent messages that underlie all your communications — presentations, print media, electronic communications and web site. The key elements of developing a message platform are:

• Understanding your fundamental business and core values and
• Understanding what’s important to your customers.

The first step is to look inside your company to identify the messages that best communicate what your company is about. The brand is already there. It lies in the staff, and their expertise and conduct; in the product and its qualities; in the values that the owners and management imbue and exemplify. It is a question of finding that essence and putting it into words.

The second step is to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Find out what questions they ask, what their primary concerns are, what attracts them to your product or service. Use their input to craft a message that speaks to what’s important to them.

Whether you agree with them or not, you need to take people’s interpretations, beliefs, opinions, behaviors and emotions into account when developing messages. Words have many connotations. How they are perceived depends on the person reading or hearing them, the context in which they are presented, and any subliminal messages that accompany them. As you develop messages, have people with divergent backgrounds and points of view read and analyze the words. Identify and avoid words with negative connotations.

The message platform supports promotion of both the company and its products and services. In crafting the messages specifically aimed at attracting customers, there are several important questions to answer before you start to write.

What’s Most Important To Communicate?

Walk a trade-show floor and count how many booths make obvious their products or services and why you should buy them. Companies are often guilty of creating messages that only they understand. They are so enmeshed in the details of their product and service offerings that they create messages that only make sense to them, not to prospects. Technology companies are most guilty of this. Others try to convey everything there is to know about a product rather than the essentials. A customer wants to know the benefits of a product — how it will improve his life.

What’s Relevant? What’s NOT Relevant?

Are you talking about product features that really resonate with your audience? In the early days of the personal color printer business, long before digital cameras, manufacturers hyped resolution and number of colors. They showed detailed photographic images in their brochures and at trade shows, when all people wanted to know was how fast the printers could print.

As with your top-level messages, find out what’s most important to your customers. Distill your message down to the key points that develop a potential customer’s interest in your product and that encourage him to buy.

What’s Unique?

Unless you want to sell a commodity, you need to differentiate your offering from the rest of the market. You need to make your message stand out from the noise. Maybe you really do have a better mouse trap, but is that clear from your messages? Maybe your product is similar to competitors but you have outstanding service. Does your message convince your audience that that is important? Maybe you have a really novel new product. Can you persuade customers that they need to try it?

What’s Believable?

This one is critical. If you put together a great advertising campaign with slogans, images and a brand promise, you better be able to deliver. Does your mouse trap really work better? Do you consistently live up to your promise of better service? Is your new product really something that customers will want to repeatedly buy? There are many examples of companies that have not lived up to their advertising messages. This is the worst thing a company can do. Building customer expectations and then not meeting them destroys the trust required to build brand loyalty.