The following is a recap from our marketing workshop “Let’s Workshop Your Tagline, Slogan, and Elevator Speech” with Denver Food & Drink Collective.
You know they’re important, but coming up with your tagline, slogans, and elevator speech can be difficult. We’ll walk you through it.
Why are taglines, slogans, and elevator pitches important?
- Provide focus to all of your marketing.
- You and your team can communicate what you do quickly and clearly.
- Guide your design choices.
- Give customers the right first impression of your brand—something they can walk away with and remember next time they want to make a purchase.
First things first. Understand your brand.
Before you can communicate your brand, you need to understand what your brand provides and and what makes it different.
- What are the consumer benefits of your product or service?
- What words do you hope others use to describe you?
- What are your company’s features VS benefits? (Features describe what your product/service is or does, like gourmet, gluten-free, or convenient. Benefits answer the question “What’s in it for me?” Such as “Makes me look and feel like a foodie”, “My son won’t end up in the hospital”, or “I don’t have to make dinner while my kids are crying and my spouse is still working.”)
- Know the difference between features and benefits. Now edit your benefits list to only include benefits, and use them to create your taglines, slogans, and elevator speech.
What are Taglines and Slogans?
A tagline is a concise, memorable catchphrase used to summarize abusiness’ mission and the products or services it offers. The bit under your business name. What you might see in the logotype.
Examples:
Apple – Think different.
Dollar Shave Club – A great shave. Delivered.
Disney – The happiest place on earth.
Depending on who you talk to, a slogan is a phrase describing a specific product or campaign. What you might see on marketing materials or in a commercial. It makes good use of rhyme, alliteration, repetition, and double-entendre.
Examples:
Apple iPad Air – Change is in the air.
Dollar Shave Club – Shave time. Shave money.
Disney Resort – Where dreams come true.
Get inspired!
Some good taglines and slogans:
Dos Equis – Stay thirsty.
Glad – Don’t get mad. Get glad.
Mazda – Zoom zoom zoom.
Bounty – The quicker picker-upper.
Wendy’s – We don’t cut corners.
Some bad taglines and slogans:
Delta Airlines – We get you there.
Exxon – We’re Exxon.
Denny’s – Denny’s. A good place to sit and eat.
FedEx – Our most important package is yours.
Singer – We make it better.
Brainstorm
Using your list of words that people use to describe your company, what ideas for taglines for your brand come to mind?
Think of a single flavor or single service you offer. Brainstorm slogan ideas.
What makes you, you?
Personable and friendly
Spontaneous and high energy
Modern or high tech
Cutting edge
Fun
Accessible to all
Vs
Corporate and professional
Careful thinking and planning
Classic and traditional
Established
Serious
Upscale
Choose one term in each row only.
Source: http://www.bigbrandsystem.com/uncover-your-brand-personality-quiz/
Get writing!
Goal: Make it memorable. Show benefits. Differentiate the brand.
Do: Think of it like speed dating. You don’t have time to tell her how much money you have. Just tell her where you’re taking her on vacation.
Don’t:
- Worry about length. It can be short or long.
- Be cliched. Avoid things like “built from the ground up”, “handmade with love”, and “one-stop shop”.
Read more about branding and taglines here.
Elevator speech
An elevator speech is a longer summary of what you do andwhy it matters. Your tagline is a distillation of your elevator speech.
Why is it SO hard? Because it’s personal. And sales-y. And it’s tough to be succinct.
Goal: Define your position. Describe what your business does. Tell what problem you solve. Connect. Discuss what is in the works for your business.
Do be prepared.
Don’t be scripted.
Write your elevator speech.
Expand on your tagline. You have 30 seconds (70 words max) to explain why you’re great. (No pressure.)
Revise your elevator speech.
And then:
- Read it out loud.
- Delete or re-word anything that is awkward.
- Make every sentence active voice.
- Delete adverbs, that/which, so/because, and other filler words.
- Add color.
- Stay true to who you are.
What has been your experience writing your tagline, slogan, and elevator speech?
About Julie Ciezadlo
Julie is a copywriter and social media manager at The Condiment Marketing Co. She is a Colorado native (a rare thing around here) and studied at the University of Colorado (Anthropology and English) and Cook Street Culinary School (Pastry).
