Along with effectively creating a branding campaign centered around a logo and suitable for the industry and lifestyle of the target audience, companies and organizations oftentimes will choose to add a tagline, or motto to describe or create a feeling surrounding their product. Almost anyone can come up with several of these off the top of their head. From “I’m lovin’ it” to “Just do it” we are constantly hearing and seeing complimentary catch phrases to further a company’s brand. One organization that has done an outstanding job of using a tagline is the US Army and their “Army of One” campaign. Let’s take a look at some keys to creating a great tagline:

Taglines should be simple and concise

A tag cannot be too long, nor too complex. If they become too long or complex they run the risk of (1) overshadowing the actual visual identiy of the brand, or (2) become white noise, and thus lost space, in the design. Generally a tagline should be less than 5 short words, however, 3 is even better. “Army of One,” “Just Do It” and “I’m Lovin’ It” all exist as statements. There is enough mass and sentence structure to push an idea. Each one provides a noun, verb and direct object but are concise enough to engage the audience and simple enough for them to remember.

Taglines must be Descriptive

A misnomer regarding a tagline is that it should in some way describe the product itself. The truth, however, is that a tagline is most effective when it describes the target audience’s interaction with the product or organization it represents. In marketing the simple matter of it is that it is not enough to get people to like your product, you want them to buy it. By using descriptive words regarding the product, you have the opportunity to move the target audience into a position of interaction with the product, and you frame that interaction. “I’m lovin’ it” is a perfect example of this.

Taglines should point back to the company identity.

Taglines should not only point back to the company identity, but they should only be used if they reinforce it. Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign is a perfect example of this. The tagline calls and the company identity answers. That is, the tagline suggests an “it” and the company identity, which is less name and more Swoosh, affirms that Nike is “it”, or is the portal into which the consumer attains “it.” In this manner, Nike’s “Just do it” mixes user experience, product purchase and Nike’s products ability to enable the athletic consuer to “Do.”

The tagline must also be evocative and in tune with Social Psychology
A company tagline invites the target audience into participation with the company identification. “Army of One” invites the post-modern young adult into what they are most interested in: a community of individuals. This brings up another very important point regarding taglines: they must take into account the demographic they are intending to reach. The US Army marketing team understands the young adult’s (their target audience, no doubt) cultural mindset and plays on their social psychology to engage them. Many older adults do not understand the “Army of One” campaign, because it does not speak to their cultural mindset. However, the Army speaks directly to the generation they are most interested in reaching, using language that resonates with them and in so refines their marketing energies.

There are many other important aspects when deciding on a tagline, but these four are essential.

In my last post on Branding, I mentioned that a “great logo must encapsulate the very essence of a company.” Exploring more on this topic I’d like to take a look at how a branding campaign is effected not only by the essence of the company, but by the visual standards for the industry as well. Visual identification clues the viewer into not only the ethos of the business that it is representing, but also the framework of the industry it is a part of. For example, a children’s clothing store will choose to use playful fonts, with primary color schemes. They do this to represent their industry and their product. It would be completely inappropriate and unhelpful for a children’s clothing store to choose a visual identity reminescent of athletic apparel, or even some industry outside of textiles, like banking, or insurance sales.

The question then must be evaluated as to why industries have developed distinct visual identities. Oftentimes this is because an industry leading or industry innovating company has set the marker for the industry identity. This is the case, in part, with companies like Nike and Apple Computers. Another reason industries begin to develop visual identities of their own is because of the demographic of their end user. In the Children’s clothing store example, their end user (parents/children) are perceptually drawn to primary color palettes and soft/rounded edges because of their environment, age, and developmental stage. This is vitally different from a sports apparel company whose end user is inevitably attracted to a dynamic, energetic, young and vibrant visual identity because it encapsulates their motivation for purchasing such apparel.

All in all, branding must take into account not only company ethos and product dynamism, but it must also be reminescent of industry visual standards and reflect the target audience’s use of product and lifestyle (or intended lifestyle). Once these issues have been addressed, the designer is ready to begin designing.

When I was in college we used to sit around and talk about how it was the logo that defined a company. But since then I’ve come to the understanding that a logo is yet a single part of a brand. While painstaking detail and care must go into the development of the logo, the logo will lose its power if not set apart by a strong parallel branding campaign that reflects everything that the logo is visually. That said, a great logo will encapsulate and express the very essence of a company. Thus the logo acts as the center of a branding campaign which creates a visual image for a company, service, or product. The logo cannot exist outside of a company, and a logo should not exist outside of a well developed supporting branding campaign.