What’s a Tagline? Everything You and Your Brand Need to Know

Taglines are powerful tools for brand recognition. Small but mighty, they can help communicate a brand's essence in just a few witty, thoughtful, or creatively-rendered words. We’ve got your comprehensive guide to understanding and creating effective, catchy taglines - we'll explore the definition of taglines, show you how to differentiate them from slogans, discuss their benefits, and provide tips for crafting your own!

What’s a Tagline? 

A tagline is a short, catchy, memorable phrase that encapsulates the essence of a brand. It serves as a quick way for consumers to understand what a brand stands for and what it offers. Taglines are important because they create a lasting impression and help differentiate a brand in a crowded market. 

They increase brand recognition, reflect the personality of the brand itself, and serve as part of a creator, business, or brand's public voice. Taglines offer so many merch possibilities, too. Open up a merch store, put your tagline on some T-shirts, mugs, and mousepads, and boom! your catchy branding is everywhere!

Tagline vs. Slogan: What’s the Difference?

While taglines and slogans are often used interchangeably, they serve different purposes. An advertising slogan is typically a short-term phrase used in a specific advertising campaign, while a tagline is a long-term, brand-defining statement. Both are valuable, although your tagline is generally more of a semi-permanent thing. Here are two well-known examples:

Nike

• Tagline: "Just Do It"
• Slogan: "Find Your Greatness" (from Nike's 2012 campaign focusing on everyday athletes)

Apple

• Tagline: "Think Different"
  
• Slogan: "Shot on iPhone" (from Apple's 2015 campaign that invited iPhone users to submit their best photos)
  

The Benefits of Using Taglines

Helps Build Your Brand

Taglines help establish a brand's identity by quickly conveying its core values and mission in just a few words.

Increases Recognition

A catchy and memorable tagline makes a brand easily recognizable and helps it stand out from competitors.

Connects With Your Audience

Effective taglines resonate with the target audience, creating an emotional connection that helps grow brand loyalty.

Promotes Growth!

A strong tagline can drive brand growth by both attracting new customers and reinforcing the brand's message to existing ones.

Different Types of Taglines

Each tagline takes a different approach, but the general idea is that the mood/vibe of your tagline coordinates perfectly with your brand and is catchy enough to be memorable. There are many ways to go with taglines; inspirational, colorful, or direct; funny, quirky, or "inside joke" style. It's all up to what you want to convey about yourself and your brand. 

Inspirational Taglines

These taglines are meant to motivate and inspire the audience:

• Nike: "Just Do It"
  
• Adidas: "Impossible is Nothing"
  
• Maybelline: "Maybe She's Born With It"
  

Humorous Taglines

Humorous taglines engage your target audience with a little wit or puns:

• M&M's: "Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands"
  
• Old Spice: "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"
  
• Dollar Shave Club: "Shave Time. Shave Money."
  

Call-to-Action Taglines

These taglines encourage immediate action from the viewer:

• California Milk Processor Board: "Got Milk?"
  
• Red Bull: "Gives You Wings"
  
• Verizon: "Can You Hear Me Now?"
  

Brand Focused Taglines

Brand focused taglines capture the fundamental nature of the brand or product:

• Apple: "Think Different"
  
• BMW: "The Ultimate Driving Machine"
  
• De Beers: "A Diamond is Forever"
  

How to Write a Good Tagline

Creating a good, memorable tagline is a challenging yet rewarding task. Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling and catchy tagline. Do keep in mind that you're likely to hear and see your tagline being used frequently if it's a successful one - so make sure you create and choose one you're happy with!

Understand Your Brand

Putting some thought into your tagline is always a good idea, as once you settle on one, it'll likely be with you and your brand for a while, so it's worth the effort. Think about you and your brand's values, goals, strengths, and mission, and try to identify things that are particularly colorful, catchy, or otherwise stand out. Big memories, standout moments, and organically-generated community or product memes are some good places to start when you're looking for your unique selling points.

YouTube Domino Creator Hevesh5 encapsulates her brand perfectly with this “Design Build Topple” dominos tagline T-shirt in her Fourthwall shop!

Brainstorm Keywords and Phrases

Brainstorming a list of ideas, words, and phrases that you can relate to can really help you narrow in on your tagline. Anything goes here! Just write everything down that you can think of that have to do with you and your brand, and you'll start seeing some commonalities that will help you narrow in on the perfect catchy tagline.

PRO TIP: Double check your tagline ideas in a translator app to see if they work in a variety of languages. Some language/cultural differences might turn your tagline into something else entirely, and it may not necessarily be an association you want.

Define Your Target Audience

Considering your target audience is also an important factor of deciding on your tagline. Identify who you are trying to reach, what impression you'd like to get across to them, and what resonates with your fans. If you're trying to motivate your target audience with your tagline, you can structure it in a way that it's also a call to action, a rallying cry that's all about hyping up you and your brand.

Keep It Concise

A good tagline is short, appealing, catchy, and to the point, making it easy to remember. While it's tempting to be more wordy, most truly memorable taglines are just one sentence or, even more often, just a few words. This is definitely an instance of "the less, the better.” Whether an inspirational phrase, an instantly-identifiable reference to your product, or some fun wordplay, the shorter your tagline is, the easier it will stick in your fans' heads.

Evaluate Effectiveness

Test your tagline before finalizing it to see how well it resonates with your audience and if it communicates your brand effectively. Some ways you can test it include putting several tagline options into a poll and taking the input of your audience/fans; offer an open-ended poll to see if your fans come up with some new ideas you didn't even think of; or simply start using it on a livestream or a few test pieces of merch, and observe the response you get.

Create a Tagline That Slays... and Then Bring it to Fourthwall!

Creating a powerful, memorable, catchy tagline is so essential for owning your brand identity and making a lasting impression. A well-crafted tagline not only communicates your brand's vibe, but is another step of engagement with your audience, encouraging strong brand recognition and loyalty.

Bring your tagline to your Fourthwall site and amplify your brand awareness through Fourthwall's customizable websites and product designs! Fourthwall empowers creators to showcase their unique vision effectively, enhancing their brand’s visibility and connection with their audience via a huge range of creator pages and tools, from your own branded merch store to your own mobile app, fan memberships, digital and video products, and much more. Learn more today at Fourthwall!