When done correctly, a tagline can become synonymous with a brand. A good tagline should communicate your company’s message quickly and effectively, helping your target customers understand how you can help them in a way that’s easy to remember.
Since it’s something that will likely appear in all of your company’s marketing materials and may stick with you for years, your team should put a lot of care and consideration into crafting your tagline.
Vice President of Marketing for Anytime Fitness Amy Halford said in an email interview with Small Business Trends, “A tagline is the quickest way to sum up our promise to our consumers and members. Everything we say after that is a proof point for that promise. It is the way to most quickly communicate what makes you different and relevant.”
Anytime Fitness recently changed its tagline to “Let’s Make Healthy Happen.” The brand’s tagline has actually evolved a few times over the years to keep up with changing trends and the needs of their customers. While this is a nationwide brand, small companies can still learn from the experiences of big companies like Anytime Fitness.
How to Write a Tagline
If you’re considering changing up your business’s tagline or creating one for the first time, here are some of the most essential components to consider.
Make It Quick and Catchy
Taglines are supposed to be easy to understand and memorable. Customers don’t want to read through an entire paragraph to understand what your business does. And even if they make it through, they certainly won’t remember all of that content later on.
As you craft your tagline, it may help to look at some of the most popular and effective ones out there. Many large brands have created taglines that have caught on for years and become synonymous with their companies in the minds of consumers.
Halford says, “When I think of good taglines, I think of iconic taglines like “You’re in good hands” (All State), “Save Money. Live Better” (WalMart), but I also think of newer brands like Airbnb “Belong Anywhere.” These taglines are pithy, communicate the problem the brand solves, and sticky.”
Make It Relevant for Your Brand
But even more important than your actual creative construction is your message. Before you get down to crafting your tagline, you need to do some serious research into your customers – what they want, what they value about your business, what problems you help them solve, and how your company stands apart from others in your industry. By digging deep into their pain points and understanding what your business helps them achieve, you have a much better chance of creating a message that will resonate.
Halford explains, “A business needs to start with a relevant and differentiated offering that is compelling to their consumer. If they have that, then creating a tagline becomes simply a creative exercise to authentically communicate their brand. The power of the offering is by far more impactful than creative copywriting.”
Change It As Necessary
Though your tagline should certainly remain consistent over at least a year or two, don’t be afraid to change it as the needs of your customers change or as your company shifts directions.
Halford says, “The Anytime Fitness brand itself has been on a journey. In the early days, the brand was very much about convenience and our tagline, “The club for busy people,” reflected the promise of convenience. Overtime, our members needed more than convenience, and we began to incorporate more services and tools to help people navigate their personal fitness.”
In fact, Anytime Fitness has actually changed its tagline a few times over the years. Each change represented a new phase for the company and their customers. So making changes isn’t a sign of failure or ineffectiveness, but rather of evolution. The important thing is to always keep a finger on the pulse of your target customers and understand what exactly they’re looking for from your company.
Halford adds, “We launched “Get to a healthier place.” That tagline served us well. But, after several years, our consumers’ needs changed yet again — so we did, too. Consumers are looking for more support as they navigate their fitness journey. “Get to a healthier place” still fulfilled our brand promise, but it signaled that you, the consumer, need to get yourself healthy. We wanted a brand positioning and tagline that accurately reflected not only access to the clubs, but also the programming and coaching support we offer, while also highlighting the community culture in our clubs. We evolved our brand positioning and the tagline that best reflects this evolution is “Let’s make healthy happen.” Anytime Fitness is in it with you, right alongside you, providing the support you need to get to your healthier place. The “let’s” is a small but extremely important evolution for our brand.”
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