The quick version
If you don’t have 11 minutes, here’s the short version:
- What a tagline is: A tagline is a short, memorable phrase that captures what your brand stands for.
- Tagline vs slogan: A tagline is your brand’s permanent phrase (e.g., Nike’s “Just Do It”), while a slogan is for a temporary campaign or product (e.g., “Find Your Greatness”).
- The distinctiveness gap: Only 6% of taglines are instantly linked to their brand. To beat the odds, use sound or rhythm, your brand name, or unexpected words.
- Tip: If your name is functional, go emotional. Airbnb (air bed and breakfast) used “Belong Anywhere” to make it emotional. If your name is emotional, go functional. Hinge used an emotional name with the tagline “Designed to be Deleted”.
- The secret is consistency. A good tagline you use for years will do more for your brand than a perfect one you keep changing.
Further reading
Do you need inspiration before you start? My article 50+ tagline examples that stood the test of time is a good place to look.
What is a tagline?
A tagline is a short, memorable phrase that captures what your brand stands for. It boils your core idea down to a handful of words, so people can quickly understand what your brand represents and why it matters.
Some of the most influential phrases in business are only a few words long—for example, “Just Do It,” “A diamond is forever,” or “Think different.”
You instantly know the brands behind them, even without seeing a logo. That’s what a great tagline does. It makes your brand easy to remember, instantly recognisable, and unique—even when your brand name isn’t visible.
Tagline vs slogan: what’s the difference?
Taglines and slogans often get confused, but they’re not the same thing. Both should be memorable, but each has a different job.
A slogan is tied to a specific campaign or product. For example, Nike has used slogans like “Find Your Greatness,” “Unlimited You,” and “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything,” for individual campaigns, but only “Just Do It” is their tagline. It’s been there since 1988, and it hasn’t changed.
A tagline is for the long haul. It should outlast any single product or campaign.
Nike places its tagline everywhere—in ads, on packaging, even in search results. And that’s why, over time, it became part of the brand itself.
You’ll also hear strapline—mostly in the UK, motto, or catchphrase for the same idea. And in German-speaking markets, the standard term is Claim.
Does every brand need a tagline?
Not every brand needs a tagline. But there are several good reasons to consider one:
- Establish the brand name: A tagline can help people connect with your brand from day one. Think of the car-sharing brand Mevo. By putting “Go with Mevo” on their fleet, the name travelled around the city because you couldn’t read the tagline without reinforcing the brand name. A more famous example is “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s Mastercard.”
Add an emotional layer to a functional, descriptive name: Airbnb’s name is functional. It stands for air bed and breakfast. “Belong Anywhere”, introduced with the 2014 rebrand, added the emotion the name lacked and turned a booking site into an experience. Airbnb has since stopped using the tagline, but the principle still holds.
Add a functional explanation to an abstract, emotional name: The dating app Hinge is a good example. The name suggests connection, but the tagline, “Designed to be Deleted,” tells you exactly what the app promises you.
Tie all your campaigns together: Guinness ran various ads through the late nineties. But “Good things come to those who wait” held all of them together. It worked because it was built on the simple truth that a Guinness does take longer to pour. The brand replaced the tagline with “Made of More” in 2012, which meant starting that connective work from scratch. L’Oréal is another example. The brand has changed faces, products and markets since 1971, but “Because you’re worth it” has stayed consistent.
Set your brand apart: Audi, Volvo and BMW all sell cars, but their taglines have pointed in three different directions for decades. “Vorsprung durch Technik” claims engineering, “For Life” claims safety and “Freude am Fahren” claims the drive itself. A tagline is one of the quickest ways to show what sets you apart and how you have positioned your brand in the market.
That said, if your brand name or your visual brand identity already do that work for you, a tagline might not add anything. Look at your name, because the name decides what is left for the tagline to do. Bose says nothing about sound, so “Better sound through research” carries the promise. Dollar Shave Club already explains product and price in three words, so its tagline only has to add the attitude: “Shave time. Shave money.”
But before you write one, look at your goals, positioning, audience, and brand strategy. That will tell you whether a tagline is worth the effort. It’s worth asking whether it would really help or just get in the way. And I mean genuinely in the way. Getting a tagline to land takes time and consistent exposure. It doesn’t happen overnight, and someone has to pay for it.
With Office Flower Solutions we decided against a tagline, even though it would have helped the very functional name add some emotion. The reality is that the business model relies on in-person sales and a tagline wouldn’t help with that. Creating a tagline seemed like a waste of budget.
Characteristics of a strong tagline
What separates the forgettable from the iconic taglines? Most strong taglines share a few things in common:
- Honest: It makes a claim the brand can back up. “We try harder” (Avis) worked because Avis was number two behind Hertz. “Probably the best lager in the world” (Carlsberg—now changed to beer) worked because the “probably” left room for doubt, and in 2019 Carlsberg UK indeed admitted publicly that the beer had not been good enough.
- Unique: It links so closely to your brand that it couldn’t belong to anyone else. “Shave time. Shave money.” (Dollar Shave Club) is a good example. It’s about razors, it signals they’re cheap, and it’s delivered in their cheeky, irreverent voice.
- Memorable: It uses sound or rhythm to stick in the brain, but sometimes it’s the wording itself that does the work. “A diamond is forever” feels almost poetic, which makes it easy to recall after hearing it just once or twice.
- Clear: It communicates something specific rather than a vague feeling. “Eat fresh” (Subway) told you exactly what the experience was about. Fast food that is actually fresh.
- Timeless: It doesn’t rely on trends that will date. “Finger lickin’ good” has worked for KFC since 1956 because it describes the product rather than the moment. KFC paused it during the pandemic in 2020, when licking your fingers was a taboo, and brought it back afterwards. A timeless line survives that kind of interruption.
- Versatile: It works everywhere. “Just Do It” (Nike) works for a marathon runner or a beginner, on a massive billboard or a shoe box.
What makes a tagline work?
Those characteristics are a good starting point. But knowing what a great tagline looks like and knowing how to make yours land in people’s minds are two different things.
Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute sets out the mechanics in Building Distinctive Brand Assets (2018). Her central measure is brand linkage, and it has two parts. When people hear the line, does your brand come to mind at all, and does it come to mind on its own? On that measure, most taglines fail.
A separate global study by Ipsos and JKR put a number on it. They tested 5,046 brand assets from 523 brands with more than 26,000 people in 25 countries and graded each one gold, silver or bronze. Gold meant the asset brought one brand to mind immediately and exclusively. Across all assets, only 15% reached gold. Slogans (including taglines) scored 6%, placing them second from bottom, ahead of colour but behind logos, mascots, and distinctive products.
The difficulty is that taglines are made of words, and words already have meaning attached. A logo can be new to the world. “Quality you can trust” never is. Your tagline also competes with your own brand name for the same slot in someone’s memory, which is why packing more meaning into a tagline rarely helps. The more it tries to say, the harder it becomes to process and remember it.
How to make yours more distinctive
But that doesn’t mean you should skip a tagline altogether. There are a few ways to make yours stand out:
- Sound and rhythm. Taglines with a musical or rhythmic quality are more likely to be remembered and linked to a brand. McDonald’s “ba-da-ba-ba-baa” does as much work as the words themselves.
- Your name in the tagline. Including the brand name strengthens the association. “Maybe it’s Maybelline” works partly because you can’t say it without saying the name. Once recognition is established, the name may be dropped—but it helps early on.
- Unusual or unexpected words. Familiar words blend in, and unexpected ones stand out. Red Bull stretches “wings” to “wiiings”, which no spellchecker would allow and no other brand could claim.
- A question. Questions create a small moment of mental participation that makes the tagline stick longer.
Interestingly, rhyme and length were found to have little effect on whether people link a tagline to its brand. And a longer tagline can become just as distinctive as a short one. Still, shorter is usually easier to remember at first.
Further reading
If you want to go deeper on this topic, my article on what makes a brand recognisable covers three research sources on brand distinctiveness—including Romaniuk’s work.
8 types of taglines
There’s no single right way to write a tagline. I’ve sorted them into eight common types. While most taglines fit more than one, knowing the difference can help you narrow down your approach.
- Descriptive taglines spell out what your brand does or offers. They work best when your brand name is abstract or doesn’t explain the product on its own. Think “We’ll leave a light on for you” (Motel 6), “Belong anywhere” (Airbnb), or “All the News That’s Fit to Print” (The New York Times).
- Inspirational taglines focus on the promise, not just the product. They speak to who you could become if you choose this brand—“Just Do It” (Nike), “Because you’re worth it” (L’Oréal), “Think different” (Apple).
- Humorous taglines use wit to create a positive feeling about the brand. The key is that the humour feels genuine, not forced. “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline” (Maybelline), “Nothing runs like a Deere” (John Deere), and “Shave time. Shave money” (Dollar Shave Club) are some examples.
- Provocative taglines challenge or take a strong position. They work because they show the brand has a point of view and isn’t afraid to show it. “What happens here stays here“ (Las Vegas), “Democracy dies in darkness” (The Washington Post), and “Designed to be Deleted” (Hinge) are examples.
- Brand essence taglines capture what your brand stands for at its core. They can work in any industry, but they have to be spot-on to avoid sounding generic. “A diamond is forever” (De Beers), “Vorsprung durch Technik” (Audi), and “Good things come to those who wait” (Guinness) are all examples where the line and the brand feel inseparable.
- Competitive taglines position the brand directly or indirectly against the competition. They work best when there’s a real, provable difference to highlight. “We try harder” (Avis), “Probably the best lager in the world” (Carlsberg, 1973 to 2011), and “There is no substitute” (Porsche) all make their point.
- Rhythmic and rhyming taglines use sound to make the line stick in your mind. “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands” (M&M’s), “The quicker picker-upper” (Bounty), and “Have a break, have a KitKat” (KitKat) are hard to say without feeling the rhythm.
- Call-to-action taglines are built around a verb and invite you to do something. “Have it your way” (Burger King, 1974 to 2014), “Let’s go” (Hertz), and “Just Do It” (Nike) all convince without pushing too hard.
How to write a tagline that sticks
Here’s a step-by-step way to write a tagline that lasts.
1. Start with your brand and your audience
Before you start writing, you need to be clear about what your brand stands for, who it’s for, what sets it apart, and what its brand personality should be.
You can’t extract anything you haven’t defined beforehand. If you’re still working on your brand positioning, you should focus on getting that right first.
Once you’re clear on your brand, focus on your audience.
- What motivates these people?
- How do they talk in everyday life?
A good tagline doesn’t just describe your brand. It acts like a mirror. People read it and immediately think, “This has something to do with me.”
2. Generate a lot of options, then look for the unexpected
Don’t try to come up with the perfect tagline in your first draft. Write down 20, 30, or even 50 options. Whether they’re obvious, quirky, long, or short—write everything down that comes to mind. At this stage, quantity is more important than quality.
Then you can look for the examples that surprise you. The “safe” options will hardly stand out, but the unexpected ones have the potential to stick.
3. Play with language and length
Now it’s time for the finishing touches. You might experiment with alliteration, rhythm, or wordplay—but only if it fits and doesn’t seem forced.
- Can you incorporate your brand name?
- Is there a word that feels fresh or unusual?
- Would a question work?
Most taglines are shorter than eight words. In fact, the taglines in my article on tagline examples average four to five words. But this is not a hard rule. If it helps you get your message across better, it’s okay to make it a little longer.
4. Test it out loud and on real people
A tagline has to work everywhere, written down and spoken aloud.
- Does it sound natural when you say it?
- Does it sound like something people would actually say?
Share your favourites with people that aren’t involved with your business, preferably people who match your target audience. But don’t ask them, “Which version do you like best?” Instead, be curious and ask, “What does this sentence make you think of?”
And always remember that new things often take time to develop meaning. So don’t immediately discard a tagline just because it feels unfamiliar at first. It may be precisely this strangeness that ultimately makes it memorable.
5. Sit with your shortlist before you decide
Step away for a few days, then come back to your list. The lines that still seem right to you after this break are probably the strongest.
6. Check if the tagline is legally available
Once you have decided on a tagline—and before you go live with it—you should check whether someone else is already using it. A quick search in the national trademark register is a must. In Germany, this is the DPMA (German Patent and Trademark Office), in Europe the EUIPO and in New Zealand, the IPONZ.
Trademark protection is realistic if the tagline is distinctive rather than merely descriptive. Generic phrases like “quality you can trust” won’t qualify. Copyright, on the other hand, rarely protects taglines; short phrases usually fall below its threshold.
If you take the protection of your brand seriously, talk to a trademark lawyer. Taglines can indeed be protected, and for larger brands, they absolutely should be.
When is a tagline finished?
There’s no perfect moment to call it done. But there are a few signs you’re close.
- It feels authentically like your brand, like it’s always been there.
- It leaves room for different campaigns without changing.
- And it’s short enough to work across different formats and channels—on a poster as well as on a 2-second radio slot.
If all three fit, your tagline is ready enough. The rest comes with time and repetition.
Rolling out a new tagline
A tagline only works if you use it everywhere, starting with your own team. Before you update your website or launch a campaign, make sure everyone knows what the tagline means.
Then put it everywhere your brand appears: your website, social media, email signatures, pitch decks, packaging, and ads. If you’re not consistent, you’ll miss the chance to turn it into a distinctive brand asset.
A note on global brands
If your brand works in more than one language or market, think carefully about translation.
Some taglines lose their punch when translated. Others stand out because they stay in the original language, like Audi’s “Vorsprung durch Technik”. If you’re going international, check your tagline for any hidden and unintended meanings.
Further reading
If you’re a small business owner not sure where to start building your brand, my article on branding for small businesses might be a good start.
Need help with your tagline?
In my branding projects, the tagline comes at the end, after the positioning, key messages and tone of voice are already defined, so the tagline has something to distil. And sometimes the honest outcome is that you don’t need one at all.
If you’re still unsure what your brand stands for, start with a Brand Clarity Session. In a 90-minute call, I look at your brand with fresh eyes, and within a week you get a written document with your positioning and key messages. Otherwise, my branding projects cover strategy, design and copy, including naming and tagline.
FAQ
Do small businesses need a tagline?
Not necessarily. When you’re early stage, there’s a lot else to focus on, and a tagline that hasn’t had time to build recognition won’t do much on its own.
That said, it can be worth considering if your offer is complex and needs simplifying, if your business name is functional and lacks emotion, or if you’re in a crowded market and need to stand out quickly.
What are the benefits of a tagline?
A good tagline makes your name easier to remember, adds an emotional or functional layer the name alone can’t convey, ties your campaigns together, and sets you apart in a crowded category.
The article goes into all of this in detail. Note the word good, though, as a weak tagline adds none of this, and in that case you might be better off without one.
How do I know my tagline is working?
There’s no single metric for tagline success, but a few things are worth tracking.
- Can people recall your brand name after they hear the tagline? (Brand recall)
- Do they associate it specifically with your brand, not just the category? (Uniqueness)
- Is it being used inside your company?
- And over time, do customers mention or reference it?
Brand recall surveys can formalise this, but honest conversations with customers often tell you more.
Can I change my tagline later?
Yes, but the longer you stick with a tagline, the more equity it builds. Only change it if your brand direction has genuinely shifted, not because you’re bored with it.
Do I need to trademark my tagline?
It’s not legally required, but it’s worth considering if you’re serious about protecting it. Check your national trademark registry first to make sure no one else is already using it.
Where does a tagline go?
Typical places for a tagline are your website header or footer, your SEO title, social bios and your LinkedIn headline, email signatures, and packaging. Many brands also add it to a secondary logo version, which I don’t recommend as it gets illegible. A tagline is generally best placed where people meet your name without context.
Title image Kaboompics via Pexels
