We gave a t-t-t-talk on taglines recently.

We began by having everybody in the audience stand up, think about their own organization’s tagline (aka strapline, endline, button, claim, etc.*) and hear this series of questions. If it applied to them, they sat down:

Do you not have one, or use it inconsistently?

Does it include the word “quality”?

Does it include the word “solutions”?

Does it include any reference to how long you’ve been in business?

Is it more about you than your prospects? (A lot sat down after that one…)

Is it less than totally true?

The result was about 2% still standing, and we could begin to address the needs of the 98%.

The evidence (admittedly, a small sample) seems to indicate that the odds are about 49 to 1 that your business/non-profit/university/presidential candidate/guerrilla band has a suboptimal tagline. Would you still be standing? If not, seek professional help. Operators are standing by. We also have a White Paper on this topic.

*The term varies around the globe, and this was an international crowd.