Building a brand requires visibility to the right audience and, most importantly, the right message — one that's simple and clear in defining the brand around the desires of your customers. It's that critical differentiation that helps your customers find and remember what you offer.

In this issue:

1. What's in a Tagline? Does it really say anything?
2. Recent Tagline and Branding from BGDi
3. RECENT WORK: Branding a New Educational Publisher

WHAT'S IN A TAGLINE?

The tag line is a brand element that has been debated in terms of its value and use for many years. The tagline describes what a brand (company or product) is, boiled down to its core fundamentals. Its use can be misleading, unintentionally humorous or effectively defining. It all depends on the approach.

The real value of a tag line sometimes gets lost in its highly commercialized use in a promotion or an intensive ad campaign.

How to Develop Your Tagline

It's critical that you dig down to the essence of what you are trying to define or communicate about your brand. This can take a lot longer than you think. How are you different than your competition? What is it that can add to your brand name? The nuances of meaning contained in few words can make or break a tagline.

FEDEX for example, uses The World On Time - a defining phrase that's short and to the point. It clearly says several things - what they do, every day, what their commitment is to you, the mission the employees must live up to and lastly, the geographic scope of their business.

A major consideration of FEDEX was: will this translate to a foreign language and still make sense? After all, they are a truly global company. In this case it does, in almost all languages:

• le monde à l'heure - French
• die Welt rechtzeitig - German
• el mundo el tiempo - Spanish

Very powerful and simple to understand taglines can be unexpectedly difficult to develop. It takes a lot of analysis and brainstorming to get to the core of what the company should convey to their customers.

When you are evaluating taglines, remember:

• It's about positioning and defining yourself, so be ruthless.
• Is this unique? Can my competitor say this?
• Can my employees and other representatives stand behind the claim?
• Does it add value to the services or products we offer?

So, at the end of an arduous brainstorming session, remember:

• Keep it short
• Simple and straightforward in meaning
• Above all, keep it relevant to the customer

RECENT TAGLINES AND BRANDING FROM BGDI

PET FOOD EXPRESS - Your Neighborhood Pet Experts

Pet Food Express is the sixth largest pet supply and pet food store in the United States with 27 stores in the San Francisco Bay Area and growing. Pet Food Express, unlike many of the large national competitors, prides itself on having an educated and committed work force, knowledgeable about pets and committed to animal rescue and adoption. BGDI was brought into Pet Food Express to help differentiate and define the brand. They needed a dramatic new look and re-branding effort to reflect how they deal with customers and their deep knowledge of pet care. BGDI created a new brand identity, store signage system, and tag line, all emphasizing their unique pet-friendly approach.

BERKELEY EXEC DEV - Knowledge for the Global Economy

The Center for Executive Development at the Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley, offers senior executives MBA programs, one-day classes and customized programs for corporations throughout the world. BGDI developed a new branding strategy, identity system, Web site and tag line for the organization that has enhanced and improved their positioning in the corporate business market. The key was to tie the strong equity of the Berkeley name to a commitment to deliver what corporate executives world wide are seeking -- key knowledge for business in the highly competitive climate of world business.

MOBILE MODULAR - Your Project - Our Commitment

Mobile Modular provides rental offices, temporary classroom structures and portable buildings throught California, Texas and now Florida. They are a leader in providing portable classrooms, and are truly committed to providing unmatched service. BGDI was brought in to create a new visual brand and revisit their tagline: "P.S. Our People Are Great". They consistently focus on the needs of customers, handling all the complexities of specifying, delivering and installing structures. They needed some way of declaring this to their customers and reaffirming this commitment internally. The new tagline developed by BGDI does this: "Your Project - Our Commitment". BGDI also developed a complete branding system for the company.

OTHER RECENT WORK

ARM CHAIR PRESS AND THE PICKY PARENT GUIDES -- LAUNCHING A NEW PUBLISHER

How did you choose your child's school? Most parents just don't know where to begin, other than to ask for advice from friends or associates with kids. An exciting new approach to educational choice has been developed by Arm Chair Press. Their unique focus is on books and educational aids that help parents evaluate and make choices for their children and, most importantly, understanding their child's unique needs?

BGDI has developed the brand for Arm Chair Press, as well as a a Picky Parent brand for the series of books, used in the first book, Picky Parent Guide to Choosing your Child's Elementary School.

NEXT ISSUE

In our next issue, we'll attempt to dissect the "brands" of politicians and look at what defines them, what are the key factors that appeal to what specific constituency and how they both try to brand the "other guy".