A tagline is closely tied to branding and like defining a brand, creating a tagline can be a difficult task. With both, you’re creating a distillation and a kind of promise, and if properly executed, they can make your product or service a household name.
Volvo doesn’t sell the features of their cars (engineering, materials, construction, etc.), they sell the benefits of owning one. For years, the primary benefit they sold was safety.
Whether or not Volvos are the safest cars in the world, the company has done an exemplary job of selling the safety brand. You just have to say “Volvo” and people think “safety.” Volvo owns that word in the auto marketplace by virtue of brilliant marketing.
Volvo’s tagline
THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN A VOLVO.
Most advertising is geared toward getting you to think owning a company’s product is a requirement of happiness. At first glance, it appears that Volvo is saying you don’t need their product. This might seem counterintuitive but it grabs your attention.
With the main tagline in view (in a dark blue capitalized font), they then display a series of changing lines beneath (in a different colored font). All of the secondary lines sell lifestyle benefits, e.g. time with friends, the feel of driving, the image of owning a car with great styling, and, of course, safety.
The last line that appears underneath the main tagline completes the story:
THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN A VOLVO.
THAT’S WHY YOU DRIVE ONE.
Benefits – what customers want
From one-horse businesses to huge corporations, selling benefits is what counts. Customers and clients don’t care about features. They care about how the features of a product or service will benefit them.
Look around at your competitors’ Web sites. Do they sell features or benefits? Do they have long pages of text that just say, “We do this and we’ve been in business since the Jurassic and we’re the best” or do they show the benefits of doing business with them? Do they actually provide benefit on their Web site by educating their readers or giving information away free?
How about your Web site? Does it provide a clear differentiation from your competitors? If you sell products that have roughly the same features as your competitors’ products, what benefits do you provide your customers that your competitors don’t?
Your Web site doesn’t just carry your brand, it’s part of your brand. Every word should count and all of it must provide real value, leaving no doubt in a potential customer’s mind about the benefits of doing business with you.
