Strapline. Tagline. Slogan. Whatever. Ten ones that worked. (And one that didn't.)

So what makes a good strapline/tagline/slogan?
You might as well ask what makes a good doughnut.
You might think custard filling would be good.
I wouldn't.
And let's not get hung up on nomenclature.
Let's call 'em all 'straplines' for the purposes of this post.
So what makes a good one?
It depends on what it's trying to achieve.

Put simply, if it achieves what it's designed to do, I guess you can call it 'good'.

(But whether the insight behind the line is 'good' or 'right' is another conversation altogether.)
After all, plenty of straplines are memorable.
And if it was designed to be so, then it's done its job.
But can you remember the name of the business?
Does the strapline tell you anything about it?

That leads on to the second question:
b2b or b2c, does a business really need a strapline?
Well, put it like this:
Most of the planet knows what business Nike is in.
Nike doesn't need its 'Just do it' strapline any more.
It doesn't even need its name.
The swoosh does it all.
Imagine that.

But Nike is one of a select few of global corporates that can get away with the luxury of this branding minimalism.
For the rest of us, we need to be a bit more informative about what business we're in - and pronto.
This is where a 'good' strapline comes in.

So we're back to the first question.
What's the strapline's job?

You can over-analyse straplines, taglines and slogans.
You can break them down into categories with names like 'The Big Idea',  'Visionary' 'Instructional' 'Performance Claim' or even 'Say What You See'.
And discuss their pros, cons and brand suitability.
But it won't guarantee a good result.
Or tell you what it should be doing.

No formula or amount of discussion will.

The job of a strapline is pretty simple, really.
I see it as three-fold:

1.    To inform
2.    To reflect the brand's identity
3.    To do it with flair

A good strapline ticks all three boxes.

A good strapline works hard.

It will give us a good at-a-glance idea as to what the company does.
The way that it does so will communicate the brand's positioning.
If it does both in a way that leaves us admiring its panache, then it's done its job.
And if it passes into the vernacular - then you've hit the big time.
Simples.
But that's pretty much the sole preserve of the big b2c boys.

Pretty much, because the straplines of big b2c/b2b 'crossover' brands (the likes of Dell, IBM, UPS) occasionally pass over the great b2c/b2b divide to make an impact on the public consciousness.

So in rough chronological order, here are 10 b2b 'crossover' brand lines that have done just that over the years. They're not necessarily my favourite brands - but their straplines have worked damn hard and ticked the right boxes.

1 - When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight

FedEx, 1981
Ally & Gargano

To my mind, an object lesson in supporting a brand's promise. Ally & Gargano's memorable US TV spot featured the fast-talking John Moschitta, Jr. There've been many FedEx campaigns since, but this is still remembered as a classic.
 

2 - Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM

IBM, 1980s
Internal

IBM has always been a massive B2B player, with a core business developing and providing B2B technology solutions, systems and software.
This campaign was hugely successful back in the 80s when IBM really ruled the roost. The strapline crystallizes probably the most well known example of the infamous old 'FUD' sales technique: that of instilling a sense of Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt in a potential customer if they even considered choosing the competition over an established 'tried and trusted' brand. It's a technique that's often resurrected - most recently by Microsoft in the perceived threat of Open Office to Microsoft Office. (Which is somewhat at odds with its current strapline of 'Let's build a smarter planet'.)


3 - I think, therefore IBM

IBM, 1988
Ogilvy & Mather

Another IBM entry, but it's a cracker. This line was an evolution of a motivating one-word appeal made to all employees by Thomas J. Watson, IBM's chairman, back in 1911. His plea to them? That they should, above all, THINK about their role. Ogilvy's modern take on it is probably my favourite B2B slogan. It's a simple message. It's closely related to what IBM do (and what people do with IBM products) and it's a very clever twist made with panache on an already globally recognised phrase.


4 - Intel Inside®

Intel, 1991
Dahlin Smith and White

Yet another example of a PC heavyweight (and one of the top ten world brands) with a hard-working nugget of branding that's entered the vernacular by spawning numerous parodies; substitute the word 'Intel' for whatever you want and you've got a ready-made T-shirt sloganeer's dream. This campaign represented the first time a PC component manufacturer successfully talked directly to computer buyers. 20 years on, and the line is still plastered across millions of PCs.


5 - Think Different.

Apple, 1997
TBWA\Chiat\Day

A strapline to make the grammar police all twitchy. Nevertheless, it was a clever play on and dig at IBM's 'Think' motto. It encapsulated what Apple was all about, and challenged IBM's dominant market position so successfully, that the playing field now has now most definitely levelled out.


6 - The document company

Xerox, 1991-2008
Young & Rubicam

A bit of a double-edged sword, this one. A line that aimed to position Xerox as the big cheese in the world of document copying - which it did hugely successfully for a number of years - so much so that it helped the company name pass into the vernacular and a new verb was born, as everyone started to Xerox their documents. But with the advent of the digital age, the company felt it was being hamstrung by it.  Not even a logo morph from a solid red 'X' to a more 'digitised' look could save it from the perception that it was getting left behind - and so the line and logo were dropped in 2008.


7 - Easy as Dell

Dell, Inc. 2001
Full Moon Interactive

Ten years ago, people were still wary of buying a computer online. (Many still are.) How would they know what to choose? Would it arrive on time? If at all? Would they be able to get it to work without an engineer? The horror! This catchy strapline nailed the brief to help reassure uneasy online shopping pioneers.


8 - Fluent in finance
Money speaks in many languages. Barclays understands them all.

Barclays Bank 2002
Bartle Bogle Hegarty

The 'Fluent in Finance' TV spots featured Samuel L Jackson delivering complex monologues with his customary cool panache directly to camera. With a left-field approach deliberately designed to be thought provoking, the Fluent in Finance straplines reinforced this positioning, and aimed to generate a certain confidence in the brand's promise, capability and authority.


9 - The world's local bank

HSBC, 2002
Lowe

Another bank with another clever proposition. Aiming to play up the fact that the HSBC Group operates as a number of local banks around the world, the strapline - supported by a huge media campaign - was a very smart way of lending the brand a sense of local insight and touchy-feely sensitivity to its global corporate image and reach.


10 - We Love Logistics

UPS, 2010
Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

A lesson in complication made simple. And as complicated things go, logistics is up there. Someone at O&M had the simple-genius idea of explaining it all to the tune of 'That's Amore'. Appealing to a wider audience but at the same time unravelling the complexities of logistics, this line and its well-executed, gently humorous TV spot explained exactly what the brand does, and at the same time lending it immense recognition and priceless recall in the minds of joe public.


Wooden spoon - What's your problem? FileMaker.

FileMaker, 1999
TBWA\Chiat\Day

Beware the dangers of an overly clever strapline.
In 1999, this was FileMaker's. Aiming to position itself as a versatile business database software product, the brand was temporarily hoisted on its own sharply witty petard - because funnily enough for a lot of people, FileMaker was indeed the problem.

View the image gallery at www.b2bmarketing.net

If you've a favourite strap/brand/tagline or a candidate for the Hall of Lame, then let's hear it.