The truth about taglines, Part 1
A company’s tagline can be one of its most effective marketing tools. Sometimes I believe that people remember our tagline, “It’s a box… you put stuff in it!”, more than they remember our company name. My buddy, Doug, won’t even say hello to me anymore. He’ll just look at me real goofy and shout out “It’s a box!”.
Being the thinker, or as my wife would say the “over-thinker”, I’ve often times wondered what it is that makes a tag line memorable. Is it because the tag line is funny? Is it because it rings truth? Is it because it resonates with current culturural trends? Is it because it summarizes what you do in a succinct package? Is it a little bit of everything? I’m sure the guys at GSD&M have the art of tag lines developed into some type of proprietary formula, but we can’t afford to hire them yet.
When we first entered the portable storage industry, we racked our brains trying to come up with something creative for storage containers. Good luck, right? Try to come up with something creative around big shipping containers. Talk about thinking outside the box.
Our first tagline for Falcon was “Bringing storage solutions to you.” I can honestly say that it was a huge flop. We then tried to take on our key competitor “Why go Mini when everything else is bigger in Texas!” The only thing that tagline did was to make our competitor mad. There was even one networking meeting that I went to where I was so desperate to come up with something memorable that I shrieked like a Falcon. All people remembered, though, was that I was crazy.
So why does “It’s a box… you put stuff in it!” stick? And then the question is how long will it stick? Will it become trite? Will it become stale? And if so, how do we come up with another one? In Part 2, I’ll write about the “creative process” in how we came up with it.
Great post! Can’t wait to read the next edition! Will it include the evolution of the phrase, Dieringer like a gun?
Comment by Falcon Fan — August 25, 2008 @ 11:27 am
Stay tuned for future blogs…..
- the Little Pistol
Comment by Brian Dieringer — August 25, 2008 @ 11:31 am
Tag lines are tricky. I’m not sure it works for us lawyers:
“It’s a brief . . . you put stuff in it!”
Comment by Lawyer Falcon Fan — August 25, 2008 @ 11:35 am
All the best in the blogging business. We’re still wondering if blogging makes sense for the real estate sales business, or is it something else to take up our time. Maybe a tag line like “It’s a house … you put people and stuff in it!” would work. Well, that doesn’t look like it would bring in the customers for us, but Falcon’s is original and catchy. All the best.
Comment by Terry Echols, Realtor — August 25, 2008 @ 11:45 am
Stephen, you are amazing! One of the best minds in the business. I will follow with interest where you and Falcon end up–probably far, far away in another galaxy in your retrofitted container. “It’s a starship-you put stuff in it!”
Comment by Courtney — August 25, 2008 @ 12:44 pm
Wow! I think we have a worthy competitor for the Keep Austin Weird tag line. It’s a city, you put parks, musicians, Leslie the cross dressing homless guy and -oh yeah - green boxes too in it??!?
Weirdness beware…Falcon is here!!!
Comment by Jen — August 25, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
Love the tagline… I’d keep it and change some other part of the messaging like the company theme / mission when a new twist is taken.
Comment by Eric H — August 25, 2008 @ 1:52 pm
Well done “Shang-a-lang-a-ding-dong”!
Now remember your day job before the tag line becomes
“It’s a blog…you put stuff in it!”
Comment by Teddy — August 25, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
Good post. As someone who’s spent a lot of time and energy wrangling agreement from people over our tagline (still undecided), I know how painful this can be. All the marketing people in the world will tell you to keep it simple and make sure it tells people what it is you do. “It’s a box… you put stuff in it” works in my opinion.
Good luck with the blog.
Comment by Sean — August 28, 2008 @ 9:31 am
Welcome to the world of blogging. While my company maintains a few for our sites, I have not created a personal blog yet. I am getting pushed to do so. Let me know how it goes.
As for your tagline. I think it is great. I think it is probably better than what an agency would come up with. But that is perhaps my entrepreneurs are the best attitude.
Steve
Comment by Steve — August 30, 2008 @ 5:21 am