Sitefit Tagline Design Case Study

sfBusiness tagline design and high-end joinery have more in common than you’d think. When it comes to crafting a company slogan, for instance, it’s all about the process; it’s all about the craft. Sitefit, in the throes of a massive brand overhaul, were looking for a tagline which encapsulated the soul of their company.

Working primarily with property developers, Sitefit settled on the tagline ‘Making House Building Easier’ – a phrase deemed to hit the nail on the head in terms of brand and benefits.

Let’s take a look at the process which led up to the formation of this company slogan.

What is a tagline?

A tagline is tasked with representing your business, ideas and principles. Unlike a sales message, business taglines work best when infused with creativity capable of capturing the attention of customers.

Putting my creative talents to play, we pulled all the ad copy tools from the bag to craft a tagline for Sitefit which would anchor in the mind of their target audience.

Phase One: Business Tagline Design Process

As with any piece of good ad copy, we set out by defining Sitefit’s brand principles /brand identity, users and core services. As the business tagline is also a visual medium, the client provided a picture of the logo to ensure the company slogan sat under it seamlessly.

Once the dust settled, our research led to the formation of a keyword list representative of Sitefit’s brand, service and benefits.

Keywords describing the actual business (truncated list):

  • Craftsmanship
  • Carpenters
  • Precision
  • Framing
  • Quality and quantity
  • Pride – the finished product speaks for itself
  • High quality workmanship

Keywords describing the benefits to customers (truncated list):

  • Full service provide
  • Professional outfit, job done right
  • Commercial onsite joinery for property developers
  • Knowledge
  • Service
  • Timeliness

As is often the case, the content strategy helped define the client’s take on their brand. With property developers now firmly ring-fenced as the key demographic, it was clear that the business tagline had to underscore Sitefit’s capacity to share the burden of house building with property developers.

Phase Two: Tagline Idealisation

Armed with a vivid understanding of Sitefit’s business philosophy, USP, brand principles, users and benefits, a waterfall of draft tagline proposals flowed.

Here are a few handpicked taglines we played with:

  • ‘Some things are built to last’ – this is a ‘provocative tagline’ intended to generate an emotional response or feeling
  • ‘Chipping away the rough edges’ – again, a ‘provocative tagline’
  • ‘The apex of onsite joinery’ – this is a ‘superlative tagline’ which leaves little doubt that the company is the best in its sector.
  • ‘Redefining the laws of onsite joinery’ – this is a ‘specific tagline’ intended to establish leadership in the joinery sector.
  • ‘Delivering the right fit at Sitefit’ – this is an ‘imperative tagline’ which demands attention
  • ‘Passionate in what we do, perfectionist in how we do it’ – this is a ‘descriptive tagline’ which draws Sitefit’s brand and service under the spotlight.

A few other business taglines proposals:

  • ‘Onsite joiner, onsite excellence’
  • ‘The ultimate in onsite commercial joinery’
  • ‘Made to measure, made to last’
  • ‘Building homes, together’

Phase Three: Moulding the Final Tagline

On the back of the content strategy, it made sense that the client gravitated towards ‘building homes, together’ – after all, matching Sitefit’s premium service with their clients’ needs had taken centre-stage.

Juggling words around faster than a scrabble player high on five pints of Red Bull, the following tagline emerged:

‘Making House Building Easier’

The proposed tagline was greeted positively by the client who felt it to be a personal sentiment which underscored the company’s ethos of alleviating the burden on property developers/site managers.

Phase Four: Tagline Revision / Oversight

In a bid to keep the tagline as short and snappy as possible, a fire was lit under the idea of changing the word ‘making’ to ‘make’.

Further investigation saw a number of different points coming up over and over again, like bubbles in a dishevelled can of Coke.

Here’s what the client considered in making the final decision:

  • Interchanging the words ‘make’ and ‘making’ imbued the tagline / strapline with slightly different meanings.
  • In using one of these variables, Sitefit would be telling clients what they do or, on the other hand, what they should do. So while both of them were correct, it just depended on what sense the client wanted to convey.
  • With ‘making house-building easier’, for instance, we were telling the client they can make house-building easier. When spoken out loud, the emphasis is on ‘easier’, imbuing the tagline with a progressive and forward-looking feel.
  • Flip the coin and ‘make house-building easier’ informs the customer that they can make house building easier by employing the services of Sitefit.

The bottom-line was this: either the client tells the customer what they do or what they should do – it was a subtle, but important difference.

As the credits rolled on the project, Sitefit opted for ‘making’, citing the fact that it gave their tagline the most impact.

The end!

(If you’re in need of a tagline head on over to my tagline design service page.)

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