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 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 with 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.

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.)

Taglines, the short summations found on movie posters, are integral to the marketing of motion pictures.

They also cause shoppers to lose their sunglasses.

This unfortunate side effect befell my person the other day during a trek round Ticker T Boos – a retail establishment in my hometown of Grimsby, Lincolnshire.

The day had started well: my doormat was bill-free; coffee tasted good; a smiling sun simmered overhead.

I glided through the warm breeze, sunglasses in tow, feet pounding the pavement more eagerly than an overactive woodpecker. Turning the corner, the magical kingdom of Ticker T Boos rose like a phoenix out of the horizon.

Excited, I stepped up the pace.

For years, I’d heard townsfolk talk of a maze-like jungle of bunk beds situated on the second floor of this mysterious shop; I intended to investigate.

Here lies jack torrance…

So it was I found myself standing on the verge of a fabric labyrinth; the rumours, it would seem, were true. If New York City was made of beds then this is what it would look like, I thought.

Tower blocks of bed frames and mattresses ricocheted beams of light through a ceiling of windows back towards their parent sun – this was no place for glasses.

I folded them into my palm and stepped into the shadows.

Endless passageways ran between the bunks bends and I’d half expected to stumble across dusty skeletons of forgotten adventurers.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a collection of words. The lettering appeared to be attached to a picture of some type, but a nearby bed obscured the object from view.

Through the haze of squinted eyes I made out the following: ‘In space, no one can hear you scream’.

“That’s a nifty tagline”, I mumbled under my breath, fearful of alerting nearby predators to my position.

Then it clicked. I’d recognise that strapline anywhere. Closing in on my prey, I already knew what was lurking in the shadows.

And it wasn’t Elvis…

Recklessly hurling my shades on a nearby bed, I hauled the article from its hiding place. Sure enough, what should appear but a canvas sporting the renowned poster for Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror classic, Alien.

“Sweet baby Jebus”, I proclaimed, “that would look great on my wall.”

An hour or so later, I emerged from the jungle, canvas in hand.

On my travels home it occurred to me that from a marketing perspective the tagline – ‘In space, no one can hear you scream’ – is genius.

Three decades on and the sentence still packs a visceral punch which captures Alien’s claustrophobic credentials.

Even before I’d seen the picture in its totality, I knew what it was and as any good copywriter will tell you: a tagline that alerts the reader to a product devoid of images has to be praised.

Congratulations Mr Tagline…

Understandably parched from my adventures, I decided upon a quick detour to McDonalds. Only a week earlier my attempt to garner service via the drive-through on foot had proved fruitless.

As such, I headed straight inside, bought a black decaf coffee and took residence in a quiet window booth. Propping my new acquisition up on the plastic table top, I sat back and observed it with admiration.

“Producing a movie poster that stands the test of time is a fine art”, I said, as concerned glances from fellow patrons informed me that I was talking aloud.

A long-haired bearded-man caught in the throes of a rigorous conversation with a poster is never a promising sight. I hurriedly repositioned the canvas to block out the surrounding interest and continued my deliberations by means of internal dialogue.

Unlike a trailer, I mused, poster art is tasked with capturing the excitement and promise of moving frames in a still image. Posters must communicate as much information about a film in one quick look.

The Alien poster hits these notes with the precision of a concert pianist, I continued.

Marketing magic…

Released back in 1979, 20th Century Fox’s space science-fiction horror film centres on an unstoppable demonic beast.

Alien is renowned for its Freudian sexually-charged symbolism. There are numerous examples embedded within the film. Consider the memorable moment when a male crew member is ‘impregnated’ by a facehugger. After implantation, the surrogate mother ‘gives birth’ to a baby alien which rips from his chest.

The Freudian exposition continues in the form of the starship’s computer interface which is aptly christened ‘Mother’.

Taking a heavy sip of coffee, I scanned the canvas sat opposite.

It became instantly clear that the major forms and conventions of the poster perfectly captured the alienation of space travel and vulnerability of the crew who floated light-years from Earth.

The visual simplicity, I said, is astounding. Framed in the void of a dark space, a cracked alien egg emits an eerie yellow glow – a clear nod to the reproductive nature of the film.

And the sparseness of the imagery chimes skilfully with the isolated sentiment of the tagline.

The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product.

‘In space, no one can hear you scream’, does just that. It encapsulates the soul of the film in a matter of eight short words.

home! sweet home!

An hour or so later I was back at home nailing my newly acquired canvas to the wall. Stepping slowly backwards with the caution of a gunslinger at high noon, my eyes fired a steely glance in the direction of the print.

With that, a bolt of sunlight burst through the window, engulfing the picturesque view in a shroud of whiteness.

Reaching aimlessly round for my glasses, I realised for the first time that they were gone, trapped for eternity in the fabric city.

“Damn you tagline”, I cried.

(If you require professional tag line/strapline writing, hop on over to our writing service page.)

]]> http://creativepen.co.uk/2010/12/01/tagline-design-analysis-alien-movie-poster-tagline/feed/ 1 http://creativepen.co.uk/2010/03/21/copywriting-in-culture-bret-%e2%80%98the-hitman%e2%80%99-hart/ http://creativepen.co.uk/2010/03/21/copywriting-in-culture-bret-%e2%80%98the-hitman%e2%80%99-hart/#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:00:46 +0000 Matt http://creativepen.co.uk/?p=1167

Say what you will about the WWE, chairman Vince Mcmahon has long-trail blazed the way in the world of sports entertainment branding.

Mr Mcmahon, who’s enjoyed various successes and failures outside the ring, has built a dominant empire around his wrestling brand.

Melodramatic storylines and huge pay-per-view events played an integral role in this achievement.

But as with any successful film or television show, the action revolves around a strong set of distinct characters that the audience can relate to.

Characterisation and Copywriting…

Technically Bret Hart is one of the greatest wrestlers to have graced the squared-circle. An enigmatic character swathed in pink and black, ‘The Hitman’ long dominated the wrestling scene.

The root of his longevity is multifaceted, but can be traced in large part to the character’s brand identity.

Mr Mcmahon’s savvy ability to brand his wrestlers is comparable to a copywriter composing a piece of advertorial copy.

When selling a product or service it is the copywriters’ task to tap into the ‘emotional selling point’ of that which they are promoting.

Mcmahon adopts a similar approach by playing on the obvious symbolism which resides in ‘The Hitman’s’ name – Hart.

When the audience hears ‘Hart’, they think of ‘heart’. This conjures up an image of a man who fights on the side of good and walks a path of righteousness. Mcmahon’s creative team augments this symbolism by coupling it with a strong back-story and positive colour identity.

The palette of pink and black swamping ‘The Hitman’s’ person funnels directly into this audience friendly perception. Throw a logo and distinctive entrance music into the mix and the brand starts to take shape.

Similarly, the professional copywriter may wish to extrapolate such symbology from the product or service they are selling to inform the composition of their content.

An irresistible force meets an immovable object…

Nestled among the professional copywriters’ cache are slogans, straplines, taglines, end lines, payoffs, signatures and headlines.

Creating a memorable phrase that sums up the tone and premise of a brand or product can form an essential part of getting the message across.

Occasionally, a tagline can be so effective that it alerts the audience to the nature of the product devoid of images.

“It does what it says on the tin”, or “a Mars a day helps you work, rest and play”, are great examples of slogans that have become embedded in our culture.

The same can be said about the Bret Hart brand.

His nickname – ‘The Hitman’ – is suggestive of the wrestler’s clinical nature. A specialist in technical wrestling, the name underscores Hart’s in-ring ability.

The character is also trimmed with a raft of memorable slogans that are seared into the fabric of professional wrestling.

“The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be”, and “the excellence of execution”, are synonymous with the Hart brand.

Legends never die…

Even today, 13 years on since Hart’s incongruous departure from the WWE, his brand identity lives on.

In many ways it’s a testament to Hart himself and the ingenuity of Mcmahon’s WWE branding machine.

The Hart mythology blends fact with fiction and like a good product or service, it refuses to go away.

It’s true to say Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart will always be “the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be”.