A Tagline That Will Stop You in Your Branding Tracks
I’ve been in marketing, branding and sales most of my working life.
Good logos. Bad logos.
Should I call some out on the logo carpet? Maybe.
A recent logo was so awful we nicknamed it. SCBP. The SC? Santa Claus. And the BP is NSFW. R-rated. Oh. My. After seeing the logo, none of my team could stop laughing.
I know you want to see. We can’t. We really can’t. Have to protect, well, my business, from legal recourse!
Business taglines? Same. Most are ho-hum. (Note to self: my business tagline needs a makeover!)
I can think of one tagline that was a standout long before I opened PROMOrx. It was a temporary staffing company.
“Life is a Temporary Assignment” was their tagline for some trade show giveaways. Lots of people didn’t find it as amusing as I did. The company caved and trashed ‘em after an article in the local paper.
Stop. Hold the presses.
I’ve come across a tagline so good, I’ve offered an order of FREE SWAG to the business owner. Yes. I. Did.
The story: I thought I saw a termite.
We got a recommendation from a neighbor for an exterminator. Did you know there are two types of termites? I didn’t.
Exterminator #1 told us we needed to have the entire house tented to kill the termites. But they’re in one small area, not in the whole house, we said.
Tenting will cost 1000’s of dollars.
You will have to remove anything you ingest or use on your body from your house: food, vitamins, body wash, etc. If you want plants to survive, you’ll need to remove them, both inside and outside.
Gas heat? Gas hot water? Gas stove? Contact the gas company to cut it off. And oh, yeah, you’ll need to vacate the house along with any pets.
I headed to google the minute they left. Vikane, which is sulfuryl fluoride, is some pretty nasty stuff.
I’m passionate about our environment, so this didn’t sit well. Worries about the environment were somewhat displaced with worries about the humans in the house as I continued to read.
Was there an Option B?
Yes. No tent needed. No sulfuryl fluoride. One year guarantee.
After reading the tagline, I KNEW I’d found my exterminator.
The owner? Just as knowledgeable and fun as you’d expect.
DRUM ROLL PLEASE.
As long as God keeps makin’ ‘em, we’ll keep killin’ ‘em.
Follow-up: they came, they saw, they killed. Not one sign of a pesky termite.
Now to figure out which swag to suggest...the owner wants me to give him options. Uh-oh.
The heat is on. (but the termites are gone!)
What do you think would be a good swag recommendation?
Blogger: Vickie, the PROMOrx owner, now termite free.
