Taglines
More
Than Just a Quicker Picker-Upper
Finger-lickin'
good. Like a rock. Think different.
Almost every product and every company uses a tagline
these days. Should every cultural institution "just do it"
too? What kinds of taglines are other museums using?
How can you come up with a really good one of your
own? And what should you do with it once you do?
What Is a Tagline, Anyway?
A tagline is a short phrase that explains, in a few simple words,
a product's or organization's unique selling proposition (USP)
-- what sets it apart from its competition; what makes it unique.
A good tagline identifies and positions the brand in the public's
mind by summing up its essence, focus or benefit in a way consumers
can relate to. A great tagline takes it one step further, using
phrasing that's creative, has personality and, most important,
is memorable. And unlike an advertising slogan that changes from
campaign to campaign, a great tagline is built to last. It becomes
as much a part of an organization's identity as its logo.
Don't Leave Home Without One?
Since this is an article about the benefits of taglines, it may
surprise you to know that I don't believe every museum needs
to rush out and get one. Cultural icons such as the Louvre and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, are already positioned
in the public's mind. They don't need a tagline to help them
accomplish that. And not all lesser-known institutions need taglines
either.
How can you tell if yours does? If you answer "no"
to any of the following questions, a tagline is worth considering:
- Does your name clearly explain who you are and what you do?
- Is the public's perception of your institution accurate?
(Maybe you're still fighting an elitist reputation, for instance,
despite having become much more accessible in recent years. Or
maybe you find yourself constantly running up against the old
stereotype that museums are boring.)
- Are you the major attraction in your region? (Major enough
that you don't have to compete with other attractions for visitors?)
Taglines as Problem Solvers
Taglines aren't wonder drugs. No matter how good yours
is, it won't cure every marketing malady you're afflicted with.
Nor will it make up for deficiencies in the things that really
matter to successful museum marketing -- relevant, mission-based
exhibits and programming and a constant awareness of audience
wants and needs. But a well-chosen tagline can be an effective
antidote to specific misconceptions people have about your institution.
How do you know what to zero in on? You already know. It's
the question or comment you hear over and over again and the
issue that comes up in any marketing research you do. Here are
a few examples of specific marketing problems museums are using
taglines to help solve:
"Oh, so that's what you
do!"
After years of being mistaken for a Civil War museum,
the Levine Museum
of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina knew it had
an identity problem. Much of the public wasn't sure which time
period the term "New South" referred to.
"Our primary challenge was getting people to understand
that our focus isn't the Civil War but all the years following
it, as the South kept re-inventing itself," says Communications
Manager Ashley Thurmond. "We definitely needed a clearer
identity."
The museum got one when it had a new logo designed to complement
the new permanent home it was preparing to open in 2001.
The logo the museum chose is a graphical representation of
the New South's diverse history -- three converging horizontal
lines suggesting plowed fields, and three vertical lines suggesting
factory stacks and skyscrapers. But just as important as the
design itself is the time-defining tagline contained within it:
"Telling the Story -- 1865 to Tomorrow."
"Which one are you again?"
As the Cincinnati
Art Museum (CAM) discovered, sometimes the problem isn't
getting people to understand what you do but, rather, where you
do it.
Focus groups CAM conducted revealed that many Ohio, Kentucky
and Indiana residents in the areas surrounding Cincinnati either
didn't know how to get to the museum or had it confused it with
other institutions. A tagline was created to help solve the problem.
Borrowing two words ("great art") from its mission
statement, and capitalizing on the fact that it's located in
the city's largest and best-known park, CAM tagged itself as
"Cincinnati Art Museum -- Great Art in Eden Park."
Rather than simply being a locator, the tag also serves as a
jumping-off point for other promotional language the museum has
come up with. Its website, for example, is divided into sections
called "Great Art," "Great Place" and "Great
Fun."
"This place is so cool! I thought
it was going to be a museum."
In the early 1990s Mystic Seaport Museum found itself
in a dilemma. Like many living history museums, it was grappling
with the question of whether to stop using the word "museum"
in its marketing.
Occupying 37 acres on the banks of Connecticut's
Mystic River, the institution had grown far beyond its 1929 beginnings
as a small, regional historical association. It was now America's
leading maritime museum. But with a 17-acre historic village,
numerous exhibit galleries, a planetarium, preservation shipyard
and research library -- plus almost a dozen of its 450 watercraft
exhibited afloat -- it didn't exactly fit
the public's perception of what a museum is "supposed"
to be.
"People would come here, scratch
their heads, and ask 'Where's the museum?'" recalls Peter
Glankoff, director of communications. "They were used to
thinking of a museum as a building with all the collections inside."
Exacerbating the problem was the fact
that the institution is located on New England's busy I-95 tourist
corridor, halfway between New York and Boston. "Our summertime
traffic is really an attractions crowd," Glankoff says.
But completely eliminating the word
museum from the name might cause more problems than it would
solve. Not only could it alienate those who wouldn't agree with
the decision, but it could also end up creating a whole new identity
problem. For without anything to define it, "Mystic Seaport"
could, to the unfamiliar, be the name of anything from the town
docks to a commercial port filled with shipping containers
and longshoremen.
A group of staff members came up with
a solution in 1994. By tagging itself as "The Museum
of America and the Sea," Mystic
Seaport could keep its museum identity, appeal to the attractions
crowd and position itself as the leader it had grown to
become. Best of all, it could do all that in seven simple words
which, when strung together, create a powerful image that taps
into people's imaginations and emotions.
"We are many things to many people," Peter Glankoff
says, "and the tagline works very well for us. It doesn't
limit us and it also serves as a statement of purpose."
Know Your Competition
When Procter & Gamble positioned
Bounty paper towels as "The Quilted Quicker Picker-Upper,"
it was to differentiate them from their competition -- all the
other brands of paper towels sitting on the supermarket shelf.
As Mystic Seaport's story shows, however, things can be a bit
trickier in the cultural supermarket.
Before you can decide how to position your organization, you
first have to be clear about who's sharing your shelf space.
Who are you really competing with for visitors' time, money and
attention? Is it other museums? Other types of attractions? Other
leisure activities?
For A.C.
Gilbert's Discovery Village, a children's museum in Salem,
Oregon, the competition is Nintendo, video arcades and Saturday
afternoon movies at the mall -- a far cry from the pastimes vying
for kids' attention back in 1913 when the museum's toy-inventor
namesake debuted the Erector Set.
"Our audience is kids four to twelve years old,"
says Ken Cuffe, graphic design and marketing consultant for Discovery
Village. "But it can be a challenge to lure the older kids
out of the house or the mall and into the museum." He created
the tagline "Thrill rides for a kid's mind" to help
do just that. "It strikes the right note both with the kids
and with their parents," he adds.
Before you create your own tagline, be sure you take time
to think about who or what your competition really is.
NEXT > Tips
for Choosing and Using a Tagline &
A sampling of the tags museums are using
Copyright © 2002 Katherine Khalife
All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, please e-mail kkhalife@museummarketingtips.com
Katherine Khalife is publisher of MuseumMarketingTips.com
and the Museum Marketing Tips e-newsletter, used every month
by thousands of cultural institutions seeking practical tips
to improve their marketing.
