Taglines
More
Than Just a Quicker Picker-Upper
Part
Two: Tips on Choosing and Using a Tagline
Taglines vs. Mission Statements
If you take nothing else from this article, please take this:
mission statements make lousy taglines.
Your mission statement expresses the way your organization
sees itself. A tagline, on the other hand, expresses the way
you want to be seen by others. Your tagline should be an outgrowth
of your mission statement, but your mission statement should
not be your tagline. Instead, distill it, flip it over
and make it visitor-focused. Here's an example:
The Stephen
Decatur House Museum in Washington, D.C., owned by the National
Trust for Historic Preservation, was the home of 19th-century
naval hero Commodore Stephen Decatur. One of the oldest surviving
homes in Washington, it's one of only three remaining residential
buildings in the country designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe,
often referred to as the father of American architecture.
Decatur House Mission Statement: "...to educate the public
about American cultural and social history as it relates to the
House, its location, architecture, preservation, and its occupants
and their stories..."
Decatur House Tagline: "His House. Our History."
Many organizations with similar mission statements would have
come up with something like this instead: "Educating the
public about American cultural and social history." Doesn't
exactly sing, does it?
The Decatur House tagline says basically the same thing, but
says it from the visitor's point of view, not the organization's.
And by placing the house in a larger context ("Our History"),
the tagline becomes a museum-world equivalent of Michelin's tag,
"Because so much is riding on your tires." It answers
the questions in the back of every potential visitor's mind:
"Why should I care? What's in it for me?"
Now for the Hard Part . . .
Sometimes a great tagline falls out of the sky and lands right
in your lap. You wake up one morning and bam, it's there. Most
of us, though, aren't quite that lucky.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology knows that first-hand.
The MIT Museum has been
trying for three years, off and on, to find the right tagline
for its new focus as a showcase for MIT innovation. In 1999 the
museum even ran a campus-wide slogan
contest, offering a shopping spree to anyone who could come
up with the perfect "elusive linguistic confection."
Alas, no one did.
MIT certainly isn't alone in its frustration. A good tagline
can be an elusive beast. Sometimes it's because we're trying
too hard or because we're so caught up in organizational self-consciousness
that we can't relax and just let the ideas rip. Sometimes it's
death by committee. Often it's because we're too close to our
own institutions to be able to see them from the visitor's perspective.
Half of the museum taglines mentioned in this article, in
fact, were created by outsiders -- mostly advertising agencies.
But before you fall into the "Oh,
sure, they can afford an agency, we can't" trap,
keep in mind that half of the tags mentioned here weren't
created by agencies. They were created in-house.
And while an outsider's viewpoint can often be enormously
helpful in picking up on assets we miss, sometimes even a great
agency has trouble nailing down a great tagline.
The Science Museum of Minnesota
ran into that problem in 2000, as it prepared to open its new
370,000-square-foot facility on the banks of the Mississippi
in downtown St. Paul. When its agency couldn't come up with a
new tag that was a perfect fit, the museum's marketing department
did. "Get fascinated" turned out to be just the right
call to action the institution had been searching for. It's also
an excellent example of the track you need to be on in order
to come up with a tagline that works.
Most of us think in terms of "features" -- the programs
and collections we offer -- while our visitors or customers are
experiencing "benefits." Even when we're able to switch
over to benefits thinking, we too often mis-identify the benefits.
That spiffy membership card, for example, isn't the benefit;
the benefit is how elite or valuable or altruistic having that
membership card makes me feel. And I might think I'm visiting
the Science Museum of Minnesota simply to learn about the "Bloodstream
Highway," but isn't the excitement I feel when I'm fascinated
what I'm really hoping for?
Great tags tap into emotions and desires. Remember that while
you brainstorm and you'll be halfway there.
For Inspiration...
While there's no formula for producing a great tagline, there
are some places you can go for inspiration. Once you're clear
about your competition and you know how you want to position
yourself, look at as many existing tags as you can.
The sidebar on the left side of this page is a good place
to start. It contains a sampling of the tags other museums are
using. (I just list 'em, by the way. I'm leaving it up to you
to judge which ones work and which ones don't!) Then read copywriter
Alan Sharpe's article, 34
Ways to Write a Slogan. He's identified 34 different approaches
taglines can take, and he includes a well-known example of each
one. Be sure, also, to visit ADSlogans
Unlimited. It's a great site with lots of helpful articles
and examples -- even an Advertising Slogan Hall of Fame.
Don't Forget to Test
Once you've done your own brainstorming and narrowed your choices
down to three or four, it's time to test. For starters, rate
each one using ADSlogans Unlimited's 25-question Sloganalysis®
tool. It will make you stop and think about elements you may
have overlooked. Then it's time to take your tags out into the
world.
When Rogers
Historical Museum in Rogers, Arkansas was developing its
new tagline, the possibilities were whittled down to four choices:
- Get in touch with the past
- The past is closer than you think
- Real people. Real stories. Real fun!
- Real people. Real stories. Real history!
Over a period of several months, the staff tested them on
randomly selected visitors, as well as in focus groups. Allyn
Lord, assistant director, says, "We tried hard to make sure
we tested them on a diverse group of people. We talked to families,
teens, older adults, both men and women, and members of our large
Hispanic community. We were also asking them at the same time
about a couple of logo choices and a handful of images we were
considering using as major marketing tools."
While your testing might not be this extensive, it is important
to go beyond just asking your board, staff and volunteers which
one they "like." You need to be sure the public understands
your tag and what your museum is about.
Rogers Historical Museum, by the way, settled on "Real
people. Real stories. Real History!" They began using it
in June when they rolled out their new logo, website and brochures.
More is Not Better
You can have as many advertising slogans as you want, but one
tagline is all you need and all you should have. Any more than
that and you defeat the whole purpose of having a tagline at
all. So be sure the tag you choose is one-size-fits-all -- that
it's relevant to your organization as a whole and to each individual
department's activities as well. It needs to work effectively
whether it's used on a billboard, on an appeal letter or on the
mugs for sale in your museum store.
Once You've Got it, Flaunt it
The Levine Museum of the New South uses its tagline
as the name of its newsletter. Mystic Seaport named both a book
and a major exhibit after "America and the Sea." At
The Bob Bullock Texas State
History Museum in Austin, "The Story of Texas"
is carved in granite on the front of the building. It even carved
out its own niche in cyberspace, as the museum's website address.
Use your tagline everywhere you possibly can. A good rule
of thumb? At a minimum, use it everywhere you use your logo.
Make certain, as well, that everyone in your museum, including
volunteers, knows what the tagline is and why it was chosen.
You may also want to establish and distribute some usage guidelines.
That way, each department will know how to use the tag in a way
that's consistent throughout your organization.
A Diamond is Forever
DeBeers has been using "A diamond is forever" since
1950. Kellogg's Rice Krispies have been snapping, crackling and
popping since 1932. And Maxwell House coffee has been "Good
to the last drop" since 1915.
Once you come up with a great tagline, stick with it until
it stops working. Don't change it just because you get bored
with it or just because someone on your board or in your office
suddenly has a new "vision." And definitely don't change
it when there's something wrong somewhere in marketingland
but you're not quite sure what it is. Chances are it's not your
tag that's the problem at all, but something deeper. A great
tagline is built to take a licking and keep on ticking, but it
is, after all, just a tagline. Don't ask it to carry the weight
of all your marketing challenges.
< Back to Part One
Note: Does your institution use a tagline? Send it
in and we'll add it to the list! Be sure to include your organization's
name, city and website address as well. webmaster@museummarketingtips.com
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.
