Tagline, Sound Bite and Slogan

Do you know the difference between a tagline, sound bite and slogan? Don’t fret, neither did I until now, but it turns out that while the difference is subtle it is essential to understand.

This week I was invited by my friend Diane to attend a ‘quickie’ noon-time half hour seminar about sound bites. I thought I was going to pick up some ideas for creating witty bits for promoting Hide A Heart, but I learned a whole lot more!

We all know how important ‘branding’ is for a business, i.e.-Nike has the swoosh. Starbucks the ‘twin-tailed siren’ to name a couple that immediately come to mind, but do we all understand the equal importance of the tagline, sound bite and slogan?

Understanding the differences

Tagline

“A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product (like a film), or to reinforce the audience’s memory of a product. Some taglines are successful enough to warrant inclusion in popular culture.” (Wikipedia)

Tagline vs. Slogan

“The major difference between a Tagline and Slogan is that a Tagline is created for the product or corporate brand lasting forever and becoming an integral part of our daily life, whereas Slogan is directed more towards a product campaign and can be changed according to target market or audience.” (Answers.com)

Sound bite

“A sound bite is a short clip of speech or music extracted from a longer piece of audio” (Wikipedia) Mark Twain may have described the concept best when he said, “a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense.”

It is no accident that car companies spend a ton of time researching and connecting psychology with what’s going on in the world when choosing which colors and names to include for launching a car line. One of the biggest motivators to purchase large vehicles is that the size creates a sense of ’empowerment’ and ‘victory’ in drivers choosing the vehicle.

Similarly, when choosing a tag line to ‘plant’ into the deepest part of the human brain for instant recognition, large companies invest a ton of time before determining what is ultimately chosen. How much time have we small biz entrepreneurs spent developing our tag line?

We’ve all seen the tag line above and when you see it you cannot help but think ‘Nike’. The Nike tag line is practically implanted in the Amygdala part of our brain! BTW: That’s the part of the brain which controls emotion and decision-making. Yep, you got it. The phrase JUST DO IT triggers our Amygdala to message: ‘GO GET IT’!

CREATING A TAGLINE

“A tagline is a key phrase that identifies your business by capturing the essence of three elements, MISSION-PROMISE-BRAND without focusing on the product or service, but instead what the product has to offer.” Visit Copyblogger.com to read more about how you create a rock solid tag line.

In the meanwhile, I’ll be working on improving the Hide A Heart tagline, so please check back in a month where I’ll share mine and invite you to share yours! Let’s Get To It!