tag lines

Since joining BNI (business network international)--a networking/referrals group--I've been trying to think of ways to spice up my 60-second infomercial each week. Specifically, I'm trying to be creative and use a new tag line each time. So far I've used:

Call today, I'll do it the write way.
Writing well is a rewording experience.

Ok, so I'm a new member and only started using tag lines lately. :\

But, I'm curious...what type of tag lines do you all use, if any? Might be fun to see how creative we're getting with our promotional tactics!

Cassie:

For my BNI group, I don't try to use a different tag line each week ( I would soon exhaust my supply!), so I listen to what others are saying each week and try to make a play on words that reflects on them as well. For instance, we have a guy in our group who works with wood, and his tag line is "I'm your friendly neighborhood lathemeister." So I came up with "Friendly neighborhood wordsmith." What I do that is different each week is present a "word of the week" and go down the alphabet, looking up little-used but interesting words to add to everyone's "fund of knowledge". People actually write these things down and look forward to them each week, so I'm stuck...gotta keep doing it! I'm up to the W's now.

Have you been able to do your 10 minute talk yet and if so, what topic did you pick? I'm doing one on re-designing brochures next week.

That's a great idea, Apryl. Maybe I'll borrow it...??

No, I haven't had to do my talk yet...it's coming up in about 3 weeks. I haven't decided what to do just yet. Some folks have given an overview of their business, and some have concentrated on one aspect of their business. E.g., a temp service placement manager explained how his business works for temps and businesses, while an accountant concentrated on new tax laws (a time-sensitive topic).

Your topic sounds good. I'm thinking of discussing the benefits of publishing newsletters, but haven't hashed out the specifics. Let me know how your talk goes, ok?

Word play

What great ideas from both of you! I just love the rewording experience....what a great play on words that is.

And I am not sure I understand what you are doing Apryl, do you mean that you take a different person each time and think up a new word play or something on their tag line? Right on the spot? I'm impressed if you got to w with that! I hope you were writing it all down.

I only work off of other people's tag lines when they hit me right...not each week. The word of the week business, I usually do from a dictionary the night before or the morning of, before I get out of the house. Have been in the group just a year, and didn't start that until a few months ago, and I started in the middle of the alphabet (cheater!:grin 0.) The lawyer started first...I just "borrowed" his idea.

I'll keep you posted, cassie, on how my power point thing goes next week. Just borrowed a projector from someone and have to figure out how to use it with my laptop. Being relatively computer hardware-challenged, I may have insurmountable issues with it...we'll see.

Can't say I know much about BNI (only heard of it here) but tag lines, yeah I like 'em depending...

For customers (and occasionally for myself) I will develop a tag line. I'll never forget the tag line I came up with for the enterprise software product I co-founded:

"Xfactory, the world will never be the same"

But I thought you might enjoy my dissecting of this tagline.

First, the product was in a space that had very difficult problems to be addressed, carried high impact on the companies that used it (good or bad), was overly expensive, and was swathed in a fog of confusion.

Xfactory was a radical solution, one that addressed these issues in a whole new way (in fact, it caused a ripple affect that restructured the whole market). So we came out with it HARD, bold and in your face - throwing down the gauntlet, so to speak.

It was the right play for this situation.

Another tag line I came up with was for a (now-defunct) mobile instant messaging company. They had a product that allowed a person on a cellphone to talk and listen to IM (such as Yahoo IM, AIM, and Windows Messenger). The phone user had IM messages "spoken" to them (speech synthesis) and the simple spoke their messages in return. I came up with the product name, Talk2Chat then the tag line.

"If you can talk, you can Talk2Chat"

Why? Because this market was general consumers that wanted cool stuff they could pick up and use - not have to think about and learn. The attention time they would pay attention to an ad was measured in seconds. The tag line had to instantly strike an interest, first read, first reaction.

Finally, for a more results based tag line I had this:

"DANGEROUS DREAMS AUTHOR GETS RESULTS WITH INNOVATIVE GUERRILLA MARKETING CAMPAIGN"

This was a tag line for a press release for my scifi book. It is filled with power words and "hot" words. It has a very specific message, and it slaps it home with assurance and confidence.

Maybe some of these examples will help you spur your imagination in the pursuit of new tag lines!

Tag lines

Excellent examples, I especially liked the talk to chat, that really says it all in such a short form.

It is a real gift to be able to think up great taglines and good practise too for revamping our own occasionally.

Re: Tag lines

Hi Jazziz1,

My BNI tag line is "Ad agency results without the ad agency price tag," since my services include publicity and design work in addition to copywriting. The regulars seem to remember it, anyway.

Lorne

I've recently come up with a tag line that I've incorporated into my BNI speeches and my marketing materials:

Turn your copy into cash.

It doesn't rhyme nor is it a play on words, but it's an appropriate message to convey to potential clients!