More often than not taglines are like white elephants. You don’t need them, there’s no good place to put them, and they’re tough to get rid of.

I was reminded of this once again yesterday when a client of ours, a smart and savvy VP of Marketing we’ve worked with for almost 10 years, was faced with an awkward political dilemma. A divisional VP who was trying to make his mark demanded a tagline and worse yet, came up with it. It is “Exceptional service. Better value.”

Cringe.

It’s so nice to have an outlet. Now instead of grinding my teeth in my sleep I can just blog about this. Here, fellow marketers, are some of the problems with taglines.

Generic taglines can actually hurt you
“Exceptional service. Better value” is a classic in the annals of apple pie and motherhood, which is what the majority of taglines are. You could say this about any product or company, whether it was true or not. It doesn’t differentiate and it’s not believable. People want to know what makes your product better, which is about content and conversation. A generic line undermines credibility and brings your message down. Makes it sound like everything you just said is “marketing BS”.

Taglines are so 20th Century
So how about good taglines? Apple Computer has had a few. “The computer for the rest of us” was their revolutionary statement when they launched the Mac in the 1980’s. Notice that they don’t have a tagline in their current TV commercials? They’ve chosen to focus on the message itself, allowing you to draw your own conclusions.

How come? What’s changed? 21st Century audiences don’t want to be talked at. They’re as skeptical as you can get. Engage them instead. If you stick a tagline at the end of your communication, you’re commercializing what was starting to be a nice relationship.

For example, my partner recently saw a helpful home improvement TV spot which had him involved until an annoying voice and animated logo ended with “That’s the Power of the Home Depot.” Ugh.

You can’t afford a tagline
The mass market monoliths put millions of dollars in advertising and promotion behind taglines, which are part of enormous branding campaigns. Example: McDonalds “I’m Lovin’ it”. The idea is to engrave the line and its associations into your audience’s memory. The average marketer doesn’t have this kind of budget.

Taglines are about you, not the customer
It goes like this. The CEO gets a far away look in his or her eye and says, “You know I just thought of a great tagline for our company.” I smile tactfully. Compliment the creativity. And explain the reality: this line is meaningful internally to the company, but customers and prospects won’t care. It doesn’t buy you anything.

Do a descriptive line instead
By “tagline” I’m referring to those short lines under a company name and logo that try to be cute and clever or else tritely aspirational. In contrast, a descriptive line is a great thing to have. It defines in a concise sentence or phrase what your company does and the benefit it provides. It goes at the top of your website or somewhere on your brochure or LinkedIn page.

A concise descriptive line is particularly important for technology companies who are inventing new ways of doing things. These are not supposed to be memorable or clever, they are descriptive. Examples: For a navigation systems client: “We take over where GPS leaves off.” A cleantech client: “Pavement solutions that increase performance, lower costs and improve the environment.” A publishing client: “The business magazine for executives who are integrating workforce management with corporate goals.”

Whew. I feel better now. Gotta go and tell my team we have to put “Exceptional service. Better value” on that divisional brochure.

Simplify. And simplify again. This is a good exercise for any tech company trying to come up with a value proposition in a nutshell. I just gave a talk in Washington DC to a group of cleantech companies as part of Larta’s USDA program (Check out http://www.larta.org). I asked for a volunteer to role-play with me on the question, “Can you explain your technology to a six-year-old?”

The brave man who stepped up to the plate was Keith Lewis, the CEO of a sensor company (SSS Technologies, soon to be Sarkitel Sensors) out of Alabama. The company description in the program guide says that they make an “ammonia sensor which, when used to control ventilation, can improve performance in poultry, hog and dairy operations.”

Keith, however, was on to me and skipped the usual tech jargon right away. I played the 6-year-old. “So, what do you do, Daddy?” I asked.

“You know when you pee and it smells bad sometimes?” was what Keith opened with.

Yes folks, marketing can be really fun, and funny, sometimes! A dialogue ensued that had everyone including the participants in stitches. Turns out, the bad smell is ammonia, and when 10,000 chickens are all peeing in a chicken farm, too much of that smell is really bad for both people and chickens. So when it gets too bad Daddy’s sensor turns on the fans. But why can’t the fans be on all the time? Because too much wind makes chickens catch cold or get sick.

Aha, an insight. The sensor activates extra ventilation only when ammonia levels require it, eliminating two health hazards for poultry and the people who work with them: toxicity and excess wind. Happy chickens get fatter and lay more eggs. Plus you save on energy costs.

If you have a technology company, try this “dialogue with a six-year-old” exercise yourselves. The act of simplifying can lead to startling insights about how to move from a technical description to a clear, understandable and distinctive value proposition.

Never before, in the history of marketing have we been able to get so much for so little. For free, actually. And yet, many companies haven’t realized the full potential of what we call The Grid: the most powerful medium ever created. And, let me repeat: it’s free!

What is The Grid?
The Grid is what we call the global network of interconnection powered by the internet. Unlike the electrical grid, this Grid has always been smart. In recent years it’s taken a self-generating life of its own, with linkages that get richer and denser every day. Its reach extends far beyond the online world.

For marketers, the strength of this grid lies in the thousands of subtle connections and engagement opportunities that it enables.

At the heart of The Grid is your website, but it’s only one piece of a complex online circulatory system of information, encompassing email, dedicated landing pages, interactions on social/business media, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies, online PR, video, incentives, applications and more.

Plus, very importantly, offline elements such as ads and direct mail pieces can be designed to drive visitors to your online environment, where you engage them in deeper interactions and lasting relationships.

Unlimited impact, zero cost
When your marketing programs are plugged into The Grid, the impact is exponential. You can build involvement and reach by linking each component of your program, taking the audience from one node to the next. You motivate a person to visit the next channel, each time expanding on the original message. And along the way, adding more and more reasons to do business with your company.

Marketing assets, such as a videos or brochures, can be distributed all over the internet at no additional cost. Links to them can be embedded in online press releases, blogs, emails, tweets, retweets, landing pages – the list goes on. Every day, more people see it, react to it, share it. It’s a pyramid scheme, except it’s legal.

And did we mention it’s free?

You just presented your game-changing technology to a prospect’s management team. After you leave, there’s a very good chance that they will be asking each other “What is it these guys do, again?” Same problem when they visit your website.

This is because the skill set you need to communicate about a product is vastly different from the genius it took to invent and engineer it.

Most scientists and engineers get too complicated when they explain their product and business. They take the developer’s perspective instead of the customer’s. The same problem can show up on their homepage, which reads more like a spec sheet than an engaging entry point.

Time to simplify
It may be hard to do, but you need to simplify. It helps a lot to pretend that you’re talking to a six-year old. Find a partner of any age, make a statement, and have them keep asking you two questions:

- Why?
- So what?

This gets you past the buzzwords right to the heart of the matter. You’ll have some interesting insights too.

Where’s the main pain?
Try starting out by taking the point of view of the customer. What problem are they having that your solution fixes? What’s the main “pain” that you relieve? What kinds of struggles are they having with the current ways of doing things? Most engineers would start out by talking about how the technology works. When you’re in a commercialization or marketing mode you need to address what it does first. State the benefit.

Quick, in two sentences!
You need to be able to explain your technology in two easy-to-grasp sentences. The components are these sentences are:
- Your product category (the space you are playing in)
- The un-met need: the pain you fix
- How your solution is different from and better than the other alternatives. (“Unlike X, we Y”)

Only then do you can explain the unique breakthrough that makes this possible, again in simple language first.

Even your fellow engineers and scientists will thank you
Not only will top management, the “approvers”, be nodding (in understanding, not slumber) and getting their checkbooks out. Technologists, who may in fact be the direct “users”, will also appreciate getting a clear topline before digging into the details of your elegant solution.

What has changed since you last evaluated your positioning, which is what your company stands for, to whom, and why?

Just about everything, most likely. In this global, connected marketplace and tough economy, the speed of change is enough to make your head spin. A lot has happened since you developed your current website, printed your brochures (or uploaded the PDFs) and put up your trade show booth. See if any of these common signs fit you.

1) You’ve changed
You’ve outgrown your message and image. You’re bigger, more diversified, smarter, and/or more focused than you were. Your technology and products are better. Your service has improved.

2) Your target market has changed
Price and cost savings may be a bigger issue than they were before, which means value-added selling is a key to differentiation. Or, your old market is shrinking. You’re shifting into new segments with a whole new set of needs.

3) Competition has changed
Your current value proposition isn’t quite so unique anymore. Competitors are knocking you off even though their solution is inferior. Or, a big competitor is about to enter your niche and you need to pre-empt them.

4) The old model doesn’t work
It was an innovative concept with great potential, but didn’t pan out as expected. You’ve learned where the true opportunity is, and it’s time to make a shift. Fast.

5) People don’t “get” what you do
This issue is very common with technology companies. After a half-hour discussion or visit to your website, the question you get is, “What do you do, again?” It’s time to simplify.

6) The environment is different now
The economic downturn goes without saying. Plus there’s the Obama Administration, Web 2.0, and new purchasing patterns. Greentech is hot but greenwashing isn’t. Major events and trends that cause profound change often require a re-evaluation of marketing messages.

7) You’re ready to go to the next level
When you first started, you could get by with the home-grown approach. Now you’re ready for the next leap forward. You want to look like a mainstream player, not a garage startup.

If any of these factors are true for you, it’s time to reframe your message. We suggest not trying this at home. Bring in a professional branding and marketing company, address the new realities of your business, and revenue will follow. This is true whether you’re a business-to-business or consumer marketer.