There are a few reasons to explain this shift, including an increased focus on performance marketing; smaller, shorter ad units; shorter attention spans; less space to physically contain a line; and a move toward more tailored content instead of a one-size-fits-all message.
Plus, the most admired, front-of-mind brands don’t use them. If the likes of Apple, Amazon, Google, Patagonia, Spotify, Starbucks and Tesla don’t use a brand tagline in their messaging, then it can’t be necessary, right?
This introduces a paradox. Taglines still clearly work, but how to use them has grown muddier. Brand leaders are now asking more and more: Do we need one?
But that’s not the right question to be asking. At least, not at first.
First, we need to inspect what a tagline even is and if we’re defining it in the right way. The old way to define a tagline is as a fixed, oft-repeated phrase added reflexively to the end of an ad or communication. With this definition, it’s easier to make the case why they are unwieldy, unnecessary or antiquated in a modern, more personalized marketing mix.
A better approach might be to reframe the role a tagline can play: less as an advertising device, more a brand asset.
It’s time to think different about taglines
“Think Different” is a great example of the type of line we’ve lost sight of in the pursuit of performance. More than shill computers, or even define the Apple business, the line expressed a brand idea.
Apple no longer uses it in ads, but “Think Different” still guides a spirit that we feel and appreciate to this day. As with other great lines like Nike’s “Just Do It,” a tagline can be more about conveying what a brand stands for emotionally than about converting a sale.
We should no longer think of a tagline as blunt force marketing. A good tagline is an ownable shorthand for a brand’s intended meaning in the world and an efficient way to associate a brand with a big idea — but only when that’s the objective.
Airbnb used the line “Belong anywhere” to go beyond selling, embodying brand purpose along with initiatives that form deeper connections with guests and hosts. But despite its connection to the brand ethos, it doesn’t appear on most recent ads, which play up more focused benefits like pet- and kid-friendliness. When it defines a brand’s meaning, a tagline can belong anywhere, but it doesn’t belong everywhere.
