Most regular readers of this website will know I'm not a big fan of the way most organizations use taglines.  It seems that companies use them because they're supposed to have something under their name and above their address on their business cards - but they're not quite sure what its supposed to do. 

I wrote about this more than a year ago right here.  Note the second bullet under the "best taglines" section.  That's something very few companies seem to be able to get right. 

Brains on Fire - a firm we at Stokefire happen to like a lot (and not just because they've got "fire" in their name) wrote a post about this on their blog last week.   They suggest that you take your tagline and try to see if you can slap someone else's name on it - and if it fits you should keep searching for the right tag.

Interesting that all the taglines were of the Three. Word. Taglines. variety. 

As much as we hate these trite constructs, we do think there's a purpose (and perhaps a reason why they all seem so much alike.)  There's one thing that the TWTs do pretty well - they communicate to the people that work for the company.  They see it on their cards, letterhead, and website.  It's a constant reminder of what their own product does (or what it stands for.)  Sure, it may be the same thing as everyone else - but companies that use this construct have a rare benefit - everyone from president to janitor knows what the company does. 

That ain't necessarily a bad thing, is it?  If you're having confusion within the company this could be a tool to fix it.  The only problem is that most of the companies using these TWTs seem to think that people outside the company actually care enough to remember which three words are the ones that matter.  Internally?  Piece of cake.  Externally - nearly impossible. 

Nike's tagline - "Just Do It" - is indeed great... and the philosophy of the corporation is well communicated by it... but isn't it conceivable that there's someone in a factory job in a poor village somewhere in Asia who doesn't realize that the fabric he's making will help people run faster?  (The question of whether or not this matters is a topic for another post.)

(Full disclosure: the last company that had me as a full time employee uses a TWT - But they started using it after I left...  And I didn't name 'em either.)