Your positioning statement is internal. A tagline is consumer facing. Learn how they may build up your communications.
Your positioning statement is internal. Its purpose is to guide the marketing, production and operational decisions of your company. You should be able to use a positioning statement as a litmus test to whether any decision is on-brand. Some famous positioning statements include:
Target: Style on a budget.
Volvo: For upscale American families, Volvo is the family automobile that offers maximum safety.
Home Depot: The hardware department store for do‑it‑yourselfers.
A tagline, by comparison, is consumer facing. It is the distillation of the positioning statement into a catchy, memorable snapshot of the brand that conveys both the benefit and the personality. Look at the taglines of the brands mentioned before and see if you can tell how they were laddered up to the positioning statements.
Target: Expect more. Pay less.
Volvo: For life.
Home Depot: Let’s Do This.
This post is adapted with permission from a longer piece written by Betsy Pérez, VP Brand Strategy, at Ervin & Smith a branding agency in Omaha.
