Comments on: 30 Corporate Logos with taglines – What do they say?

By: Sunny

Sunny — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:01:57 +0000

The requirement of the tagline really depends on the logo and how it portrays the business. Everyone today recognises Nike’s logo even without the tagline but on entering the market, the swoosh and brand name would be meaningless without the logo. As Tad Dobbs mentioned above regarding goldfinger, he was right about the tagline being overkill. The tagline basically repeated what the logo itself was saying and ruined it.

By: Byazid

Byazid — Thu, 13 May 2010 02:46:06 +0000

i Think every brand and company have to mention it… so that there wont be any confusion among customer when they see the logo..though it is impossible i guess..

By: Tad Dobbs

Tad Dobbs — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:32:26 +0000

While I do agree that a tagline can enhance and build on your logo, I have to disagree that it a requirement. I don’t think that every logo needs a tagline, and in some cases logos can suffer from having a tagline. One example above is the Goldfinger logo. The logo by itself is clever with a nice combination of negative and positive space to created the monogram while also implying a hand with an extended finger. The tagline is overkill and makes the overall concept feel cheap and dumbed down. Just as a great logo doesn’t have to have a mark, likewise it doesn’t have to have a tagline.

Thanks for the great post.

By: Hal Swetnam

Hal Swetnam — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:39:51 +0000

There are taglines, and there are brandlines. And the more powerful of the two are always brandlines. These are the brilliant statements that express a brand’s core value, and they become much more essential to all audiences, internal and external. Brandlines are corporate mantras that inform the leadership of organizations, and help to guide the evolution of the brand.
JUST DO IT is a great example. Sure it’s a memorable line. Nike has put billions of marketing dollars behind it. But it is just as significant to Nike management and associates as it is to the average consumer. In three little words, this brandline conveys the corporate philosophy: Don’t wait. Act now. Stay ahead. It’s an idea that has helped keep the organization at the top of it’s game for decades.
You included a good number of consumer brands in the logo/tagline selection. My company works with a lot of B2B brands. In that space, brandlines are even more essential because target audiences aren’t always as familiar with the organization. It’s often important for B2B brands to be more streamlined, and more efficient with marketing budgets, so we develop brandlines that help them clearly express their value.
So is it absolutely critical to have a tagline? No. A consumer brand can thrive without one (look at Apple). But if you’re working with an organization who hasn’t quite nailed their positioning, or hasn’t been able to articulate its value to prospective customers and internal audiences, then you better be working to develop a brandline — a corporate mantra.