A webcast entitled Branding Boot Camp is scheduled for Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 1:00 pm CST.

Neil Brown, Chief Marketing Officer at FUSION b2b will share highlights of his book “Branding Best Practices” including naming strategy, logo and identity, and sub-branding. Carla Johnson, Principal at Type A Communications, will share examples of brand messaging.

“Effective branding is critical for many reasons. Business-to-business categories are more competitive than ever, and a great deal of loyalty can exist for certain brands”, states Neil M. Brown. “This webcast will share all aspects of branding, and provide case study examples of branding.”

To register for the free Branding Boot Camp Webcast, CLICK HERE

About The Panelists

Carla Johnson, Principal of Denver-based Type A Communications, has a background in marketing, business development, public relations and employee communications. Carla develops and implements marketing programs that increase awareness, create a consistent marketing and sales message, help employees stay engaged and ultimately generate revenue. Johnson served as the 2010-2011 President of the Colorado Chapter of the Business Marketing Association (BMA) and is contributing author to the recently released book, “Advice from the Top: The Expert Guide to B2B Marketing.” She has taught classes for Colorado State University, Regis University and for the Rocky Mountain Direct Marketing Association’s Certificate in Direct Marketing Program.

Neil Brown is Partner and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of FUSION b2b, a leading marketing and communications agency based in Naperville, IL. Prior to FUSION, Brown was CEO of numerous marketing consulting and creative agencies for the past 15 years, managing some of the biggest brands in the BtoB sector. Brown was a brand manager at IDEAL Industries, and later CMO of a metals manufacturer. Neil earned an MBA from Northern Illinois University, and a BS-Marketing from Southern Illinois University. Neil is a frequent speaker, author and contributor to Advertising Age, BtoB magazine, Marketing News and many other publications. In 2009 he published the book, Branding Best Practices: A Guide to Effective Product and Business Naming.

Developing effective taglines is a disciplined process that melds insight with positioning strategy and creativity. So what is a tagline, and how can tagline development deliver a breakthrough? Sometimes called tags, positioning taglines, slogans, jingles, unique selling propositions or descriptors, taglines distill your corporate or brand position to a few simple and memorable words—ideally from one to five words, and never more than seven words.

Taglines are flexible, persuasive, differentiating, extendable and very often, more memorable than the corporate and brand names they modify. Why? Many names are legacy names, likely descriptive and sometimes over time, less relevant to positioning due to changing markets. With years of equity, it can be difficult to change names, but taglines can change with new campaigns, or to target different audiences.

Like names, there are different types of taglines. With metaphorical names that have highly provocative meanings, sometimes simple, Descriptive taglines can add clarity and anchor aggressive branding. For our client AfterMath, we chose a simple descriptor, Claim Science to communicate industry focus and differentiation. In addition to descriptive taglines, Fusion B2B has identified other tagline types including Metaphorical, Aspirational, Comparative and Jingles. And note that hybrid types abound.

Like their name counterparts, metaphorical taglines deliver meanings (ideally double meanings) and associations that reinforce desired positioning, often when names by themselves cannot. Metaphorical taglines can be particularly effective when paired descriptive names to reinforce a position and improve memorability.

A great example of a metaphorical tagline is Chevy Trucks, “Like a Rock”, communicating durability, and leveraging memorability by virtue of the popular (Bob Seger) hit song. On the corporate front, GE’s “Imagination at Work” delivers the double meaning.

Consumer product brands and corporate America are enamored with Aspirational taglines. And why not? Consumers often buy products based on a desire for self-improvement, and corporations always want to be perceived as benevolent. One of the most famous taglines in history, “Nike, Just Do It”, is clearly aspirational with a meaning of achievement and athletic performance. In the corporate arena, examples abound, from HP’s “Invent”, to Apple’s “Think Different”.

When a secondary competitor seeks to take on the category leader, a comparative tagline can quickly and effectively deliver differentiation. Consider Taco Bell’s “Think Outside the Bun”, or “Pork, the other white meat”, or the poster child for comparative taglines, Avis: “We Try harder”.

Jingles are most often associated with catchy tunes for consumer products with big advertising budgets. Fusion B2B and IDeas BIG also uses jingles to describe tagline types that use slogans that employ rhythm, rhyming or alliteration. Examples include Bounty, “the quicker picker-upper”, or “Don’t get mad, get Glad”.

The process of developing effective taglines is, not surprisingly, similar to name development. Product or industry category understanding is required, along with customer insight and competitive positioning. Tagline generation is followed by scoring using several criteria, screening and trademark search. Final selection from a shortlist of taglines can be supported by customer testing and old-fashioned judgment.

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