Top 15 Actions to Build Your Brand Online

One can use the Internet to:

1. Increase brand awareness
2. Reinforce the brand’s unique value proposition
3. Tell the brand’s story
4. Identify customers and build lists
5. Create a dialog with customers and potential customers

Here are the top 15 actions to take to build your brand online:

1. Create and actively maintain a blog to significantly increase search visibility, establish expertise and build a community, brand trust, and subscriber lists.

• Close to 60% of the people seeking out a branded product online use a search engine to do so.
• Make sure you include the most important search phrases in your posts. (Google Keyword Tool can help you with this.)
• You must carefully think through how you will add meaningful content to the blog on a regular basis. Blogs need to be fed constantly or else they die.

2. Consider using the Google+ author tag for blog content.
3. As you build subscriber lists, send the subscribers email with meaningful content and links.

• Develop a regular distribution schedule and stick to it.
• Make sure to include your brand’s signature and web link in each email.

4. On the Internet, visuals/images matter. Make sure you use appropriate and powerful visuals to reinforce each blog post.
5. People watch 4 billion YouTube videos every day. 68% of video watchers share links to the videos. Create highly compelling videos that tell your brand’s story and post them on YouTube.
6. Use RSS feeds to distribute headlines, new content and notifications more broadly.
7. Include a “Link to This Page” button on every page that you believe has worthwhile content to increase your site traffic through incoming links. Also add Facebook Like, Tweet, inShare, g + 1, pin it and other similar buttons to all worthwhile content.
8. Conduct periodic webinars and teleseminars.
9. Consider Facebook advertising as a way to achieve unparalleled targeting. Also, consider using paid search campaigns using Google AdWords.
10. Create an affiliate program to extend your reach.
11. There are more than 5 billion mobile phone users worldwide and 1.1 billion smartphone subscribers. Develop smartphone/mobile apps for your brand.
12. Integrate online messaging with traditional media messaging for greater impact.
13. Share links with and advertise on those websites that rank highest against the search terms most important to your brand and business.
14. Monitor what people are saying about your brand in social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and on websites such as Epinions.com and Amazon.com.
15. Use SurveyMonkey.com or similar online research platforms to research how people perceive your brand and its competitors.

I wish you great success in building your brand online.

Brand Personality & Personal Branding

I recently posted on the top 30 brand personality attributes chosen by the 100+ brands that we have positioned over the past 15 years. I believe the top 10 brand personality attributes are as important for individuals as they are for companies, products and other branded entities. Here are the top ten again:

1. Innovative
2. Trustworthy
3. Reliable
4. Responsive
5. Professional
6. Easy to work with
7. Service oriented
8. High quality
9. Friendly
10. Customer-focused

People admire innovators. They are always looking to what is new and different. Trustworthy and reliable are all about being predictable. People want to be able to count on a brand to deliver what they were expecting when they were expecting it. Responsive, service oriented and customer-focused speak to putting the customer first and catering to their needs in a timely manner. This implies good listening skills and perhaps even an ability to anticipate customer needs. It also speaks to putting customer needs ahead of one's own needs or at least aligning the two so that they are congruent. A sense of urgency around meeting customer needs is also important. Friendly and easy to work with imply an approachable, easy going brand, not one that has a big ego and is full of itself. Typically, people do not appreciate arrogance, attitude or drama and generally they do not want things to be difficult. Finally, professional and high quality speak to people's need for someone or something that is operating at a high standard of quality. This can imply many things, from substance and competence to a respectful attitude and even a strong command of the English language and a high level of aesthetics.

So, while company, product and service brands focus on these adjectives as their most important personality attributes, individuals can also learn something from this list. If the people you interact with on a regular basis were to choose a set of adjectives to describe you, which ones would they choose? Would any of these ten attributes be in their list?

This is a useful exercise. Ask people with whom you interact on a regular basis for feedback on how they would describe you. You might even probe for their perceptions of your positive and negative qualities. Good luck.

The Poison Parasite Defense

Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University discovered that a new way to counter and dilute a competitor’s message is by creating ads that offer opposing arguments embedded in visuals that link to the original ads being countered. An example is a successful antismoking campaign that featured mock “Marlboro Man” ads depicting macho cowboys on horses in the same rugged outdoor settings as the original ads; however, in the mock ads, the cowboys are coughing and showing other signs of ill health associated with smoking, thus triggering this new highly negative association with Marlboro.

Brand Aid, second edition is now available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Branding and Place of Origin

Place of origin often has an impact on the viability of brands that are known to originate from that place.  That is because the place of origin itself has its own associations and those associations may either enhance or detract from the brand associations.

For instance, any of the following might be associated with these places:

• Countries:

o   Australia: Kangaroos, Sydney Opera House, Great Barrier Reef, the Outback, aborigines

o   Brazil: Carnival, Rio de Janeiro, beaches, samba music

o   Canada: Hockey, maple leaf, cold

o   China: Manufacturing, new cities, economic development, Chinese food and culture

o   England: London, Big Ben, royalty, grey skies, fog

o   France: Paris, Eifel Tower, Riviera, wine, food, culture, fashion

o   Germany: Automobiles, Berlin, castles, Oktoberfest, Hitler

o   India: Contrasts, exotic (Hindu) religion, bright colors

o   Mexico: Mexican food, sombreros, siestas, beaches, gang violence

o   Spain: Bull fighting, sunny, tapas, weak economy

o   Switzerland: Banks, watches, the Alps, orderliness

o   United States of America: New York City, world power, current US president, cowboys

• States:

o   California: Diverse, Hollywood, San Francisco, LA, surfing, Route 1, Napa Valley, liberal, march to their own drummer

o   Florida: Retirement, alligators, swamps, Orlando, Miami, beaches, fishing

o   Maine: Lobster, Maine coast, sailing, seaports, L.L.Bean

o   Texas: Oil, Dallas, Houston, everything is bigger in…, George W. Bush, conservative

• Cities:

o   Bangalore: IT jobs, outsourcing, business hub

o   Branson: Family entertainment, country music, conservative, tacky

o   Dubai: Skyscrapers, desert, wealth, Arabs, economic growth, oil money

o   Las Vegas: Gambling, prostitution, bright lights, shows, adult fun

o   New York: Wall Street, Broadway, shopping, high energy, night life

o   Orlando: Disney, theme parks, family vacations

o   Paris: The Louvre, Eifel Tower, cafes, great food

o   Singapore: Modern, clean, strict laws, thriving city state

o   Vienna: Vienna State Opera, waltzes, Mozart, coffeehouses

Consider which of the preceding places are the most likely to enhance brands in these categories and which are the most likely to make them less credible:

• A new spiritual practice
• Automobiles
• Classical music
• Coffee
• Consumer electronics
• Fashion
• Gourmet food
• Watches
• Wine
• Yachts

This is another way to think about this is. What comes to your mind when one says ‘Made in China,’ ‘Made in Japan,’ ‘Made in Mexico,’ ‘Made in Taiwan,’ ‘Made in USA,’ ‘Exported from France,’ ‘Exported from Germany’ ‘Exported from New Zealand,’ or ‘Exported from Patagonia’?

Brands and Choice

Freedom to choose is central to the American psyche.  And our choices have been expanding for decades. From the first production of Ford’s Model T in 1908 until now, automobile choices have expanded to 270 different models in the US alone. Between 350 and 420 types or sizes of toothpaste are sold at retail. Wegmans touts that each of its grocery stores has 300 specialty cheeses available for sale at any given time. In a recent brand equity study that we conducted, animal owners were aware of more than 360 different brands of animal feed.

At Hallmark, it was a commonly held belief that the more choices we could give our customers, the more satisfied they would be with the card (or other product) they eventually purchased.

However, my wife indicates how frustrating it can be to sort through all of the choices in any given category. Pantyhose, hosiery, leggings and tights are the latest categories she cited in this regard.

According to psychologist, Barry Schwartz, increased choice has not provided us with more freedom but rather has increasingly paralyzed us.  It has not made us happier, but rather has led to greater dissatisfaction. He cites several dimensions to this. One that is particularly interesting to me is that increased choice implies increased satisfaction. And if the number of choices is almost uncountable, our ultimate satisfaction should theoretically be complete. That is, choice has elevated our expectation that there should be a perfect fit between the product we choose and our needs. If this does not occur, we are dissatisfied.

You can read more about Barry Schwartz’s view of this in his book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.

Much has been said about brands simplifying product choice in today’s complicated world. If I love my brand, I am sticking with it so that I do not have to navigate the overly complicated world of increased product choice.  Sticking with my brand substantially simplifies my decision-making.

And yet, not only do different brands try to own different benefits. But often, to facilitate brand growth, each brand offers an increasingly larger number of SKUs, models or line extensions to meet virtually every conceivable need. This laundry detergent makes whites whiter. This one makes bright colors brighter. This one works well in cold water. This one gets the tough stains out. This one is gentle on sensitive fabrics. This one has no phosphates and is easy on the environment. This one is free of perfumes and clear of dyes. This one is more concentrated. This one offers three of these benefits. This one offers a different three of these benefits. This one focuses on a primary benefit but delivers two others as well.

Or how about toothpaste? This one is mint flavored. This one fights cavities. This one fights gingivitis. This one reduces plaque build-up. This one focuses on tartar control. This one has micro-cleaning crystals. This one kills germs. This one freshens your breath. This one whitens your teeth. This one has baking soda. This one has all natural ingredients. This one is fluoride free. This one creates squeaky-clean teeth. This one has SmartFoam that cleans tough to reach places.

As a brand manager, consider this - Are you making it simpler for people to shop the category and choose your brand or are you making it more complicated and frustrating for people to do so? What can you do to simplify your customers’ product choices?

6 Powerful Ways to Differentiate Your Brand

One of the most important things a brand should do is create relevant differentiation for its products and services. Most brands strive to do this. But some do it far better than others.

First, these are important considerations in creating brand differentiation:

• Brands should focus on delivering one or two customer benefits or shared values that are unique and compelling within their product/service categories.
• Emotional, experiential and self-expressive benefits are much more powerful than functional benefits.
• Related to this, appealing to the “heart” is much more important than appealing to the “head.” Emotions drive behavior. Reason justifies it.
• Finally, it is not enough for a brand to promise benefits. It must consistently deliver those benefits.

These are the 6 most powerful ways to differentiate your brand.

1. Stand for something. Have a strong set of values. Align these values with your customers’ values. Create a community around those values. Examples of this: FOX News, Tesla Motors, Patagonia, Harley-Davidson
2. Brand as a badge. Focus on self-expressive benefits. People love to use brands to reinforce their self-concept or to make a specific statement to the world. Examples of this: Mercedes-Benz (I have social status), MINI-Cooper (I am unique-notice me), Apple (I am hip/cool), Toyota Prius (I care about the environment)
3. Create a superior customer experience. Examples of this: The Ritz-Carlton: Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen, Apple with its aesthetically appealing, intuitively easy products, the Build-A-Bear experience compared to buying another teddy bear brand off a retail shelf
4. Innovate, disrupt the industry, deliver value in new unanticipated ways. Examples of this: Netflix, Amazon.com, Toyota Prius, Tesla Motors, Trader Joes, Facebook
5. Customer segment focus. Brands that try to be all things to all people eventually fail in being anything important to anyone. Conversely, brands that focus on a specific customer need segment with the intention of becoming customer experts and meeting the specific needs of their customers can achieve uncommon success. Examples of this: lululemon (we only cater to women who are size 12 or smaller), Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors (“The Magazine of the Coast of Maine”), Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (we only provide financial services to Lutherans), Paul Smiths College (“The College of the Adirondacks”…for people who love to live and play in the Adirondack wilderness)
6. Deliver the best overall value. Value has a numerator and a denominator. That is, there is a set of functional, emotional, experiential, self-expressive and other benefits that are delivered in return for a certain investment of time and money. The best value does not always mean the least expensive. In fact, it seldom does. It results from the best ratio of benefits to investment. Examples of this: Amazon.com (convenience, functionality and price), IKEA (affordable style), Toyota (reasonably priced, low maintenance, long life, safe, top Consumer Reports ratings, etc.), JetBlue (discount airline with individual TVs, inflight Wi-Fi, etc.)

You may notice that some of the strongest brands today are examples of more than one of these approaches. Amazon.com, Apple, Tesla Motors and Toyota fall within this esteemed group. I hope that one day your brand will join these leading brands.

Branding and the Health Care Revolution

Increased dominance of chronic illness. Emerging issues in medical ethics. Increased consumerism. Artificial intelligence in medical diagnosis. Increased access to clinical knowledge. Self-diagnosis, self-monitoring and self-medication. Electronic medical records. Telemedicine. Medical tourism. Third party payer mix. Shifting power between physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies. The increasing unaffordability of health care. Health care reform. Value-based health care. Hot spotting. Cost accountability. Bundled payments. Point-of-care medical payments. Children’s Health Insurance Program. State insurance exchanges. Medical malpractice and tort reform. Robotics in health care. Remote monitoring. Gene therapy. Replacement organs. Designer antibodies. Genomics and the prediction of disease. Proactive disease prevention. Health promotion. Personalized medicine. Integrated and Eastern medicine. Wellness centers. Federally qualified health centers. Medical offices in chain drug stores. Retail medical clinics. Concierge medicine. Ambulatory surgery centers. Specialized hospitals. Increasing role of physician assistants and nurse practitioners. The fate of traditional hospitals. Are we in the business of medical care or health care?

With all of this in flux, one has to step back and ask, what is our brand? What does it stand for? What business are we in? Are we serving the right customer? Are we meeting the needs of the end consumer? Have we even identified our primary customers with forethought and wisdom? What products and services will the brand umbrella five years from now? What value is our brand delivering in the industry’s value chain? Are we delivering at least a good value for the price paid? Which of our brands do consumers recognize and what do those brands mean to them? Does our brand have a unique value proposition? What is our brand’s promise and are we consistently delivering on that promise?

In the rapidly changing health care environment, it is important to reinvent and strengthen the brand through the following strategic thinking process:

• Brand equity measurement/brand research
• Revisiting mission, vision and values
• Revisiting the brand position (target customer definition and brand essence, promise, archetype and personality)
• Identifying the products and services that the brand will umbrella

From these, you can create a new brand identity, elevator speech, advertising campaign and other marketing communication. You can also rally and align your health care professionals in support of the brand.  And, you can redesign your customer touch points to become more consumer-centric and to better deliver on the brand promise.

I wish you great success in navigating the turbulent waters of the health care revolution. Don’t forget the importance of your brand in helping you in this endeavor.

The Care and Feeding of Advertising Agencies

The care and feeding of advertising agencies, or how to get the most out of your advertising agency.

• Give them clear assignments with clear deliverables. (Write a well-defined “agency
• brief”)
• Tell them that you expect their best work.
• Treat them with respect.
• Expose them to your customers and all of your customer research.
• Get out of their way. Don’t micromanage them.
• Run internal “interference” for them. Don’t let internal review and approval
• processes adulterate their product.
• Pay them fairly for their work.
• Praise them when they do good work.

(c) 2014 by Brad VanAuken, excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition

Creative Translation of Brand Strategy

As you probably know, we spend most of our time helping our clients craft brand strategy, including the brand’s promise and its unique value proposition. We draw on in-depth qualitative and quantitative category, customer and competitor research, brand equity studies, the organization’s core competencies, management’s strategic intent, and the knowledge and creative intuition of many informed individuals. When we arrive at a brand strategy that has widespread support throughout the organization, it has been well vetted as the most advantageous approach. The way we have arrived at this is not trivial, nor is its conclusion.

The next step is the frequent source of significant difficulty. Now it is time for a creative team to translate the brand strategy into a name, tagline or marketing campaign.  Some brand promises or unique value propositions are extremely difficult to translate to a pithy tagline or campaign, especially one that has not already been used by another organization.  And creative people don’t like to be constrained. If they come up with an idea that they love, it doesn’t matter if it is off strategy. They know they can sell it anyway because it is brilliant (and maybe it is). The problem is, it does not reinforce the brand strategy.

This compounds the problem - some clients are not sophisticated enough to reject creative content that may be compelling but off strategy.  They are carried away by the creative content while contracting amnesia about the agreed-to brand strategy.

Here are some ways to mitigate this problem. If you are in charge of developing the creative content in support of the brand strategy, NEVER present a creative option that is off strategy.  If other people are developing the creative content, invite them to be active participants in (or at least observers of) the brand strategy formulation. Also, establish creative content evaluation criteria that includes “reinforcement of the brand’s promise and unique value proposition” as a primary criterion.

If you succeed in your brand strategy formulation but then stumble in translating that to creative execution, all of the previous work has been for naught. Don’t let down your guard during creative translation of the brand strategy.  Be ever vigilant in seeing a strategy through to its proper execution. I wish you much success in doing so.

Branding and Social Media

Social media is another way to reach out to brand fans. It helps your brand remain top-of-mind, creates a dialog with customers, provides useful feedback, and can be the source of brand information and special promotions. At a minimum, you need to be familiar with the following social media sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube.

According to Millward Brown, a brand’s social media fans outspend non fans four to one. Furthermore, Millward Brown indicates that the following are the top four most valued fan page benefits: 1) latest news about the brand, 2) new product information, 3) contests and giveaways, and 4) sales, discounts, coupons, and special offers.

Social media is a useful source of brand feedback. Listen to people where they are most likely to be talking about your brand and its competitors. Among the popular product/service/brand review sites to monitor:

• Epinions.com
• CNET.com
• ConsumerSearch.com
• AngiesList.com
• ConsumerReports.com
• TripAdvisor.com
• Amazon.com
• UrbanSpoon.com

And the following are just a sampling of current social media monitoring tools:

• Google Alerts
• Socialbakers.com for Facebook
• Followerwonk.com for Twitter
• HootSuite.com for Twitter
• SproutSocial.com
• UnifiedSocial.com

Social media marketing tools include:

• Buddy Media (SalesForceMarketingCloud.com)
• Involver.com and Vitrue (both now a part of Oracle social relationship management)
• Shoutlet.com

Social media is also a useful customer input and feedback mechanism for major product and service decisions. In fact, many brands are now using social media to co-create the brand's products, services and programs with its customers. Whether it is a simple question, a short survey, or a longer focus group, marketers are using social media for marketing research. And the questions and answers can be interactive synchronously or asynchronously. 

And social media takes customer relationship management (CRM) to the next level. It allows the brand to have conversations with specific customers over time, not only providing for better understanding and documentation of individual customer needs but also as a way to build an emotional connection with the customer.

The best websites integrate social media into the site and blogs have social media widgets so that their information can be easily spread through social media.

If you are responsible for building your brand's equity and sales, don't neglect social media as a tool for achieving that end.

(c) 2014 by Brad VanAuken, excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, now available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

How to Get the News Media to Cover Your Story

Stories have a better chance of being covered if they:

• Tie into what people are talking about today
• Add to discussions on current “hot” issues or topics
• Reference prominent people, places, or things
• Have visual impact
• Are dramatic
• Are unexpected, controversial, or outrageous
• Directly impact a publication’s readership
• Have “human interest”
• Educate or entertain a publication’s readers
• Have a “local” angle
• Tie into a holiday or special occasion
• Represent a significant milestone or a major honor

(c) 2014 by Brad VanAuken, excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition

It is Difficult for People to Give Up Their Brands

Once a brand has been established, it is difficult for people to give it up. They become emotionally attached to it. It may even be a source of self-esteem and personal pride. They invent a variety of excuses for why it should never go away.

The people I am talking about are not the brand’s customers or consumers but rather its creators and caretakers.

Often, brands create as much or more of an emotional connection with the people who manage them as they do with the people to whom they are marketed.  Therein lies the problem with organizations that are skillful and prolific at creating new brands or that have grown through numerous mergers and acquisitions.

We have been retained by many an organization that needs to simplify its portfolio of brands. The complex brand structure usually results in increased complexity, cost and customer confusion. However, the brands are entangled in so many ways with their individual support systems, including their dedicated managers and teams, that they are very difficult to terminate.

How likely is it that the person who created the brand or currently manages the brand will say, “yes, my brand should go away’? Not only does that person understand the brand’s equity, consumer franchise and complex expressions but that person’s ego, and perhaps livelihood, also depends on the brand’s survival.

This is where the senior most manager’s perspective and leadership skills are required. Someone needs to have the broader perspective and to make the tough decisions. As importantly, that same person needs to make it safer for those who are likely to fear harm and experience personal loss by the brand consolidation process.

As much as I am a fan of brands, sometimes organizations have too many brands. When that occurs, one needs to revisit the organization’s brand portfolio and simplify the brand structure.  As consultants, we can help with the brand rationalization process. However, the process is aided immensely when the organization’s leader is willing and able to anticipate and manage the inevitable human resource consequences of the process.

Brand Portfolio Strategy

Why do some companies maintain multiple brands within the same category even though it is more expensive to do so? Here are some of the reasons companies maintain multiple brands in their portfolios:

• The brands appeal to different market segments and have different positions in the market
• The company maintains multiple brands to encourage vigorous competition between brand managers
• One brand is an upscale or premium brand
• One brand is a no frills brand targeted at price conscious consumers
• The additional brand uses an older formulation or technology and may be sold as a “cash cow”
• The second brand could draw on the core brand’s quality and service perceptions without being that brand. This is useful with market segments that are more price conscious but that still appreciate high quality and service levels.
• The additional brand is created to establish a higher reference price in the category (often increasing the perceived value of the core brand)
• One is a “flanker” brand, designed specifically to compete directly with other brands in the category, while protecting the company’s flagship brand from direct competition
• One or more brands are created to reduce or eliminate channel conflict issues
• The new brand may be a way to take a company’s products [and, in some cases, a variation of the core brand] out to new channels or customers without alienating current customers
• Some brands are created to meet specific retailers’ needs within the category
• The additional brands may be created as “private label” brands for specific retailers
• The additional brand may allow the company to acquire more shelf space
• The company can use the additional brand to experiment within new channels without affecting the core brand(s)
• To create more perceived variety at retail without giving sales up to the competition

Depending on the reason(s) for the additional brand(s), their link to the first or core brand might be non-existent, through a subtle endorsement, as a sub-brand or as some variation of the first brand. Or, the association may only be talked about by salespeople to the trade but not referenced on the product or its packaging.

Each brand in a company’s portfolio needs to have a clearly defined role. Ideally, that role is in support of key business or marketing strategies. If a brand is no longer serving any purpose in the portfolio, consider repositioning it or eliminating it.

I wish you great success in crafting your brand portfolio strategy.

College and University Taglines

College and university taglines have some of the same problems I pointed out for municipality taglines. They may sound good but most are not compelling and almost all of them fail to differentiate. A university tagline should answer these questions: Why should I go here? What makes this place unique?

In my survey of hundreds of university taglines, I noticed that these words were very frequently used: leader(s), leadership, knowledge, truth, better, higher, learning, life, living, career, work(s), start, tomorrow(s), future(s). These are all admirable words, however if dozens of institutions are using them, how differentiating are they?

Here are a few taglines that are used verbatim by multiple colleges and universities:

• Higher Education Begins Here
• Tomorrow Starts Here
• The place to be
• Start Here. Go Anywhere.
• A tradition of leadership
• Education that Works

So, here is my list of the good, the bad and the ugly:

Good (succinct or well written, communicates a unique benefit):

• Liberty University: Training Champions for Christ Since 1971
• Naropa University: Transform Yourself. Transform the World.
• Paul Smith’s College: The College of the Adirondacks
• Reformed Theological Seminary: A mind for truth. A heart for God.
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: why not change the world?

Good (works because of Caltech's strong reputation):

• California Institute of Technology: There’s Only One. Caltech.

Maybe:

• Hampshire College: Ideas into Action

Interesting (begs inquiry):

• Dartmouth College: Vox clamantis in deserto (The voice crying in the wilderness)
• Notre Dame University: Fighting to Explore Our Universe

Differentiating but not succinct/elegant:

• Green Mountain College: Vermont's Environmental Liberal Arts College
• Hamilton College: A Liberal Arts College Focused on Writing, Research and Speaking
• North Georgia Technical College: Living and Learning in the Mountains 

Just too long:

• Oberlin: Think one person can change the world? So do we. / OBERLIN Learn. Make a difference.

Sounds good but really?

• Oregon Institute of Technology: Different. Better.
• Saginaw Valley State University: Something More. Something Better.

Believable?

• Baker College: You’ll Do Better With Baker!!
• California State University – Sacramento: Leadership Begins Here

Sounds good but what does it mean? (inane/vacuous):

• Angelo State University: Touching Tomorrow
• Chaparral State University: Making good things happen
• Eastern Oklahoma State College: Your Tomorrow Begins Today
• Grand Canyon University: don’t miss a day of YOUR FUTURE
• Mills College: One Destination, Many Roads.
• University of Mary Hardin-Baylor: UMHB for Life!
• University of West Alabama: Your Future. Your Life. Your University.

Hmmm…

• Wells College: The education of an extraordinary life…

OK:

• New Mexico State University at Carlsbad: Building Brighter Futures Together

I hope so:

• Erie Community College: You’ll Love Learning Here

Animal House:

• Faber College: Knowledge is Good

In summary, here is what one must strive for in a tagline:

• Unique/differentiating
• Compelling
• Believable
• Succinct/elegant