Tagline Reel Revealed

At Otherwise, we know a tagline does the lion’s share of the talking in brand identity — literally. A name and logo can draw a person in, but the taglines we create answer their questions about an organization: Who are you? What do you do? Why should I care?

For Otherwise, creating a brand is a robust process, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Each language-based aspect of brand identity that we create — from name, positioning and beliefs to promises, values and tagline — contributes to a rich vocabulary that supports a cohesive and engaging picture. And of all of these brand assets, the tagline is the point of entry into understanding the brand; the public manifestation of its head and heart. It uses the power of language to express tone, sensibility and personality. And used in conjunction with the brand’s visual identity, the tagline adds vitality, clarity and consistency to all marketing initiatives.

For ultra-luxury condominium client 1000M, Otherwise anchored the brand strategy in a simple call to action — Seek Beauty — that also serves as the tagline. This simple yet compelling invitation is profoundly human, and speaks to the building’s uncompromised commitment to the art of living. Rendered as a flawless piece of typography in print and digital marketing, the Seek Beauty tagline also serves as a visual trigger.

We believe that the best taglines avoid the temptation to describe benefits or features of an organization. There’s other places for that information — we create taglines that speak to the experience of the brand, serving as an earworm with the power to leave a lasting impression. For the Boston residential real estate brokerage Bushari, Otherwise created the tagline Boston Uncommon. While the tagline is a play on the legendary Boston Common, the oldest city park in the United States, it also positions Bushari as a unique participant in the Boston luxury residential ecosystem.

As part of brand strategy we created for the Chicago Humanities Festival, we focused on activating the belief that “humanity happens when people gather, share ideas, are inspired by others and have the opportunity to abandon themselves to ideas that are higher than their individual experience.” The outcome? A host of new brand assets, visual and narrative, including the crisp, direct, inspired-yet-humble tagline, “Celebrating the Social Life of Ideas.”

With insight and empathy at the helm, we believe that the taglines we invent also serve to galvanize our clients’ organizations internally. We help leadership and staff create a shared understanding of who they are, what they stand for, and what matters most.