When it comes to tradeshows, there’s no end to the important elements that go into creating a successful booth for your brand. Finding a design that’s pleasing to the eye and bringing the right merchandise to attract a potential customer’s attention are both big pieces. Yet, there are two similar yet different aspects of marketing that are essential to catch the attention of any tradeshow attendee: a tagline and a catchphrase.
A good tagline and catchphrase combination, while short and often overlooked elements of tradeshows by many brands, is always the most important part of any booth. While taglines are short slogans used by brands that can be easily displayed on the tradeshow booth, catchphrases are expressions that tradeshow staff can say to capture the interest of those who come to the booth.
At a tradeshow, your brand has a minimal opportunity, typically only about three seconds, to capture the attention and interest of attendees. For this reason, taglines and catchphrases are better to use because they’re repeatable and more efficient, ensuring the first experience any customer has with your booth is consistent.
The importance of a tagline resides in its ability to convey the benefits of a brand’s product or service in a simple, short message. Some of the most well-known taglines include Nike’s “Just Do It,” McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It,” and Disneyland’s “Where Dreams Come True.” Each of these taglines carries with them a different feeling yet manages to convey a complex message about the brand’s benefits. This is accomplished even with the taglines remaining short and snappy enough to be said in a single breath. The most important part of a tagline is that you convey as much about your business as you can in the least amount of words. In this case, less is more.
If you want your brand to stand out amongst competitors at a tradeshow, you need a good tagline that conveys the competitive benefit that your brand offers.
While similar to taglines, catchphrases are said by tradeshow staff to attendees rather than being displayed on your booth. They’re less permanent and instead typically relate to a specific advertising campaign. These catchphrases make things easier for your tradeshow staff because they won’t need to remember a long spiel about your brand that they may forget. Instead, they only need to remember the quick, snappy catchphrase that defines the product your brand is selling.
Due to their short and simple structure, taglines and catchphrases, more than anything else, are what customers remember about the brands that they come across. If done right, they have instant recognizability beyond even the name of your brand.
With a tagline, you can draw an attendee’s attention to your booth the moment they see it on display, and the catchphrase said by the tradeshow staff when they approach will ensure that they know your brand and product after they walk away. Having a tagline and catchphrase combination drastically improves brand recall even long after the event has ended.
To create the right tagline for your brand that will pull tradeshow attendees to your booth, you need only to adhere to a few simple guidelines:
- Keep your catchphrase short. Your tagline should be brief and easy enough to both say and remember. That means keeping the length under about ten words and the sentence structure simple enough to make it memorable.
- Focus your language on conveying your brand’s key, competitive benefit or difference. Tradeshow attendees should know in an instant after hearing your catchphrase why your product or service is better than a competitor.
- Connect your catchphrase back to your tagline. A good catchphrase will incorporate elements of your tagline and your brand but will present each idea in a new and unique way. Your catchphrase should be easily connected to your brand to increase brand awareness.
If your brand can nail down the right tagline and catchphrase combination for your tradeshow booth, there’s nothing that will be able to stop you. You will attract attendees to your booth and succeed in gaining new customers while building brand loyalty and awareness for your business.
