In answer to why are some taglines are better than others, I think sometimes its a problem with marketting folk or big managers getting too clever. A tagline needs to be blatently obvious, it should be understood the second its read, no interpretation necessary. The KISS principle would apply very well!

I think that was some of the problem we had with our own thread, in many cases we were trying to come up with something clever and fancy, but you always got people who mis-understood it, or simply didn’t understand it at all, so its effect is lost.

At the moment I have a background on my computer by Opera, I like the browser and it looks quite funky. It’s got the big red O in the center with the tagline “Simply the Best Internet Experience”. In some sense, its a good line, its plainly obvious, I know what its on about and its making a subtle note that Opera is not just a browser.

On the other hand, you could say its a bit arrogant, simply stating its the “best” with no qualification, and I don’t know that it builds the Opera brand particularly. Its not like a Nike “Just do it”.

It also needs to be associative with the brand name. When someone see’s the brand name, or the tagline, it should remind them of the other. If someone said to me “Simply the Best Internet Experience”, it wouldn’t remind me of the Opera brand. I might think of Opera as its my favourite browser, but there wouldn’t be the word association there.

Some of it just takes time and constant repitition though

A tagline is tough, but I think that it is essential, too. If a business can’t come up with a tagline, they probably haven’t figured out their business strategy sufficiently.

A good tagline can help create a positive first impression, and I think that’s one of the best things you can do with the front page of your web site. Or even the top part of any of the pages of yor web site.

It can also appear on letterhead, business cards, and promotional material online and off.

So why are some taglines better than others?

Interestingly most of the space in the article you quote is about the YWCA. It has apparently taken a possible tagline and now uses that as its new name, rather than YWCA, if I read it correctly. It’s almost something I might have suggested.