How NOT to write your value proposition.

Yes, most of you will already know that Andre and I have been in sunny Spain for two weeks already. We are absolutely loving it here. It's not just about the views out of every window of the house, or the lovely weather and normal tempaeratures, but it's about the people's attitude to life.

It's like being on a permanent holiday… A feeling that you only get to experience if you are actually on one :o)

So in our new home, we've decided to invite a few friends now and again - people who's company we enjoy. On Saturday we went to meet two such friends (Barry & Lesley) at the San Javier airport.

Whilst waiting for them to pickup their rental car, we were exposed to that car company's piece of marketing collateral. Now, I spend my life looking at and analysing marketing practices, campaigns and materials, so this one automatically grabbed my attention. It was a perfect example of a company trying to be too smart for their own good with their value proposition. So I thought I'd use it as a warning for what NOT to do when coming up with your value proposition.

Just to support my case - below is the photo I took of the marketing board of the company in question:

Before I get hate mail from the company, I'd like to say that the advice I offer is purely as constructive critisism, and yes, I understand that this may just be another poor translation of otherwise brilliant marketing effort…

And for those of you who can't make out what the tag line of this company says:

It's kind of like saying - we smell like all the rest, but sooo differently! So what's so special about you….

Anyway, I'm not in the practice of pointing fingers - although the translators or the marketing department of this company should take a long hard look at themselves for wasting a prime piece of marketing real estate…

So, instead I'd like to serve you some quick handy tips on how to write a good tagline for your business.

• Think of what your business does.
• Do your research and discover what are your target audience's primary conserns and that will give you the most important benefits they need to hear from you to direct their interest towards your business.
• Now say in a clear way - exactly what your company does, but say it in a form of the most important benefit for your audience. So for e.g. if you sell dog leashes and you know the top two concerns of your ideal customer are safety and comfort for the owner's dog. Then your company tagline may be something like that:

  "DoggyLeash.com - safe and comfortable dog leashes for every pooch."

  You get the idea - I hope.

• Don't be tempted to be cutesy or clever with your tagline (value proposition) if there's even the slightest possibility that your target market may be confused, or may misunderstand exactly what it is that you do. Remember that especially online, people don't want to spend an hour looking for an explanation - they want to see it outright!
• So deliver your best shot - short, sweet, simple and to the point…