We all know about the simple yet powerful tagline that Nike holds as its tagline
During one of my projects a few years ago I was researching on coming up with a tagline for the brand, and during that research phase of looking through some of the worlds best tagline, what makes a great tagline, ideal word count for a tagline one thing struck me, Nike is the only brand ( according to me ) that has been able to transform their tagline into a form of Visual Identity System in a way that no other brand has been able to establish themselves. Let's go down to the basics, the 3 most common types of visual identity systems for a brand are - The Logomark ( In Nike' case that is the Tick ) - The Wordmark ( Being the letters Nike ) - The Combination Logo ( The combination of the element and the text ) But Nike has a 4th kind of Identity system and that is there Tagmark* ( Basically their tagline ) that in itself acts as an identity for the brand. Nike has taken this tagline to a point that they have made it one of the biggest parts of their branding system using it rigorously across their marketing.
Additionally, another aspect of their usage of their Tagmark* is also across a number of their Product Line. They have been able to take their tagline to a place that it does not feel like a brand push, rather invokes a certain emotion that people would like to associate too.
It makes you wonder why no other brand has been able to achieve this level of application, memorability & confidence in their tagline to become a form of visual identity for their own brand. Let's do an activity, I am going to list down some of the most renowned and well-remembered taglines in the world and you are going to close your eyes and try and visualise them, remember, the idea is to visual the tagline as its own identity not to associate it with the respective brand in your head. McDonald's: "I'm Lovin' It." L'Oréal: "Because You're Worth It."
Disney: "The happiest place on Earth."
KFC: "Finger lickin' good."
Volkswagen: "Das Auto."
Red Bull: "Gives You Wings" While all of these are apt taglines for the brand respectively, and do an amazing job of allowing you to visualise the brand, none of these are a visual identity on their own. Their visual translation changes from time to time based on the current ongoing brand theme, season etc etc. It seems to be that only Nike is gone out of their way to define a visual system and structure by which their Tagline is to be used allowing it to have a certain sense of familiarity in all its use cases across mediums.