Professionals in all fields sprinkle marketing terms throughout their conversations without necessarily knowing exactly what they’re saying. Or they know and assume everyone else knows, too.
But we don’t. So we asked Ann Getman, APR, of Getman Strategic Communications, to explain a few of the most basic terms, as marketing professionals understand them.
Positioning statement or core message: an umbrella statement that defines the character or philosophy of your organization.
You’ll know a good positioning statement when:
- Both internal and external audiences understand it.
- It relates your mission to your stakeholders’ interests and values.
- It tells your audience what to expect from a relationship with your organization.
- Reading it explains why your organization exists, as opposed to describing your activities and programs.
- The statement is 100 percent true across the organization (all programs, issues, and projects).
- It makes one clear statement to all audiences, all the time.
- It lays the foundation for other messages targeted to specific audiences and objectives.
In short, positioning statements concern who the organization is (its character and values) and why it exists (relative to stakeholders) rather than what it does.
Messages: refinements of the positioning statement or core message that allow your organization to relate to the interests and expectations of specific groups of stakeholders.
In most organizations:
- There are multiple secondary messages.
- They might be specific to a program or practice area, but they are consistent with the core message.
- They get closer to what you do and why.
Tagline: a short reflection of the positioning statement designed to stand alone. It usually appears as part of an organization’s logo. When people see logo plus tagline, they associate the combination with:
- A value (“putting people first”… “the power to make it better”).
- A promise (“Northwestern, the on-time airline”).
- A claim (“winner of the Baldrige Award”).
A tagline should work as well on your letterhead or Web site as on a billboard, in a 15-second radio spot, or in testimony before Congress.
Slogan: a campaign phrase used for one purpose, during a finite period. It does not invite discussion or inquiry.
Its main objectives are to remind people of an established identity or message and reinforce it. A slogan works best when:
- It is used by mature brands (or organizations) that are established in the audience’s mind, or
- It is supported by multiphase, highly visible campaigns in news media and through other outreach.
A slogan is the essence of the message of the moment, the ten-second sound bite or the ten-word reminder on a billboard.
