The Short Answer is Yes. 

If you market your service, product, or brand and have an interest in consumer loyalty, you will need to start with the fundamentals. Before you start thinking up catchy one-liners, it’s important to understand the difference between a mission statement and a tagline.

You might be thinking “does my business need both?” and in our opinion, the answer is yes, but in the very least, it is important to define your mission statement. If done properly, the process of creating your mission statement will not only steer the direction of your tagline, but will also provide you with company values, new initiatives, and could be the driving force behind design and function.  

A Mission Statement is…

A formal summary of the aims and values of a company or organization.

The goal of your mission statement is to get down to the values of why your business does what it does. In this process, it’s important to avoid simply defining what your business or product does but to get down to the essence of the problems it solves or the solutions it provides.  The mission statement isn’t just important for your consumer, but also your employees, owners or stakeholders, and in the best case scenario will also extend to how your business can impact the community or world. Look at it as your “purpose statement”.

5 Important Aspects of a Mission Statement

Defined core values

Before you start the process of creating your mission statement, you’ll need to define the values from which your company operates from. If possible, include your employees and stakeholders in this process to really drill down to the essence of your mission.

A clear understanding of WHO your customers are

Take the time to define your “Buyer Persona” Understanding who the buyer is, what their lives look like, and how they make decisions will allow you to craft messaging that will catch their attention and ultimately win their business.

Knowing the problem(s) you want to solve

• Is your aim to help people to save time so they can spend more time with their family?
• Do you want to remove the barrier to affordable healthcare?
• Do you want to be the go-to service to make life easier for mom’s on-the-go?

Know your story and why it matters

Is your business doing things in a way that is good for the world? Include this message into your mission statement, but ensure that it distinguishes you from other competitors and comes from a place that is authentic and meaningful. Inflated or broad language will not help you here. Be specific and thoughtful. If your business cares about sustainability or renewable energy, spell that out.

Action: Walking the Talk

The best brands strive to combine tangible, emotional, and logic-based elements into one exceptional experience, but the mission statement will mean nothing if the brand can’t live up to its own values. The ones that succeed, do so by living out those values every day within the walls of their business, and in their interactions with the consumer. Define how you will execute on your values.

When asked about the importance of a mission statement, Danielle (29), a Marketing Program Manager said it this way “In theory, it’s the company’s true North. The guiding principle that every employee should use in their decision-making”. When asked if she felt the mission statement was more for the employee or the consumer she said this “I think it’s important for both, but the employee should be so aligned with the mission statement that they themselves live out those same values. Your employees will embody the company values in every interaction with the consumer who will feel that in their experience.”

By defining your mission statement, you build the pillars that your customers and employees build their house of trust upon. You align your business not only with their need but with the core of what drives them. What you do simply provides PROOF of what you believe. It’s the WHY that solidifies those beliefs. People who believe what the brand believes will adopt the brand mission as their own.

A Tagline is…

One quippy and concise sentence that conveys the value proposition to the buyer persona.

Now that we know our mission statement, we can start to build the tagline from what we’ve spelled out. Although it may be challenging, slogans and taglines should be epigrammatic and should deliver a complex emotional concept, yet be lighthearted and fun. Simple, right? Although this seems like a tall order, defining your tagline should be fun. The best taglines are not only concise but are unique and memorable to your consumers whether you are a big or small company.

Here are 7 important characteristics of a good tagline:

• Differentiates the brand
• Memorable
• Imparts positive feelings about the brand
• Instead of talking about the product, it talks about the way it makes you feel. (sell the benefit not the features)
• Includes positive upbeat language
• Brand recognition
• Includes the benefit

The good news for small brands is that you don’t need to be a giant company to have a great tagline. If your tagline is clear, contains an obvious benefit, and is creative, you can resonate with your audience and differentiate your business from the next.  Defining your tagline can take time, as most good things do. Have fun, use your vision, and let the creativity fly.