What a strapline actually does

• It clarifies your unique core. If you can “define your expertise, your cause and your USP in just one phrase,” you help prospects connect faster and more strongly with what you do .
• It spotlights a single benefit. Keep it “one clear and compelling point,” so in a distracted, choice-saturated world your hook wins attention and action .
• It directs behavior. Your core message should not only win recognition, but also “drive action” by clearly conveying the benefit of choosing you .

The economics of brevity Online and offline, people scan. That’s why short, benefit‑first phrasing, “you” language, and a concise value statement (your tagline/UVP) are recommended—especially on your website where most readers skim and rarely read word for word . In a world of scrolling thumbs and 3‑second glances, economy is your edge.

Build from the core: start with your USP, end with one benefit

• Many enduring lines start with what truly makes you distinct. “Most great businesses create their strapline from those factors that make them unique,” which is why examples like Sainsbury’s “Making life taste better,” Tesco’s “Every little helps,” and Yellow Pages’ “All you need for all you want” feel so crisp: they channel the brand’s angle and audience into a simple promise .
• The best straplines translate features into outcomes. Dyson’s bagless design yields “more suction,” which yields saved time and ease—and the strapline captures it: “the cleaner that doesn’t lose suction” .
• Segment clarity matters. Saga signals the audience and the offer in one shot—“providing high quality services for people 50 and over”—so the right customer can self‑select instantly .

A practical framework: SPRINT your strapline

• Single benefit: Choose the one advantage your buyers value most.
• Plain words: Use customer language, not insider jargon; write it so they can repeat it. The web copy rule of “You” copy over “We” copy is a useful discipline here .
• Retrieval anchors: Hint at the category so the line is an address for demand (“the cleaner,” “the bank”).
• Identity-coded: Infuse distinctive voice and cadence; then carry it across assets and channels via a simple style guide for consistency .
• No friction: Trim syllables, cut abstractions, avoid stacked claims. Your reader is scanning—make recall effortless .
• Trigger: Imply a next step or outcome, even without an explicit call to action, so the line nudges behavior .

The SARK test: four fast checks before you ship

• Speed: Can someone say it in one breath? If not, compress.
• Anchor: Does it signal the category and who it’s for? Saga’s line does both in nine words .
• Recall: Can a cold reader reproduce it after one read? If they paraphrase, is the meaning intact?
• Kick: Does it create an emotional nudge—relief, pride, safety, speed—or is it merely descriptive?

How to create a one‑line strapline in a day

1. Listen for value in customer language Profile your audience: what they value, how they shop, and what keeps them up at night. Then write in their words, not yours . If you must choose, relevance beats originality; chasing “unique” can pull you away from real needs .
2. Extract the dominant benefit List your benefits and pick the one that matters most “from their point of view.” The elevator‑pitch discipline—answering “what’s in it for them?”—sharpens the line you’ll write next .
3. Draft 25–50 candidates quickly Write loose, then tighten. Use simple rhetorical devices:

• Contrast/antithesis: “More X, less Y.”
• Alliteration/assonance: sound patterns that aid recall.
• Triads: three-beat rhythms are sticky. Keep each option to one promise; the Workbook’s guidance to “stick to one clear and compelling point” is your guardrail .

4. Stress-test with naive readers Run the SARK test with people who haven’t seen your brand. Favor the line they repeat verbatim and attribute correctly after a short delay.
5. Deploy everywhere, consistently Your strapline should appear in every customer contact—from website hero section (list a “tagline/unique value proposition”) to proposals and packaging—because repetition across touchpoints cements memory . Even physical assets can act as moving billboards; one small business famously used a clear, bold slogan on a van and drew leads right off the street .
6. Measure and optimize

• Track aided/unaided recall and correct attribution after exposure.
• Run simple A/B tests on landing pages and email subject lines; “test and track your marketing efforts,” then scale what moves the needle .

What good looks like: patterns from the field

• Cause + category: CHOCAid’s “gourmet chocolate gifts with a conscience” fuses product, occasion, and purpose in a single breath .
• Value focus by segment: “Every little helps” speaks bargain-seekers’ language; “Making life taste better” aims upscale, quality‑seeking shoppers—different targets, different promises, both clear .
• Audience-first clarity: “Customer led, ethically guided” signals how the Co‑operative Bank behaves and for whom—values, encoded compactly .

Where straplines go wrong (and how to fix them)

• Stacking benefits: Resist the urge to list three advantages. Pick the one that earns attention and opens the door to the rest .
• Jargon and “we-ness”: Trade internal terms and “we provide…” for customer language and “you can…” to improve clarity and conversion .
• Clever but unclear: If the reader can’t tell what you do or who it’s for, it’s not a strapline—it’s a puzzle.
• Overpromising: Make it true. “Trust is efficient,” and a credible promise compounds over time .
• Chasing uniqueness at all costs: Better a fitting, customer‑anchored promise than a labored claim of novelty. “Find the trigger—unique or not” and build from what you consistently deliver .

Brand architecture: one line, many layers

• Company strapline: Encapsulate your role in the customer’s life.
• Product straplines: Micro‑promises aligned to the master line.
• Consistency: Carry tone and cadence into your style guide so every instance of your message sounds like you .

A lightning workshop you can run with your team

• Prework (solo): Gather customer phrases from calls, reviews, and emails. Highlight verbs of outcome (save, grow, simplify) and nouns of value (time, confidence, revenue).
• Sprint (60 minutes): Write 50 lines. For each, ask: one promise? plain words? category anchor?
• Screen (15 minutes): Apply SARK; shortlist to five.
• Field test (same day): Put your top two on a landing page split test; in parallel, do a five‑minute recall test with three people outside your category.
• Decision (next day): Choose the line that wins recall and lifts click‑through or engagement. Document it, style it, and start repeating it everywhere .

Final thought Think of your strapline as the caption under the photograph of your brand. The image gets attention; the caption fixes meaning. If you compress a real benefit into plain words, anchor it to your category, and repeat it consistently, you’ll create a line people remember, repeat, and act on—exactly what a one‑line strapline is supposed to do .