I’m developing a new business name my own name.   I make romantic/Victorian beaded jewelry….everything is custom.  It has a quirky, funky or vintage feel.  My tag line is “Romantic and Funky with a Twist”  .  On the back of my card I have a list of the different types of items I make.  What do you think? Also – what is your take on using your name as the business vs. coming up with a different name.  I’ve been told that you should always use your name.  Is that what you think?

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Jay’s Answer:   I think that the tagline needs to fit into a larger “branding” issue for your new business: your business name, who you’re trying to attract, and your unique benefit you offer. Your proposed tagline “Romantic and Funky with a Twist” taken on its own doesn’t tell me anything about your offering – it’s romantic (for who? Why?) – it’s funky (as seen by who? Is romantic+funky good or bad?) – and something about a twist (is it jewelry that slithers around the body or something better/different?). While your tagline might fit into your branding (based on imagery, business name, etc.) – on its own, in my opinion it’s not a strong tagline.

As far as “you should always use your name” – it all depends. By using your name, you’re “branding” yourself and avoid the need to file a fictitious business name statement. But if your name isn’t known, why use it? If you want to sell the business to someone else, they’ll have your name for years to come. “Jewelry by LuAnn” could be viewed as a “cute” name or an “unprofessional” name based on your target audience and your positioning (hint: if the average price of your jewelry is $20, “cute” is what you’re probably after – but you may have a hard time transitioning to selling higher-end merchandise with a “cute” name).

I’m a general contractor (M&M Builders) which dose a little of everything from remodeling to new construction. I’m trying to come up with a slogan the best I came up with is “Your satisfaction is our commitment” but I’m not sure if it stands out from everyone else and my customers should already know that, our customer are our top priority. we are a very personable company. we make every client feel like they are the only ones we are doing business with. All ways return phone calls by the next day. etc. I would say what we excel at over the everyone else is our customer service. any input would be greatly appreciated.

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Jay’s Answer:

• We Build Great (Long-Lasting) Relationships
• We Build Satisfaction Into Every Job
• Your Wish Is Our Command

The Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and respect between the people of Utah and other nations. UCCD is guided by the principle of Citizen Diplomacy – the concept that the individual citizen has the right, even the responsibility, to help shape U.S. foreign relations “one handshake at at time.”

UCCD is a private sector partner with the U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Each year, UCCD welcomes over 450 emerging leaders from around the world to Utah for short-term professional and cultural exchanges. More than 326 IVLP alumni are current and former Chiefs of State and Heads of Government (= global impact).

UCCD is also the Utah chapter of the World Affairs Councils of America. Among other community programs, UCCD organizes a World Affairs Lecture Series that engages Utahns in key foreign policy and international business issues. We’re thinking of adopting the following tagline: “Local Engagement – Global Impact.”

Any other thoughts?

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Jay’s Answer:

Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy:
Connect Locally. Transform Globally.

Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy:
Bringing The World To You

Looking for a slogan for a new, custom designed portable event venue. Something really different and one in a range of such venues. This version is a combination of other types and should reference this. It is also faster to construct. This is a curved roof structure made of tensile steel with a PVC covering. It is fully configurable in shape by adding “bays” along the length to turn it from a circular venue to a cigar-shaped structure’
Clients in Africa for rental, clients worldwide for sale. This is a slick and stylish venue, very safe (compared to marquee), aircon, automatic doors etc, put it down anywhere you want to have the event, conference, awards ceremony, storage space, you name it. Pax up to 2000..high end product. Its a known product but this new combination version is smaller, faster and more affordable.

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Jay’s Answer:

• Wherever Your Meeting – We’re There
• Expecting 2000? We’re Ready.
• Meet Anywhere For Less

We are organizing a quiz competition in our university which would comprise of questions from electrical and electronics engineering. Please suggest a cool name for our event.

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Jay’s Answer:   A “cool name” should do 2 things: 1) convey who you’re addressing and 2) the benefit of competing. For example, you might be appealing to the students, the college faculty, the greater college community, your local community, or other universities (for intra-school competition). Also, what’s the goal of competing? Are you awarding bragging rights, a scholarship, a chance to compete nationally, a fundraising tie-in, etc.? To tie the name together, you need to speak the language of the people you’re “targeting” – where are they physically located? What economic bracket? Men and women? Age range?

As one idea to help promote the competition, why not have a school-wide competition to name the event? It’ll help to spread the word about the quiz earlier, get people thinking about it deeply, and have people who wouldn’t normally be involved in the quiz participate in a different way – to figure out ways to promote it.

I have had a part time upholstery shop at home for 3 years. Now with company cut backs, I lost my full time job and I am wanting to open my upholstery shop up in town. My business name now is Chad’s Custom Upholstery. I know that it lets people know what I do, but I people don’t always put automotive upholstery with it. If I went with Chad’s Auto Upholstery, then people wouldn’t know that I did furniture and other upholstery as well. If I went with Chad’s Furniture and Auto Upholstery, I don’t know if some would think of it as a furniture store and vice versa if I switched them, then they would think auto sales. What do you think? Thank you.

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Jay’s Answer:   Who is likely to need you more often: people looking for furniture upholstery or people looking for auto upholstery? You could make that your core business name.

Or, you could use your tagline to clarify your expertise:

Chad’s Upholstery Shop: Specializing in Furniture & Automobiles

Or, create two separate business names (Chad’s Auto Upholstery and Chad’s Furniture Upholstery) to look like they are specialty businesses.

Or, as you suggested, create a single all-encompassing name (Chad’s Furniture and Auto Upholstery) – which looks & sounds like a mouthful and may cause you problems in the future if you want to focus on one or the other business or add a third major service.

Each of these approaches has pro’s and con’s in naming. But the bottom line is – if you do great work and treat your customers very well, then people will be spreading the word about your talent/shop no matter what your name is. And, if people are curious what you can do for them, your marketing materials (website, business card, flyers, etc.) should make it clear (both with text & graphic) that you do both furniture and automobile work.

We are a list rental company and we are trying to promote our Direct Mail list of medical doctors who buy medical equipment from manufacturers. Its a slow list category and we want to create a cool marketing strategy to get manufacturers to create DM and purchase our list. Any suggestions on a catchy tagline?

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Jay’s Answer:   How about: “Our Lists Need No Doctoring…”

I am needing a tagline for our children’s preschool flyer that is exploring Italy. Do you have any suggestions?

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Jay’s Answer:  Technically you’re not looking for a tagline (which describes a unique benefit to a company or organization) – you’re looking for a headline for attracting attention to something you’re “selling”. And the headline isn’t for the preschoolers – it’s to excite their parents. Some ideas to play with:

• Let’s Pretend Travelling To Rome
• Here Comes Rome & Pizza!
• Andiamo! (which means let’s go in Italian)