New research reveals what make a tagline truly distinctive.

What drives tagline distinctiveness success? We analysed 500+ taglines to explore whether there were specific factors behind their success. Does length in words matter? What about time in market? What is the impact of also using it as a jingle? Our findings 👇 📏 Longer

Before Chef Boyardee became a shelf staple, Ettore Boiardi was a real chef running a restaurant in Cleveland. Customers loved his food so much, they asked for take-home versions — and the brand was born. He put his name (phonetically respelled) and face on every can. He’s one

Shell’s iconic yellow-and-red scallop was first introduced in 1904, simplified over time but never replaced. Crucially, it works at speed. From roadside signage seen at 100km/h to aviation fuel drums, mobile apps, and even Formula 1 pit crews, the shell shape doesn’t need

PEZ started as peppermint breath mints for adults in 1927 Austria. But the real pivot came post-WWII, when the brand shifted toward kids and invented the character-headed candy dispenser. What followed was a clever branding strategy: the product as the asset. Suddenly, it wasn’t

What makes a tagline work? A study of over 500 global taglines uncovers the secrets behind brand memorability: marketing.ie/articles/what-… via michael cullen

ICEEs were born out of a broken soda machine in Coffeyville, Kansas — a mechanical hiccup that froze the syrup mix and led to the first-ever slushy. The product became a national sensation, and the ICEE Bear was created to bring personality to the brand’s growing presence in

Hidden inside the Tostitos logo are two figures dipping a chip into a bowl of salsa. It’s a rare example of a brand encoding its usage occasion directly into the logo. That same cue extends into sound. In 2022, Tostitos and Made Music Studio developed a sonic logo created from

Cisco’s logo features vertical bars that reference the Golden Gate Bridge, a nod to the brand’s San Francisco roots. Cisco’s bridge form has remained stable across routers, booths, dashboards, signage, and software. For a B2B brand in a cluttered category, this kind of

The red-and-white Campbell’s label didn’t just sell soup, it became art. Andy Warhol’s famous silkscreens pushed it into cultural icon status. And while the pack has been refreshed in the years since, the brand has been smart to retain what makes it distinctive. Where many CPG

Target’s bullseye has been around since 1962 and enabled through this continued use, it is one of the rare logos that works without a single letter of copy. You’ll find the bullseye used across most touchpoints. It's a great example of a brand full leveraging owned channels -

In 1928, Gerber held a contest to find a face for its new baby food range. The winning sketch drawn by artist Dorothy Hope Smith, was a charcoal portrait of Ann Turner Cook (1926-2022), submitted without polish or colour. It was never meant to be final art, but it stuck. What

The Chick-fil-A logo turns the letter C into a chicken’s head — a neat bit of embedded design. That small visual twist is used relentlessly across packaging, apps, restaurant signage, and wider touchpoints. Logos are often the most visible Distinctive Brand Asset a company has.

An Apple a day… builds distinctiveness. In use for over four decades, the Apple logo shows up consistently across every key touchpoint: glowing on devices, etched into packaging, anchoring ads, storefronts, and global launch events. It’s familiar, instantly recognisable, and

Before it was a brand, Doritos was just a clever way to use up leftover tortillas. In 1964, a Disneyland restaurant began frying surplus tortillas into chips. They proved so popular that Frito-Lay took them national and the now-iconic triangle shape became the foundation for

Beats is boosting distinctiveness with a single letter. The Beats by Dre logo is deceptively simple: a lowercase “b” inside a circle that doubles as a pair of headphones. That visual pun gives the mark a clear tie to the category and makes it easier to remember. It’s applied

Coca-Cola’s distinctive red colour dates back more than 130 years. When first introduced, Coca-Cola was sold in barrels at American drug stores and pharmacies, alongside alcohol. The Coca-Cola Company painted its barrels red to help customs and tax officials distinguish them from

Holiday storefronts offer more than just seasonal sparkle; they’re prime real estate for reinforcing Distinctive Brand Assets. As the high street fills with Santas, many brands blend into a blur of red, green and glitter. In this sea of seasonal sameness, retailers risk becoming

Can you identify the brand from this Bloomingdale’s takeover? Running through January 5th, 2026 at Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship in New York, the iconic check pattern is all the branding needed for fashion-savvy shoppers to instantly attribute the façade to British luxury