Institutional Taglines on Web

Richard Harrison Bailey/The Agency, a South Bend, Ind.-based marketing consultancy specializing in higher education and other nonprofits, has done the collecting so you don't have to. Its just-launched database of more than 3.500 college and university taglines is searchable by school or keyword, and institutions can add or edit their taglines.

“Our clients rely on our expertise to capture the distinctive character of their organization , and to coherently communicate what makes each one of them unique,” says Rick Bailey, principal of RHB/The Agency. “While we understand that not every college or university utilizes its tagline as a driving force for messaging, we are interested in discovering, archiving, and examining the words and phrases higher education institutions use to describe themselves as a means of continuing to produce the very best work on behalf of our clients.”

HigherEdTaglines.com also houses relevant reading recommendations on taglines and their role in marketing institutions of higher education, including a perspective paper titled “Taglines are Dead."

Not to pick on anyone, but as an editor who avoids using the word "unique" because nothing ever really is, I couldn't help but notice that five institutions use that word in their taglines. Another thing of note: Despite the economic situation, none of the collected taglines include the words "affordable" or "value." So perhaps there's a unique idea for someone?

And in case you missed it, the December 2008 University Business article "50 Best Branding Ideas" features lots of ideas on how to use taglines and other tactics to create and implement branding campaigns. Check it out here.