Most brand strategies end with a tagline: a clever line that looks good on the last slide and is forgotten by the first Monday meeting. We have stopped writing them as the end point. Instead, we look for a verb.

Nouns sit still, verbs move

A verb forces a decision about behaviour. When Halden Coffee chose “roast loud” as its internal verb, the packaging, the café playlists and even the way baristas greet regulars followed. Nobody needed a rulebook to know what roasting loud looks like.

“A tagline tells customers who you are. A verb tells your team what to do on a Tuesday.”

How we find it

• Interview at least ten people who do not work in marketing.

• Write down every verb they use when they describe a good day.

• Throw away anything a competitor could also say.

• Test the survivors against three real decisions the company made last year.

The verb rarely makes it onto a billboard. That is fine. It is the quiet engine under everything that does.