Most company taglines are written for customers. The best ones also guide your employees.

While a clever tagline may help people remember your company, a powerful mantra helps your employees run it.

For example, BMW has spent more than five decades promising “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” As a fervent BMW owner, I can attest that the cars deliver on that promise.

Nike built a similar global identity around “Just Do It.”

However, the strongest phrases do more than advertise a brand. They express what the company believes and how it intends to behave.

Here are four landscape examples from companies we have worked with over the years.

One Team®

“One Team” is the mantra of my friend Ted Lucia, owner of Lucia Landscaping and two other businesses—known collectively as the One Team Family of Companies.

Ted takes this mantra seriously—he even owns the trademark.

As Ted explains, “Exceptional companies aren’t built by individual departments or standout performers. They’re built by people working together toward a common purpose.”

Ted and his employees live and breathe this mantra. It reminds people that they are part of something larger than their department, role, or even individual company.

We Get Sh*t Done

This is the mantra of Ivan Katz’s Great Lakes Landscape Design in Detroit, host of our Summer Growth Summit.

The mantra came directly from the company’s largest residential estate client, who said they loved working with Great Lakes because “you just get sh*t done—no hemming and hawing, no excuses. You simply figure it out and execute.”

That phrase now permeates the company, including its sales promise: Great Lakes starts a job and works through to completion, without constantly stopping and restarting.

From the office to the field, their mantra reinforces accountability, resourcefulness, teamwork, and putting the client first.

Landscapes for Life

“Landscapes for Life” is the tagline at my friend Paul Fraynd’s company, Sun Valley Landscaping.

The idea began when Paul heard a speaker connect soil health and landscapes to the advancement of human life. When Paul and Hugh Morton merged their companies in 2012, it became their slogan and a statement of why their work matters.

It now appears on their trucks and gear, but more importantly, it acts as a filter for running the business.

They often remind their employees: “What you do matters.” You are not merely planting a tree. You are creating the setting where someone’s life will happen.

Family First

“Family First” is the mantra at DeHamer Landscaping, run by brothers Wade and Dustin Vugteveen.

They are willing to make short-term financial sacrifices to support employees and their families. At the same time, they teach long-term financial accountability because a financially healthy company is ultimately better able to provide stable careers and support those families.

That balance makes “Family First” more than a feel-good slogan.

What We Use at Jeffrey Scott Consulting

At our firm, we use three phrases for different purposes:

• Service ethic: “Do what’s in the client’s best interest.” When faced with a difficult decision, we choose the path that serves the client best.
• Accountability standard: “Run our business the way we tell our clients to run theirs.” It keeps us walking our talk.
• Mission: “Help our clients bring their dreams to life.” That is why we jump out of bed every morning: to make a difference in the lives of our clients and all the families that depend on them.

Your Challenge: Creating a Tagline That Will Become a Difference Maker

The key is choosing a mantra your leadership can believe in deeply—and turning it into a standard that your employees can see, use, and hold the company accountable to.

The big question is: What belief are you unwilling to compromise? What will guide your most difficult decisions?

I am curious: If you have a mantra you are proud of, hit reply and share it with me. I would love to read it.

Regards,
Jeffrey Scott