She Owns It

Portraits of women entrepreneurs.

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times Alexandra Mayzler, Thinking Caps Tutoring

For the last couple of months, Alexandra Mayzler, a member of the She Owns It business group, has struggled to come up with a new tag line for her company, Thinking Caps Tutoring. Thinking Caps, which she started in her college dorm room, has outgrown its current tag, “Students teaching students.” Settling on something new that both sounds good and differentiates the company has been so difficult that she wonders how she ever came up with the first one.

Ms. Mayzler recently asked the group for feedback on one of her latest ideas. She said she had lost any sense of what was good or bad and was trying to choose just a handful of tag lines to test on a focus group of parents — the people who pay for Thinking Caps’ tutoring services.

“Right now we’re at ‘Find your brilliance,’” she said, adding that the logo included a cartoon character with a light bulb over its head (visible at the top left of Thinking Caps’ Web site). The character will become more hip after a planned makeover. Ms. Mayzler said she wanted to steer clear of talking about results. “It’s about finding your own individual brilliance,” she said.

“I like the light bulb,” said Beth Shaw, who owns YogaFit.

Deirdre Lord, who owns the Megawatt Hour, thought the appeal to each student’s individuality was effective.

“When I picture the light bulb with the slogan, it all comes together,” said Jessica Johnson, the owner of Johnson Security Bureau.

What do you think of “Find your brilliance”? Do you have a better idea?

You can follow Adriana Gardella on Twitter.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/a-tutoring-company-in-search-of-a-tagline/?partner=rss&emc=rss