How to Create a Company Slogan That Works

How to Create a Company Slogan That Works
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Corporate Slogans and Taglines

A corporate slogan is perhaps the next most important thing for a company after its brand name. To create a company slogan that instantly connects with customers and other people associated with the business can be a challenging task. A great creative effort usually goes behind the creation of a corporate slogan. The effort and the investment are worthwhile because the slogan becomes a kind of public face of the company. The slogan gets major advertising exposure in order to enhance the brand identity of the company. Here are a few useful tips to create a great company slogan.

Hire a Professional Advertising Firm

There are a number of high quality advertising companies with creative teams that can come up with excellent ideas for your company slogan. This is a one-time investment for a slogan that is likely to stick with your company’s image for a long time to come. If it is a great slogan, it can tell prospective customers more about the company in just one line than what any detailed presentation can do. A slogan can reach out to vast audiences and communicate the company’s message with an impact which no other form of communication can have.

Brief the Creative Team About the Company

Whether it is your in-house creative department or an external creative agency, it is important to give them a briefing on what exactly you want the slogan to do. If the slogan is disconnected from the company’s core mission or objectives, it can confuse the target audience, and in fact, do more harm than good for the company. Therefore, it is important that the slogan must not merely be creative, but must also be relevant, clear, direct, and should define the company’s ethos accurately.

Create a Company Slogan that is Unique

Uniqueness of the slogan is critically important. It must not sound similar to some other organization’s slogan otherwise it can confuse the audiences. The goal must be to define the company’s image distinctively in a way that has never been done before. Uniqueness helps to strengthen the brand identity and brings in maximum mileage in terms of brand recall and brand recognition. This requires a considerable amount of research and evaluation of the famous slogans of other major companies around the world to ensure that the slogan is not very similar to any other that is already in use.

Address the Customer Directly

The slogan must be created with the customer as the target audience. It must address the customer directly and say something that appeals strongly to him or something that the customer can easily identify with. For example, when the car rental company Avis says in its slogan, “We work harder,” it’s addressing the slogan to the customer directly. Some companies may go even a step further by voicing the customer’s sentiment in their slogan. For instance, McDonald’s slogan “I’m lovin’ it” actually lets the customer do the talking.

Focus on the Company’s Core Philosophy

Each company has different strengths, which must be reflected in their corporate slogan. Some companies may have the aim to provide the lowest prices to the customers, so the slogan may center around the price value. Some other companies may like to emphasize the quality instead of price, so the slogan may reflect the company’s core belief in quality. For instance, the slogan of Ernst & Young says, “Quality in everything we do.” This lets potential clients know that this company will not compromise on quality in favor of other considerations.

Make it Short, Interesting and Catchy

One of the cardinal rules of a great slogan is that it must tell a story using the minimum number of words. Shorter slogans are easier to remember and leave a stronger impact on the mind. If they are interesting and catchy, it can bring a lot more publicity to the company because the slogan gets quoted by people in their conversations and communications. One of the most powerful examples of such a slogan is Nike’s historic slogan, “Just Do It.” It makes use of only three mono-syllabic words and says a great deal about the company’s culture, philosophy and customer orientation.

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