The Blog on Branding

Have the Best Advertising Slogan Ever Created

You’re probably asking yourself, “How can I have the best advertising slogan ever created?” This guide will help you create that all-important slogan.

Advertising is a key component to having a successful business. Creating a great advertising slogan can increase the image and popularity of your business exponentially.

“A great ad slogan can improve the popularity of your business.”




Here, we have compiled some background on advertising slogans, as well as tips to have the best advertising slogan ever created.

What is an advertising slogan?

We see them everyday. Little slogans that connect us through emotion towards a product – whether it be happy, sad, angry, whatever. And if creative enough, these taglines will help a product aspire to huge levels – or no levels at all, if not done right.

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia monster, tells us that an advertising slogan is a “short, often memorable phrase used in advertising campaigns. They are claimed to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product.” It also states that an effective slogan will “adopt a distinct ‘personality’ of it’s own”. It also says it has to “sound good”. Well obviously, because if your phrase sounds bad, your product will most likely do badly also.

Everyone’s favorite encyclopedia tells us more: “the word ’slogan’ comes from sluagh-ghairm which is Gaelic for ‘battle cry’”. If your product doesn’t scream loud enough, forgetta-bout it.

Wanna make your slogan simply amazing? Read on.

5 types of advertising slogans

Before you start cranking out the ideas, realize that there are different types of slogans. Go with what best fits your product or service. Yes, you can check more than one.

1. Feature

   Show off your product or service. Incorporate differences and similarities, connecting them uniquely. “Glade. The welcoming scent of home.” – Glade

2. Benefit

   Stress the benefit of your product or service. Viewers will see your product as something that may help them. ” Multibionta puts back what life takes out” – Multibionta Vitamins

3. Question

   Ask a simple question. “Have you driven a Ford…lately?” – Ford

4. Challenge

   Dare the consumer to buy your product or take part in your service. “Be all that you can be.” – US Army

5. Structure

   Show the consumer that your product or service offers it all. “5,000 songs in your hand” – Apple iPod

7 ways to love your public with your slogan

“iPod gives you 5,000 songs in your hand.”

Okay, so we still aren’t ready to make that slogan yet. The following attributes can make your slogan be all that it can be.

1. Excite

   Make it stand out from the rest. Don’t put people to sleep when they hear or read your slogan. No zzzz’s.

2. Exaggerate

   People like when you go over-the-top with knowledge that your product gives – well, maybe not in real life.

3. Self-reference

   Use your company, service or product’s name in your tagline. Remember, it’s all about remembering.

4. Play

   Again, no zzz’s. Be like a puppy that wants it’s ball – or a creative director wanting his salary.

5. Uplift, influence

   Raise people’s spirits. Put them in a good mood when they see your slogan. Brainwash them to buy your product. Just kidding! Influencing them is okay, however.

6. Create possibilities or remind them of memories

   Older people want to recall being pampered with this product or service as a kid.

7. Use creative language

   Use your company’s name in your slogan as a word spelled incorrectly or differently (e.g. “Citi”). Or anything else your little creative mind can come up with.

7 steps of selling an advertising slogan

1. Decide what you want your slogan to say

   USP. That’s not UPS spelled wrong. The USP is the unique selling proposition. If used correctly, it could lead a consumer to switch their brand loyalty to your company. It’s basically a marketing statement to show that your product is the best product in product land. Show this through your slogan. Kuddos to you, Rosser Reeves.

   Ask yourself these questions:

   • Who are our customers?
   • What benefits do customers get from us?
   • What feelings do you want your customers to receive?
   • What actions do you want your customers to take?
   • How do you stand out from your competition?

   Incorporate at least one or two of these answers in your slogan.

2. Brainstorm

   Remember that thing you learned to do in first grade when you were writing an English paper – before the rough draft? Yeah, that one. Research other company’s slogans, both large and small. Get out of your category’s comfort zone. Look up weird slogans. All of these could spark some great ideas.

3. Look at the competition’s goals

   Oh, come on. You can do better than that.
   
   “There’s more to life than Google—check out a book.”
   
   
   

4. Research through books

   I know it’s hard to believe, but there’s more to life than just Google. Books can strike some awesome creativity. “Twenty-First Century Synonym and Antonym Finder” and “Flip Dictionary” are some real gems.

5. Go back to #2 and do it as a group

   Small groups work best. Things to get: paper, pencils, note cards, dry erase boards, pens, your hands… Write down everything that comes to mind. Yes, everything. Rearrange, mix and match and pair-up these words. They don’t have to make sense at this point! You need ideas – lots of them. Create lots and lots of slogans.

6. Make a list

   You know that big mess of words you just made? Yeah, go through that and pick out all the slogans that you think are going to make the biggest impact. If you have a long one, make it shorter.

7. Choose the very best slogan

   When your list is down to the final 5, go to others for opinions. Test your slogan with customers and see what’s up. Informal research is also a biggie. At surveymonkey.com you can create a free or professional survey. Get people to take a survey you just made at your website. Get these customers to help you out, and reward them in return.

11 questions to ask when creating a slogan

Remember these questions when creating your slogan to reduce headaches and aspirin taken.

1. What is being advertised?
2. To whom are you advertising?
3. What do you know about your audience?
4. What do you want them to do?
5. What can you say that will get them to do that?
6. How will you know it worked?
7. What ideas might work?
8. What is your tone of voice?
9. What is your key message?
10. Is it brief and clear?
11. Does it follow this formula: catchy + informative = good slogan?

8 ways to reach first base with your market…or not

If you can’t answer any of these questions with “that’s not true,” it’s back to the drawing board for you.

1. It doesn’t help people buy the product or order the service.
2. It generates a negative response.
3. It sounds a little conceited.
4. It sounds unreal and way too corporate.
5. It’s borrrrrringggg.
6. It makes you say “umm?”
7. It sounds a little mixed up or really confusing.
8. It sounds too mysterious to the point that people won’t know what you’re talking about.

How to write a slogan – Abridged

Let’s wrap things up – remember these. Out of everything you just learned, or skimmed through (hopefully you read every word) these are most important:

• Be unique!Don’t be a copy cat. Nobody will like you. For real. We know you have the creativity in that head of yours. Show it! It will make you uber cool – just don’t be like www.uber.com and not have anything on your site. So weird.
• Be honest!Don’t lie about your service or product. Maybe you will create that super uberly cool slogan, but it has to tell the truth about your product. If you say your toy is “So Awesomely Cool it Flies” – and it doesn’t – you will have a bad slogan and some angry parents.
• Find out if your slogan is already taken. Use Google too!

Truthfully, the way that you view a slogan is much like the result of seeing a piece of art; some will criticize that the work is dumb, boring and just too plain simple, but in someone else’s eyes, it could be genuine. It’s kinda like that old saying – “one man’s trash is another’s man’s treasure”. But, a slogan all comes down to more than “one man”; if most of the market likes it, it’s a shiny jewel. Good luck!

By Emily McHugh