Business Slogan

More often than not, we seldom witness slogans used in multi-faceted products and services. From the sports-wagon we drove our kids to school, to the gardening tools we used to trim the lawn. All of these involve businesses using slogans as an advertising tool to convey the company’s mission for audiences to remember and identify.

So what is a slogan anyway?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, it is a short & easily remembered phrase, especially one used to advertise an idea or a product. On the other hand, Webster’s Dictionary traces back the origin of this word as the war cry of a Highland clan in Scotland. 

In this day and age, slogans are used by businesses to create unique, memorable, anchoring pre-conditioning in the minds of consumers. The fundamental goal is non-other than to embed a heuristic bias to facilitate decision-making in favour of the business (which created the memorable phrase). 

Nevertheless, regardless if you are running a B2B or B2C model, having brand visibility determines your immediate profitability from the marketing push factor & lasting impression from the branding pull factor. Herein, a slogan serve both purposes. 

While tackling the fundamental aspect of standing out in the market as short term method to win customers, once ingrained into consumers’ memory, a slogan act as a positive affirmation for brand selection. The latter is more compelling as it poses the lasting potential to tap into the power of referral & recommendation. Although this does not warrant a conversion, it helps in spreading your brand discovery & recognition to potential customers.

But my business is doing fine, so what good can a slogan do for me?

To answer this question let’s take a look at examples to cover both sides of the coin; an enterprise that utilizes slogan and one that opted not to. 

Founded in 1968, Intel is a mammoth in the semiconductor industry. The slogan “Intel Inside” is perhaps one of the most prominent to this day. It is a model slogan that has successfully conveyed multi-layers messages - the essence of Intel's business while conveying pride through performance & quality. Albeit other competitors produce similar microprocessors, this specific slogan distinguished them from the pack - A different league in the consumers’ perception. 

Starbucks on the other hand does not have a fixed business slogan but a mission statement - “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time”. Nonetheless, throughout the years, they have accumulated a host of catchy seasonal catchwords which play an essential role in boosting advertising campaign:

1. It’s not just coffee. It’s Starbucks.
2. Brewed for those who love Coffee
3. You’re a sip away from GOLD
4. Our way of loving you back
5. Coffee that inspires

From these two case studies, we can generally conclude having either a fixed slogan or a substitute seasonal catchwords helps a business to highlights its unique selling proposition (USP) for existing and potential customers.

In a psychological context, it is done by solidifying selection-bias through cognitive recollection & association. This is key.

In continuation to the subject of behavioural response, slogans are about activating emotion in the audience. Emotion drives consumers to desire your product or services. If you sell protective gear, you may want your slogan to induce fear in your reader. If you sell mouth-wash, you may want to induce fear of foul breath in your slogan. Without emotion, there can be no sale. And emotion makes it memorable too.

Okay, so how should I scout for a model slogan?

Chances are if your intended slogan’s element falls into the majority of this checklist, it is bound to be an effective advertising tool for your business:

1. Keep it short & sweet - Only 2 words such as Take care (Garnier), You can (Canon) & So good (KFC)
2. Repeating company’s initials - Beyond petroleum (BP)
3. Reversal element - Components of the slogan are polar opposite; The best surprise is no surprise (Holiday Inn)
4. Repetition of similar syllable - Another linguistic element; Intel Inside (Intel) & Good food, Good life (Nestle)
5. Having literal meaning for the essence of the business - Think different (Apple), Every little helps (Tesco) & Think small (Volkswagen)

Over to you.

If you do decide to go with a slogan, keep in mind the above best practices. 

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Financial Goals 101 - Educating Entrepreneurs