What it means, and how to create a creative slogan for your business

Imagine if you could describe a product in a few words and help your target audience to imagine the feelings and the values they would experience when using it. That is precisely one of the greatest contributions a slogan can provide your brand.

Of course, the slogan must be consistent with the actual circumstances of your business, and be closely linked to the motto followed by the entrepreneur.

Would you like to put this description into more objective lines? Understanding the concept of a slogan and its essential elements can be a decisive element to allow your creative juices to flow. So, read this post!

What is a slogan?

Slogans are small, impactful phrases that highlight the guidelines of a business or profession, as well as the feelings your customers will experience when purchasing your products.

I bet that when you started to read this post, you already thought of some slogans of a few famous brands. That is one of the goals of the slogan: ensuring that the audience easily remembers a brand or a product.

How can we ensure that the audience has the message “stuck” in their minds, along with the business motto and the promise of a great experience? Let’s understand its composition.

What are its essential elements?

If you are thinking about creating a slogan, consider a few characteristics that make it stronger and more memorable. Namely:

• brief and simple — essential features to ensure that your slogan is easy to remember and mention. That is, no fancy words or complicated phrases;
• compelling and timeless — after all, your slogan needs to stand out from the competition and validate the interest your business wishes to preserve;
• original — demonstrates that the company or professional thinks beyond the obvious;
• great potential to be memorized.

Some slogans have been so successful in their construction that often, without even mentioning the name of the product, the target audience already knows what it is. 

Just do it!

I bet you know which brand is behind this phrase, right?

Nike created the famous slogan to transmit feelings and words of encouragement that are aimed at someone who is about to start a physical activity.

If you love sports or practice sports to enjoy good health, seconds before beginning the activity, you think “come on, let’s do it”. And the sporting goods brand incorporated this thought into its slogan, showing empathy with its consumers.

Would you like to see other examples of successful slogans?

What are the best examples of slogans?

There are several examples of successful slogans, and we don’t need to mention only the most popular brands or those associated with physical products. Check it out!

“I’m lovin’ it!”

This long-running campaign for the world’s most popular hamburger franchise has been going strong since 2003. 

The simple McDonald’s slogan fits well into the company’s advertising philosophy of not selling a product, but the all around experience.

Not only did McDonald’s stick a simple line in your head that gives you a positive feeling about the company as a whole, they also played with the English language in a way that must have made older grammarians cringe by using ‘love’ in the present continuous. 

Grammar rules aside, and billions of sold burgers later, you have to say this slogan has been a great success.   

“Still going!”

Anyone who’s had a TV in the last 40 years, especially in the 90s,  will never be able to forget the shade-wearing Energizer bunny marching across their screens. 

The slogan that communicates the brand’s objective of long lasting energy with the rhythmic consistency of a drum beat by an eye-catching pink rabbit.   

Mixed with the dry voice of the narrator, is a slogan that keeps going… and going… and going… 

“The breakfast of champions.”

Every kid who eats cereal has at one time stared deeply at the photo of their favorite sporting icon on the Wheaties’ box and dreamed that they are only a few spoonfuls away from being like their hero.

From Muhammad Ali to Serena Williams, this slogan has linked athletics to the brand for over 80 years. Without having to make any claims about the actual nutritional value of the product, the association is unbreakable.The result? The audience has been eating it up.

Many others made their brands successful — to their audiences’ enjoyment —, such as:

• “You’re in good hands with Allstate”;
• KFC: “Finger likin’ good”;
• Burger King: “Have it your way”;
• Maybelline: “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.”

Step by step on how to create a good slogan

Did you notice that you have to convey an idea in a few words and still use a communication style suitable for your target audience and the segment? Let’s go through a simple step by step process to create a slogan for your business.

Analyze your target audience

You have to know your target audience very closely in order to establish efficient communication whose message transmits the promise of having a solution for their needs and desires.

Therefore, in addition to demographic data, it is important to understand their pain, needs, values and behaviors. In this sense, outlining your business identity is a key step!

Identify the message to be transmitted

Based on these data, listing words that describe such feelings, desires and characteristics will help you when brainstorming. In this process, many ideas will come to mind to help you create an effective slogan.

A tip is to think of terms relating to the main keywords of your business. That way, you can ensure that your slogan will be able to summarize what your product or service offers and the problems it solves.

Focus on planning and positioning

If you wish to sell digital products aimed at the legal area, for example, be faithful to your positioning when planning your actions.

A slogan can change with time, depending on the planning developed by the brand based on market timing. That has been the case with the famous communications giant Verizon, which has evolved its slogans according to market share, competition, and changing technology:

• “Can you hear me now?”;
• “There’s a map for that”;
• “We never stop working for you”;
• “Rule the air”.

But it is important to mention that, before making these changes, the previous slogan must have been strengthened and memorized. Otherwise, identity is lost and empathy will not be established.

Use puns, wordplay and jingles 

In order to get your message across, and keep it stuck in people’s heads, a little wordplay goes a long way. Who can forget the onomatopoeia and rhyme that put Alka Seltzer on the map for an entire generation: “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.”  

Is there any tool to create slogans?

Of course there is! You can use solutions like Shopify, Slogangenerator.co and even some traditional editing tools that help with brainstorming.

Many professionals in the advertising field recommend that this process be associated with the creation of a visual identity — a logo.

You’re done! All you have to do now is to promote your slogan

Verizon’s slogans have changed according to the company’s needs and market timing. In the beginning, it needed to establish itself on the market. Then, it took on competitor AT&T with a parody slogan, and later to show dominance in a now much broader communications market.

As you saw in this post, creating your slogan requires conducting a study of your expectations, the market, and the message you want to convey to your audience.

An effective way of doing this is to use tools and language resources to make it memorable. This applies both to a website of digital products as well as to online course series and content for sale.

Even if it is not your area of expertise, having knowledge of marketing and advertising concepts help you understand the support you receive from the market. This allows you to develop an effective plan to convey your message to the audience.

In addition to the slogan, if you wish to become a digital entrepreneur you need to know how to advertise effectively. We’ve put together another blog post to help you advertise with more impact on your audience and less impact on your wallet.