5 Steps To Creating the Perfect Business Slogan

A good business slogan is one-in-a-million. You may have been living under a rock for the past few decades if you don’t immediately recognize the following business slogans.

• “I’m Lovin’ It.”

• “That Was Easy.”

• “Just Do It. “

Did you immediately think “McDonald’s, Staples, and Nike?” Congrats, these slogans worked as intended and brought the business in question to the top of your mind without any other advertising, branding, or indication! That’s an impressive accomplishment for only 15 characters!

If done correctly, your small business’s slogan can have the same impact. Obviously, you’re not a Fortune 500 company, but there’s no reason that your slogan can’t be as recognizable to customers in your local area as McDonald’s is worldwide! Read on to learn our steps for creating the perfect small business slogan!

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Benefits Of An Unforgettable Business Slogan

The right slogan truly is irreplaceable. There’s a whole slew of business benefits to be gained from an impeccable slogan.

• The Right Business Slogan Separates You from Your Competitors. We used McDonald’s as an example earlier on. Few slogans can compete with “I’m Lovin’ It.” To demonstrate that, think of McDonald’s competitors. Can you name Wendy’s slogan or the Burger King slogan? Both brands have repurposed their older slogans recently, so this is a bit harder than you might think. If you did get those slogans right, can you name the slogans of 5 Guys or Panda Express? That’s a tougher ask. That’s the value of the perfect business slogan. If it’s done right, your competitor’s slogans will never be as powerful or memorable as yours, which is a considerable advantage in keeping your brand top of mind with your competitors.

 

• The Right Business Slogan Makes a Promise. “I’m Lovin’ It” promises the customer that they’ll leave McDonald’s satisfied with the meal enjoyed. The right slogan for your business will show your potential customers what they can expect from your brand. If your brand fulfills that promise, you’ve set yourself up well for another key benefit of a great slogan.

 

• The Right Business Slogan Advances Your Overall Marketing Strategy. Imagine investing a few thousand dollars a month into targeted Google Ad campaigns. While this is a great way to reach your perfect customer, you’re just not seeing the type of clicks you’d like. There are a slew of reasons why this may be, but the right, recognizable business slogan contained within Google ad copy is a great way to get more clicks. After all, if your potential customers have heard your slogan before and recognize it within the copy of an ad or in the headline of a website, then they’re much more likely to contact your business. Think of a good business slogan, as part of a well-crafted brand awareness campaign, as a way of softening your potential customer up to your business’s attempts to sell to them. If you’ve done the leg work with branding your business, your potential customers will be more receptive to purchasing when it comes time to ask them to do so!

5 Steps to Creating Your Dream Slogan

Get The Right Team For Your Slogan Development

This is one of the easiest aspects of the process, but it’s one that can be easily overlooked. You’ll want a mix of executives who know the long-term vision and direction of the brand, creative designers with ideas for the future of the brand, and members of the PR and marketing teams. 

Your C-Suite members just might not have the creative experience to select a slogan, but they will have the long-term knowledge and vision to contribute to the conversation. Likewise, your PR and marketing team will have an intimate knowledge of the brand’s history and how it’s perceived by your customers but may lack knowledge of the future direction of the business. The right slogan team will involve these different but equally talented team members to create a wide skillset. 

Define the Feeling You Want Your Slogan To Convey

Remember, most purchase decisions are made on emotions, not logical cost-benefit analysis. Because of that fact, your new slogan needs to focus on the feelings you want your customers to experience, not the quality of your product or service. Consider our successful examples of business slogans. 

• “I’m Lovin’ It” conveys satisfaction.
• “Staples – That Was Easy” conveys simplicity and ease for busy white-collar professionals.
• “Just Do It” convey action and determination, qualities that resonate with the athletic audience Nike is trying to reach. 

It can be helpful in this stage to think through what your business is attempting to do. Consider asking the following questions to set the right tone for your brand slogan brainstorming. 

• Why do people choose your brand? 
• What problems do you solve for your customers?
• What separates you from your competitors? 
• What feedback have your customers given you before? What common themes do you see in these positive reviews from happy customers? 

Brainstorm

This part of the process will not perfect immediately, so don’t hesitate to get numerous possible slogans on paper. The more iterations you’ve set down at this point, the better. Once you’ve done so, it’s time to select your finalists. There are several ways of doing this. A simple “up or down” vote per slogan works, or you can even pick a March Madness-style bracket format if you want to make the process a little livelier. Regardless, it’s important to whittle your list down to a select group of finalists. We’d recommend four to eight finalists before moving onto the next step. 

Get Feedback On Your Business Slogan

It’s important to not just have your slogan team design their list of five slogans and then have a VP or C-suite pick their favorite. Ensure there’s an opportunity for another team of people not involved in the design process to offer constructive feedback. What sounds like a huge breakthrough at 2:00 AM in a conference room after weeks of trial and error might not sound so convincing to others. 

Get Feedback (From Your Customers)

The feedback never ends in this process. Now that you’ve got a slogan, slowly unveil it to your customers. At this stage, we’d recommend incorporating your new slogan into certain elements of your marketing plan. Putting on your website, on social media, and within your Google Ad and email campaigns is great. However, we wouldn’t recommend buying company shirts or cars just yet. Give it some time to get customer feedback and determine if the new slogan is working. Note that this isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it process. You very well may need to return and reevaluate customer perception of your brand within a year or two, even if they love the initial unveiling. 

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Common Business Slogan Mistakes

This process isn’t an open-and-shut process, and there’s a lot of room for shades of gray. Don’t feel like there is a right or wrong way of picking a slogan. What works for one industry might not work in another. However, it’s generally best practice to NOT do any of the following. 

Don’t Focus on Sales

• There’s a time and place to ask for your potential customers to purchase, but your business slogan isn’t it. Instead, focus your slogan on the quality of your brand, a quality that endears your business to your customers. Think of “That was easy” or “Just Do it.” These slogans don’t try to illicit sales directly, so much as showcasing the quality of the business that their customers would enjoy. Don’t worry… the sales will come!

Don’t Overemphasize Your Brand

• You should, of course, promote your brand. However, it should be done in the context of what your brand can do for the customer’s end needs. Again, “I’m lovin’ it” doesn’t brag about McDonald’s many accomplishments. Instead, the slogan speaks to how customers feel about the meals they get from their local Golden Arches. That’s a key distinction and one to keep in mind when developing your slogan!

Don’t Be Overly Verbose In Your Slogan

• The perfect slogan is under 30 characters. Ideally, it could be even under 15 characters. Remember, the average American is exposed to over 2,000 ads per day. If your slogan is too long or complicated, you’re likely to lose the customer’s interest. Keep it simple, succinct, and effective for the best results. 

Don’t use a Free Slogan Generator

• These might be useful to generate a long list of possibilities, but it’s unlikely you’ll get a winner if you use a free online slogan generator. We’d recommend using this as a starting point to just map out combinations of words and get your team’s creative juices going! Don’t hesitate to use a thesaurus, however, to broaden the possible terminology to incorporate into your slogan. 

If you need any help branding your business, reach out to the brand marketing experts at JSL Marketing & Web Design! We’ve been crafting brand strategies for years and are excited to get to work for your business!

Call Us At 855.869.4764 Or Contact Us Online!