How to Create a Standout Slogan or Tagline for Your Business
A tagline or slogan is, essentially, a quick and punchy ‘sum-up’ of your business or brand. One of the most challenging and yet crucial things about creating slogans and taglines for companies is, ironically, figuring out how to express their key aims and functions, in a succinct and memorable way.
Imagine it’s like a ‘thesis’- you have this great concept, you are doing something with it, and you are solving a problem. But how do you sum that up in a quick, catchy phrase? With a thesis, you need to be able to narrow your many, complicated points down to a sentence or two in order to explain what you are arguing overall.
With your business, you need to be able to get across the essence in a similar way, but it’s especially important that it’s attention-grabbing at the same time, as you want to stand out from the crowd.
Ok, so let’s break it down…
Here are the basics on how to create a tagline:
- Explain your mission and your purpose
- Capture your brand’s essence in a succinct way
- Make some form of a promise to potential customers or consumers
- Instantly grab your reader’s eye
- Make it memorable and catchy
What mistakes do people make when creating a company tagline?
Poor taglines are too long, too wordy and employ too many buzzwords- they read as inauthentic or generic. But the biggest mistake is to place the emphasis on the ‘what’ of the product rather than the ‘how.’ Taglines and slogans that simply describe the product, and do not explain the unique offering of the brand at stake, fail to stand out from the crowd and ultimately fail.
Back to that ‘thesis’ idea again: no matter what you are ‘investigating,’ ‘analysing’ or ‘demonstrating,’ you need to be offering, solving, and delivering in order to get people’s attention.
So, how do you come up with a fabulous slogan idea?
- Most importantly, as I mentioned above: explain what your brand can do, how it can benefit people, and what’s in it for the customer.
- Do all of the above, but do it quickly! Keep it short and sweet- it needs to be memorable.
- Don’t be tempted to get clever, or funny: just be clear.
- Think about incorporating a bit of you into the tagline. What makes your brand different? What gives it personality?
Here are some examples of effective taglines, to give you some slogan ideas!
- L’Oreal: “Because you’re worth it.”
It’s great because it doesn’t describe the product, it expresses the positive image that can be achieved by using the product.
- De Beers: “A diamond is forever.”
It’s clever without trying to be clever: according to this slogan, diamonds are about relationships that endure the test of time. Doesn’t that get you interested?
- Lego: “Play on.”
This is an example of a very succinct, punchy slogan- but it’s effective, right? It immediately plays on the brand’s identity as nostalgic and related to childhood, but is simultaneously inclusive and promises all manner of fun possibilities.
- Hubspot: “Inbound is everywhere”
Hubspot is all about making business “empathetic, human, and personable” and they are dedicated to changing digital marketplaces and making them more accessible. Their simple, catchy slogan manages to sum that up, succinctly.
By brainstorming the key words and phrases that sum up the why and how of your brand, and taking the lead of these and many other successful brands, you will figure out how to create a great tagline!
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