How to Create a Winning Advertising Slogan

A slogan is written in close proximity to the business name or logo and helps describe a key benefit.

According to the Tagline Guru Erik Swartz, a tagline is a concise phrase, next to your logo, that communicates a single but powerful brand message aimed at evoking a powerful resonance with a target audience. He recommends that you think of it as "the final exclamation point to your 30-second elevator speech." A well written tagline, such as Bounty paper towels' "the quicker picker upper," can add tremendously to a brand's name recognition.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Small index cards
• Colored pens

1. Write words that describe your business in general or specific terms, using one index card for each word. Use one color ink for all business descriptors. For example, if you own a car repair shop, you can write "car repair" on one card, "automotive maintenance" on another, and "car care" on another. However, you might also include "tire rotation," "brake checks" and "air conditioning service and repair." Pile cards in one stack.

2. Write down customer benefits from doing business with you, using a different color ink and putting one key benefit on each index card. Put these in a separate stack from the first group. For example, if you have 30 years of experience, work on all makes and models of cars, guarantee your work for 90 days and have won awards for your service, you could write benefits such as "service you can trust," "all work guaranteed" and "lasting quality."

3. Write down terms to describe your customers on a separate set of index cards, using another color of ink. Use positive and negative terms. For example, suppose your typical client lives or works in your neighborhood, half are retirees and the working half are stressed and earn a middle-class income. You could list "stressed," "retirees," "working class" or "local." Pile these cards in a third stack.

4. Using different colors for the index cards helps to stimulate the imagination. NA/AbleStock.com/Getty Images

   Place piles in vertical columns, so that the business descriptors form one column, the benefits form a second column and the client descriptions form a third column. Match one card from each column to find verbatim slogans or slogan concepts. For example, although most of your car care clients are local, you know you have some who come from out of town because they came to you before moving away and they don't trust anyone else. You might use the "car care," "lasting quality" and "local" ideas to develop the slogan, "Lasting quality car care you'll drive miles to get."

5. Write down all the possible combinations from the index cards. Then go back and fine-tune. Let the ideas germinate in your mind while you do something completely different. You can also you creativity tools such as puzzles, games and cards to stimulate your imagination. The time away from idea generation allows more ideas to come to conscious awareness. When they do, write them down.

Tips & Warnings

• Once you've developed your own list, review a list of famous slogans to generate more ideas.

• Don't make claims that aren't true.

• Avoid being confusing, awkward, pretentious, wordy or negative.

References

• Tagline Guru: Slogan List
• "Fast Company"; How to Write a Catchy Slogan; August 8, 2005
• Lousy Writer; Tag, You're It! (or, How to Write Slogans); Larry Johnson
• Tagline Guru: Nuts and Bolts
• Tagline Guru: Types of Taglines