Why are slogans so important in marketing?

Slogans are a vital part of marketing and have been used to help promote business and engage with customers for many years.

They are not just an advertising ploy, since they attempt to get into the customer’s mind and stay there. That is why companies are always tinkering with this aspect of their branding.

And it IS branding as your company name is always sandwiched between the slogan and a tag line.

Just think on these slogans for a moment or two and see if you can remember the companies that used them in the UK: Always cutting prices; Never knowingly undersold; I’m lovin’ it; Connecting people; You shop we drop; Saving you money every day; The world’s favourite airline (answers below).

Here are some guidelines on creating your own slogan:

• Make sure it is catchy and only three to five words long
• Make it memorable
• Ensure it reflects what you want the public to think your brand is about, for instance one of BMW’s slogans is The ultimate driving machine. It also has slogans for some of its models such as the new BMW1 series, three-door sports hatch: Made for the road
• Your slogan should have some emotional attachment. Think of McDonald’s slogan I’m lovin’ in (we’ve given the game away here a bit on this one, but you see the point?)
• Another very productive route to go down is a reliable slogan. We’ve mentioned Ronseal before in other blog posts, but it amply demonstrates this point: Does what it says on the tin.

Before you think about a slogan you need to ensure you have the right brand name: that’s when you need to work on your slogan as it will act as your brand’s partner.

It is believed that a phrase with meaning strikes more of a chord with the customer than just the brand name alone because a good slogan not only gives the customer a commitment but tells them what the brand stands for.

Your slogan can exert great power over the paying customer because it can give meaning to the name so it needs to apply to their everyday lives and should connect emotionally with them.

Watch out if your brand is being sold abroad or you could end up putting off a whole country from buying your product because your slogan or brand means something entirely different and rather rude in their language.

Some of the tales of more repeatable clangers we have found on the web include: The KFC slogan, Finger lickin’ good that had to be translated when the company expanded into China, except the translation they had planned to use actually meant We’ll eat your fingers off in Chinese.

We haven’t been able to find out whether they got as far as putting the signs up over the shop doorway: if you know, do tell.

And then there was the brewer Coors, whose brewing slogan was Turn it loose but the Spanish translation actually meant “Suffer from diarrhoea”.

Answers: Currys; John Lewis; McDonald’s; Nokia; Tesco delivery service; Asda; British Airways