Slogans are catchphrases individuals, products, and companies use to communicate their brands. Successful catchphrases evoke specific emotions, feelings, and images of a company when they come to mind.
Famous slogan examples like Apple’s “Think different.” or Nike’s “Just do it.” form crucial parts of recognizable brands all over the world.
What is a slogan?
Slogans are verbal descriptions of a company’s products and services. They express ideas and purposes to persuade a business’s target audience to act. An impactful slogan showcases a message and makes a company easy to remember.
In most cases, slogans are short and snappy. They may also use common expressions that can be easily translated into other languages. Slogan examples like BMW’s “The Ultimate Driving Machine” can be translated and understood into hundreds of languages, which aligns with BMW’s global reach.
Slogan examples
Here are a few of the world’s most recognizable slogan examples:
- De Beers – A diamond is forever.
- Wheaties – Breakfast of champions.
- US Marine Corp – The few. The proud. The marines.
- Las Vegas – What happens here, stays here.
- HSBC – The world’s local bank.
- Timex – It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
Common slogan uses
Strong slogans form one of the pillars of a successful branding campaign. They’re often as effective as logos, designs, and even the unique selling points of a product or service. Here are some of the most common reasons businesses use slogans in marketing campaigns.
Brand recognition
Brand recognition represents how well a consumer recognizes your brand through visuals and sounds. All great slogan examples help to establish this recognition through constantly seeing and hearing the slogan.
Acquire a competitive edge
Businesses with distinctive slogans often have stronger branding, which gives them a distinct edge over competitors selling similar products and services. The value of the slogan is that it communicates an idea even if the product or service itself isn’t present.
Establish customer connections
Forming connections with customers is how businesses turn prospects into brand connections. It’s a proven fact that brands that create these emotional connections lock in customers for years, thus generating brand loyalty.
Influential slogans cut through the noise and turn brands into household names. It’s part of why people can hear a slogan and instantly remember everything about a company.
How to create a good slogan (with slogan examples)
Creating a good slogan is a science. Examine some of the world’s most famous brands, and you’ll see how much their slogans have in common with each other. Even though the finished result is very different, there are fundamentals every company follows to plant the slogan in the minds of their target audience.
Let’s go through some of the principles every business must follow to come up with a catchy slogan.
Shortness and Simplicity
Whether it’s Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” or Coca-Cola’s “Open happiness,” all top brands choose slogans that are short and simple to understand. People don’t remember long word strings, but they do remember three or four words placed together and repeated over and over again.
Adhere to a brand voice
What does a brand voice mean? It’s the tone that cuts across every environment where a particular brand might be present. Defer to your list of brand values and promises when coming up with a distinctive brand voice.
For example, Land Rover aims to be the most reliable auto manufacturer in the 4 x 4 niche, which is why it uses the slogan “The best 4 x 4 x far.” The slogan talks about the fact that it manufactures 4 x 4s and focuses on reliability. That’s it.
Focus on the first impression
Brand slogans are often the first contact a prospective customer has with your brand. Slogans win business, and you have seconds to make an impression and deliver your message.
Think about Dollar Shave Club’s slogan, “Shave time. Shave money.” Even if you don’t see the company’s name, you already know three things from this slogan:
- It’s a company selling shaving products.
- It’s a company that focuses on affordability.
- It’s a company that aims to save you time.
Use alliteration
Alliteration is part of the science of words. Certain words placed in a particular order are more impactful because of how the human brain is stimulated. Words that begin with the same letter are one example of this.
AOL’s “Welcome to the World Wide Wow” rolls off the tongue when spoken while providing a promise and playing off the concept of the World Wide Web. It’s one reason AOL became such a household name for so long.