5 Essential Tips on How to Write a Killer Slogan (with Interactive Examples)

1. 5 Essential Tips on How to Write a Killer Slogan (with Interactive Examples) 5 Keys to Creating a Great Slogan video (2:51)

2. Famous Campaign Slogans • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2ZJ0Y7NrXA

3. Famous Advertising Slogan by Nokia • Have fun remembering the famous advertising slogan used by the Nokia company as an aid to the advertising, publicity, promotion and marketing of their product. • This famous advertising slogan is so well known that it has entered our everyday language and used as a quote or quotation. • This famous and familiar advertising slogan is now seen as a clever saying and catchword used as a motto and catchphrase to identify the brand.

4. This famous advertising slogan has been made even more popular and memorable by the addition of a catchy jingle - a great example of a celebrated ad slogan. • The most famous and well-known of the advertising slogans are familiar when they are in the humorous and funny ad slogan category. • Remember this famous advertising slogan?

5. Will you marry me - Best Nokia Ad.wmv • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTXKDF-QI8k

6. Famous Advertising Slogans • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b4CWOg65Cg#t=31(video 1:52) • Popular ad slogans have proved to be so successful that they have become part of our culture. We associate the famed slogans with various brands and products. 

7. SLOGANS • Slogans are memorable phrases often used in conjunction with company logos and in advertising campaigns.

8. The first step is to decide whether or not you need a slogan. • If you have a logo, you are already engaged in branding your product or your company. • If you have already taken this step, you really should consider a slogan as well.

9. Do you want to brand your product or company? • That depends on the image that you are trying to project. • If you want to attract larger corporate clients, branding is pretty much a necessity. • The business model of your company determines your level of branding. • If you want to take things to the next level, this is a good starting point.

10. 1. Start From The Logo • If your brand doesn’t have a logo yet, you should get that done first. • A slogan works with a logo in order to promote brand identity.

11. Which Comes First? • A slogan doesn’t really work without a logo unless your sole advertising medium is radio. • The logo is the chicken, the slogan is the egg. • If you are designing the logo and producing the slogan for a business, you have a unique opportunity to create both at once, which can allow you to better integrate the two as a final product.

12. Remember that top brands change their slogans all the time, and you can do the same if you feel you need to five years down the line. • No slogan is cast in stone.

13. Coming up with a slogan isn’t easy, even for seasoned veterans, and takes at least one working day, so charge accordingly. • On the flip side, if you are hiring a slogan writer, there needs to be an element of trust there before you hire them. • You have to trust that they really are going to come up with some great slogan ideas for you to choose from, and you can’t really keep going back and expect them to go through the process indefinitely after paying for an initial session.

14. If you really don’t like the slogans that they give you, or feel that they misinterpreted your brand’s vision, most slogan writers will want to make it right within limits and these limits will usually be made very clear in your initial contract.

15. 2. Give the Project the Time It Needs • You need one hour to research the company that you are doing the slogan for, 1-2 hours to brainstorm ideas after your initial research, and 1-2 hours for client consultation and editing.

16. You have to trust that they really are going to come up with some great slogan ideas for you to choose from, and you can’t really keep going back and expect them to go through the process indefinitely after paying for an initial session.

17. 3. Keep It Simple • A logo is only effective if your audience can understand it quickly. You only have a few seconds to impress, so a slogan like “the best in olfactory widgets since 1949″ isn’t going to do the trick. Simplicity is what you’re aiming for.

18. Slogans absolutely cannot go over one sentence and five dollar words such as “olfactory” should be avoided. Some rules are made to be broken; if there is a five dollar word that rolls up a few sentences of meaning in one word, go for it. • The one sentence rule, however, should be adhered to at all costs. Simple slogan: Just Do It (Nike). Not simple enough slogan: Selling the Highest Quality Organic & Natural Products (Whole Foods).

19. 4. Make It Funny, If You Can • Where you can bring humor to a slogan, do it. • A great example is Cracked.com’s slogan: “America’s Only Humor & Video Site, Since 1958″. This slogan packs in a few jokes including making fun of the usual “since such a year” slogan and claiming to be the only humour site in America. • There is also a claim about being the only video site, and the fact that they couldn’t have been a website since 1958. All of this in eight words, if you count the “and” symbol.

20. While they had to make their slogan funny, the same approach to slogan writing of injecting a joke or two is something that you should adopt when appropriate. • If you can’t make it funny without making it lame, just drop the funny and go with your next best options.

21. 5. Stay Honest and Don’t “Trump Up” Your Product • Honesty is important. Can your business actually deliver on the promise that your slogan makes? If not, rethink the slogan. • You’ll also want to stay away from slogans that incorporate language like “the best” or “#1 at what we do” because that kind of language is not only standard and boring, but hard to substantiate even if it is true.

22. This is a fine line to walk because you still want to present the idea of a quality product without coming off as being too pushy, but a good slogan writer can manage it. • If it seems too intimidating, don’t think of it as writing a slogan, think of it as writing a brand message. What would your product say if it could talk?

23. Some companies change their slogans very often while others keep their slogans for years. Just how memorable are slogans in general and do they really accomplish what they’re set to do?

24. Here are 20 examples of well known companies and their slogans. We have purposely hidden the companies behind these slogans so that you can see if you can figure out which company is connected to which slogan.

25. Kentucky Fried Chicken

26. Finger lickin' good

27. Nokia

28. Energizer Batteries

29. Motorola

30. Skype

32. Ikea

33. BMW

34. Pringles

41. Coca Cola

42. Throughout the years, the slogans used in advertising for Coca-Cola have reflected not only the brand, but the times. • Slogans provide a simple, direct way to communicate about Coca-Cola. • http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-slogans

43. Slogans for Coca-Cola From 1886 to 2006 • 1886 - Drink Coca-Cola1904 - Delicious and Refreshing
1905 - Coca-Cola Revives and Sustains
1906 - The Great National Temperance Beverage
1917 - Three Million a Day
1922 - Thirst Knows No Season
1923 - Enjoy Thirst
1924 - Refresh Yourself
1925 - Six Million a Day
1926 - It Had to Be Good to Get Where It Is
1927 - Pure as Sunlight
1927 - Around the Corner from Everywhere1929 - The Pause that Refreshes 
1932 - Ice Cold Sunshine
1938 - The Best Friend Thirst Ever Had
1939 - Thirst Asks Nothing More
1939 - Whoever You Are, Whatever You Do, Wherever You May Be, When You Think of Refreshment Think of Ice Cold Coca-Cola1942 - The Only Thing Like Coca-Cola is Coca-Cola Itself
1948 - Where There's Coke There's Hospitality
1949 - Along the Highway to Anywhere
1952 - What You Want is a Coke
1956 - Coca-Cola... Makes Good Things Taste Better1957 - Sign of Good Taste1958 - The Cold, Crisp Taste of Coke1959 - Be Really Refreshed
1963 - Things Go Better with Coke
1969 - It's the Real Thing 
1971 - I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke (part of the "It's the Real Thing" campaign)
1975 - Look Up America
1976 - Coke Adds Life 
1979 - Have a Coke and a Smile
1982 - Coke Is It! 
1985 - We've Got a Taste for You (for both Coca-Cola & Coca-Cola classic)
1985 - America's Real Choice (for both Coca-Cola & Coca-Cola classic)
1986 - Red, White & You (for Coca-Cola classic) 1986 - Catch the Wave (for Coca-Cola)
1987 - When Coca-Cola is a Part of Your Life, You Can't Beat the Feeling
1988 - You Can't Beat the Feeling 
1989 - Official Soft Drink of Summer
1990 - You Can't Beat the Real Thing
1993 - Always Coca-Cola2000 - Coca-Cola. Enjoy
2001 - Life Tastes Good
2003 - Coca-Cola... Real
2005 - Make It Real
2006 - The Coke Side of Life

44. PEPSI SLOGANS THROUGH THE YEARS • 1939–1950:  ”Twice as Much for a Nickel” • 1950:  ”More Bounce to the Ounce” • 1950–1957:  ”Any Weather is Pepsi Weather” • 1957–1958:  ”Say Pepsi, Please” • 1961–1964:  “Now It’s Pepsi for Those Who Think Young” • 1964–1967:  ”Come Alive, You’re in the Pepsi Generation” • 1967–1969:  ”(Taste that beats the others cold) Pepsi Pours It On”. • 1969–1975:  ”You’ve Got a Lot to Live, and Pepsi’s Got a Lot to Give” • 1977–1980:  ”Join the Pepsi People (Feeling Free)” • 1980–1981:  ”Catch That Pepsi Spirit” • 1981–1983:  ”Pepsi’s got your taste for life” • 1983–1984:  ”Pepsi Now! Take the Challenge!” • 1984–1988 and 1990-1991:  ”Pepsi. The Choice of a New Generation” • 1989:  ”Pepsi. A Generation Ahead” • 1991–1992:  “Gotta Have It”/”Chill Out” • 1992:  “The Choice Is Yours” • 1992–1993:  ”Be Young, Have Fun, Drink Pepsi” • 1993–1994:  ”Right Now” • 1994–1995:  ”Double Dutch Bus” • 1995:  ”Nothing Else is a Pepsi” • 1995–1996:  ”Drink Pepsi. Get Stuff” • 1996:  “Change The Script” • 1997–1998:  ”Generation Next” • 1998–1999:  “It’s the cola” (100th anniversary commercial) • 1999–2000:  “For Those Who Think Young”/”The Joy of Pepsi-Cola” • 2003:  ”Its the Cola”/”Dare for More” • 2006–2007:  “Why You Doggin’ Me”/”Taste the one that’s forever young” • 2007–2008:  ”More Happy”/”Taste the one that’s forever young” • 2008:  ”Pepsi is #1″ • 2008–present:  ”Something For Everyone” • 2009–present:  “Refresh Everything”/”Every Generation Refreshes the World” • 2010–present:  “Every Pepsi Refreshes The World” • 2011–present:  ”Summer Time is Pepsi Time” • 2011–present:  ”Born in the Carolinas” • 2012:  ”Where there’s Pepsi, there’s music” – used for the 2012 Super Bowl commercial • 2012:  ”Live For Now” • 2012:  ”Change The Game” • 2012:  “The Best Drink Created Worldwide”

46. Branding: Slogan Wars Between Coke and Pepsi • The world is divided. Some people enjoy the classic feeling. • Others, prefer to be the next generation. Whether you're a Coca-Cola or a Pepsi fan boy, you have witnessed the constant war between these two giants.

47. When you place this war under a microscope, it's possible to see how these companies have tried to change their brand awareness during the years, trying to overcome each other. • When it was first introduced back in 1886, Coke didn't have much opponents in the cola drink market.

48. That until 1898 when Pepsi was released and the rivalry between these two exploded, making the need for brand positioning really urgent for both. • In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. • It is the 'relative competitive comparison' their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market. - Wikipedia

49. Since both were developed and introduced by pharmacists, they claimed that both drinks had medicinal properties. • Coke's 1900 slogan was "For headache and exhaustion, drink Coca-Cola", while Pepsi's 1903 slogan was "Exhilarating, Invigorating, Aids Digestion". • In 1929, Pepsi claimed: "Here's Health!"

50. Coke has been selling a "refreshing" and "satisfying" image for a longer time than Pepsi.