I've been writing a newsletter to send out to clients and prospectors, giving lots of helpful hints about marketing, design and SEO. If you'd like a free copy, just email me at marie@icebluemd.co.uk.
Meanwhile, here's a sneak preview ...
BANG, and the dirt is gone! You don’t need to be as annoying as the Cillit Bang man to make your product memorable. Carefully constructed, a slogan or tagline is a brilliant way to help you create and sustain a name for your business. Where would the world’s favourite Beanz be if they didn’t mean Heinz? Can you imagine Just Doing It in any other trainers?
But slogans are not a product of magic, and nor do they bounce into the marketplace from nowhere, making the whole world shout “Wasssssup?!” or sing about being “a minty bit stronger”. Slogans are not written – they’re crafted and nurtured – and because you’re worth it, we’ve devised ten simple steps to help you create your own.
But slogans are not a product of magic, and nor do they bounce into the marketplace from nowhere, making the whole world shout “Wasssssup?!” or sing about being “a minty bit stronger”. Slogans are not written – they’re crafted and nurtured – and because you’re worth it, we’ve devised ten simple steps to help you create your own.
It takes a bit of thinking, though, so make sure you’ve had your Weetabix before we begin ...
Step 1. Write down all the words and phrases that relate to your business. Include words that describe the benefits to your customers and your unique selling points – like “quick turnaround”, “friendly”, “innovative products” or just “simply brilliant”. Use a big sheet of paper and a chunky pen if you’re the kind of person who likes to see ideas grow. Then grab a thesaurus (use http://www.thesaurus.com/ if you like) and scribble down every related word. Discard nothing at this stage – however silly – and don’t worry if you have a list of a hundred. Like the Duracell bunny, you should just keep going and going and going.
Step 2. Do your company’s tyres never tire? Is your team’s collective brain teeming with ideas? Are you looking to hire staff with higher aspirations? Look at your list of words and see whether any of them have a homonym – that’s a word which is spelt differently but sounds the same. Don’t worry if your ideas are cheesy (After all, “It’s not easy being cheesy,” said Chester the Cheetos Cheatah), just note ‘em all down.
Step 3. See whether any of your words could form part of a saying, cliché or motto. Again, don’t judge them too unkindly – just jot them onto your sheet of paper. Take inspiration from the success of Citibank with “The Citi never sleeps” or the Yellow Pages’ “Let your fingers do the walking” and don’t be afraid to go a little off the wall.
Step 4. Think about your customers and what characterises them. Are they discerning and money savvy? Or affluent and short of time? What sort of things do they like? Look for combinations of these with other words and phrases you’ve already come up with, especially when they have alliteration. So if you’re running a kitsch café, with a busy, young clientele, something like “Chic as chips” or “Breakfast faster” might suit your business.
Step 5. Throw your business name (and even your own name, if you’re the owner) into the mix. Can you make any puns or catchy lines that suit what you’re trying to convey, or persuade people to do? “Get the Abbey habit” was a success for Abbey National … can you take inspiration from this?
Step 6. Now add words and phrases that imply mastery and excellence – however quirky – like goddess, grand, king, lord, master, mighty, number one, prince, queen bee, top, and so on. Have fun playing around with rhyme and alliteration: could your gold-jewellery stall have the tagline “Kings of Bling”? How about “We’re the top bananas” for a greengrocer, or “Get yourself goddess gorgeous” for a beauty salon?
Step 7. Try to reach the core of what your customers need when they use your business, and offer the solution in your slogan. “We’ll tame the chaos” or “Let us take the pain out of painting” could be taglines for a house makeover company or decorating firm. What else do your customers seem to need? Think of heart-warming past campaigns, like Interflora’s “Say it with flowers” and BT’s “It’s good to talk” – or cleverly combine a feature with a benefit, like IKEA’s “Make yourself at home”.
Step 8. Return to your master list of words and have fun messing around with alliteration (“Put a tiger in your tank”), sound (“Snap! Crackle! Pop!”), or rhymes and near-rhymes (“Beanz Meanz Heinz”). You can be cheeky (remember “Australians won’t give a XXXX for anything else” for Castlemaine lager and “Hello Boys” for Wonderbra?), turn a business maxim on its head (“Think small” for Volkswagen) or suggest the cost of not using your product (“Because so much is riding on your tyres” for Michelin). You could even draw inspiration from your logo, like Frosties’ “Bring out the Tiger in you”. Be as silly as you like – the important thing is to give the creative part of your brain a workout.
Step 9. When you’ve come up with a handful of slogans you like, subject them to a few tests. Are they pronounceable and easy to spell? Concise? Distinctive? (“Quality fine furniture” doesn’t tell us much, now does it?) Would they communicate your brand effectively? A punchy slogan is meaningless if it doesn’t strengthen your business image. Do they sound pleasing to the ear, or could they be misconstrued? (People still argue as to whether “Sofa King Low” prices were the work of marketing genius or just plain offensive … just say it out loud a few times to decide for yourself.) And most of all, do you like what you’ve come up with?
Step 10. Test, test and test again. Read your slogans aloud to people and check that they “get them”. Ditch the ones you feel embarrassed saying out loud – you need to be proud of your final product, and happy to plaster it all over your website, company literature and business cards. And finally, when you’ve decided on the winner, do just that: plaster it all over your website, company literature and business cards. If it’s a true representation of who you really are, it will stick.
And like BMW, you’ve just built the “ultimate driving machine” to carry your branding forward. Congratulations!
What did you come up with? Email marie@iceblue.co.uk and let me know how you got on. Still stuck? IceBlue runs free workshops to build a slogan for your business, or even help you dream up a brilliant name (with branding to match) that attracts exactly the customers you want. Just phone Marie on 01384 563050 to find out when the next one’s taking place.
