Slogans "Add Personality"

I embarrassingly admit that I found myself singing that “Cheez whiz adds personality” (©2004 Kraft Foods, Inc.) in the shower yesterday morning and it got me thinking. How effective is a good slogan? I have to admit, I didn’t run out right then and there to pick myself up a jar of Cheez Whiz, but it did sort of get me craving it. Strangely enough, I don’t think I’ve seen a Cheez Whiz commercial with that slogan for quite a while now and yet I still remember the song so clearly in my mind. The same, I’m sure, goes for a variety of other services and products. How many can you list off? Plenty, I’d bet.

Catchy slogans can be the life-force of a good advertising campaign. If you can get your customers to sing your brand slogan in the shower, chances are they’re also going to pick your brand over the competitor when they are left with the choice. The art of convincing someone that your product/service is above the rest starts with a clever little limerick or rhyme and ends with money in your pocket. The trick is coming up with a slogan that will be catchy enough to bring in customers to try your product/service.

The question is how to create a catchy slogan? To be honest, slogans are incredibly tricky to come up with on your own. Unless you’re fabulous with words, it shouldn’t be something you want to try in your spare time because (let’s face it) you probably don’t have much spare time. The best plan is to hire an experienced company to handle your slogan writing endeavor. This, however, does not mean you’ve cut yourself out of the process completely. Anything pertaining to your company is just that, your company. As such, you will need to provide your custom slogan writer with as much information about what your company does as you can. You’ll also need to know your target market very well. What kind of people is this slogan attempting to target? Stay-at-home moms? Teenagers? Single men? Children? Canadians/Americans? Knowing and narrowing down your market will help a custom slogan hit home. Remember it can’t just be catchy; it also has to be appropriate to your business. Referencing back to the “Cheez Whiz” example, what makes their slogan catchy is the song AND the words behind it. Cheez Whiz is saying that if you add their processed cheese product to your vegetables, toast, etc. your food will simply taste better. It adds something to what you already are using. Your slogan will capture its audience best by suggesting what your product/service can do to improve something in your user’s lives. Remember to always focus on the positive instead of the negative and have fun!

If you’d like to know more about the process of custom slogan creation or the cost, head on over to www.logotree.com

We know logos... do you?

From Nike’s swoosh to McDonald’s golden arches, a timeless logo design will help your company stand out from the rest and identify with their customers. A lot goes into a logo design project that many people don’t even realize. So what is the process of creating a successful logo?

1) Know your company. Have a brainstorming session and come up with the image you, as an organization, wish to portray. Are you a new and upcoming company? What kind of customers do you want to target? Who are your competitors? Do they have logos? The more specific you get, the easier time the logo designers will have coming up with a fresh image for your company.

2) Have samples created. Your logo design is one of the first things your customer will see before most will even get a chance to speak with you or one of your employees. As such, it needs to say a lot about you without being too complicated or confusing. Although it may seem easy enough to do it yourself, a professional will have the programs, the knowledge and the talent to design a logo that will impress your customers. In order for a professional to be able to design a captivating logo design, you will need to provide them with all of the information you came up with in your brainstorming session. Make sure they know what your company does, stands for and wants to do in the future. The more information they have -- the better logo they will be able to design.

3) Revisions, revisions, revisions. Once your logo designers have come up with a variety of samples for you to view, you will need to give as much and as specific feedback as you can. If they don’t know which one you like the most, they won’t be able to move forward. Provide input. It is, after all, your company’s brand and should have your style and thought in it.

4) Color Psychology. As a customer, you won’t need to know a ton about this particular section of the process; however it is good to note a few things. The color(s) that you choose for your logo design do have a specific effect on your customers, whether they realize it or not. Green for example is often viewed as a sign of wealth and success; it can however be synonymous with envy. There is also a global color scale to consider. Some colors work effectively in North America, but are not as successful in other countries/regions of the world. For example, the Chinese associate the color white with funerals and red with weddings. Informing your logo designer of your target demographic will definitely help them when considering color options. Be sure to have them help you evaluate which colors will be the most beneficial to your business.

5) Finalizing. Once you have chosen the best logo design for your company, you will then have to decide where to use your logo. Will it be best suited for business cards only, or will it also be used in Yellow Page ads and on as part of your website design? Do you want to have corporate stationary made up? Or brochures? These sorts of decisions will help you in your branding process. As you move towards corporate branding your logo will become your spokesperson. Invest in a great one!

For more information about logo design and the process of designing logos, please visit www.logotree.com or call toll free 1-866-816-5646 and speak to a real person!

What is Branding?

This is not an article about how to brand herds of cattle with insanely hot rods at ranches, so if that’s what you were attempting to Google, you’ll have to click “back” on your browser and find another article. This one is about advertising. With so much of it constantly surrounding us on a daily basis, you would think it would make us each into mini branding professionals, but alas there are very few people who know what it takes to run a successful advertising campaign. This article will provide you with the basics of branding your business, an “Advertising 101” for everyone that groans when commercials come on.

First things first – before you can even begin to think about starting an advertising campaign to properly brand your company, you will have to figure out exactly what sort of company you are. What do you sell? What services do you offer? What makes your company better than your competition? These are all valid and important questions you will have to consider carefully because your answers will affect how your customers view your company. It will be virtually impossible for anyone to create a sizzling new logo design for you if you don’t know what your company stands for.

Let’s give an example, shall we? Let’s say that John Doe just inherited some money and wants to open the ice cream shop he’s always dreamed of owning. He wants to sell funky flavored ice cream that everyone will go wild about. He knows he wants to cater mostly to kids and teens and so he has decided to open his shop near a local high school. He’s thinking about even adding something trendy to it like some sofas and computers to keep kids wanting to “hang out.” He’s calling his company Doe’s Funky Ice Cream. John knows what his company stands for. He wants to exert a playful and fun image. He also has a perfect target-market and a location.

So what’s the next step? John will have to have a logo designed. He’s going to need something fresh and original to capture his youthful market and bring them into his ice cream shop. John’s logo will be the thing that speaks to his customers before he gets a chance to and so it will have to say many things in one small and simple image. It will need to be the kind of logo that his customers will want to buy stickers of and post in their lockers. He’ll need something original and fun. Once he has a logo designed, the branding opportunities are almost endless. He may also want to invest money in stationary including business cards, brochures, and matching envelopes/stationary all bearing his new logo and company information. He can also go a step further and get his name and brand out there onto the Internet. This will require an attractive website with an innovative design; probably even something interactive to keep his customers addicted to spending time there and, more importantly, excited to tell their friends about. Finally he can also pay to have his logo and company information printed in the YellowPages, some local magazines and maybe the town/city’s newspaper.

This can seem like a daunting task to the average new entrepreneur and, to be honest, it really is! This is why finding a friendly and talented advertising/design firm is so important to the success of your business. Starting a new business requires so much work from you already that the last thing you want to do is tack on calling newspapers and magazines while trying to teach yourself website design and understand how Color Psychology is affecting your logo. Save yourself the hassle and check out www.logotree.com today. We understand branding is more than poking cows in an abandoned field and you have better things to do with your time.

I'd love to know what your thoughts are. Leave me a message below or give us a call toll free at 1.866.816.5646.