How to create a slogan people remember

Think of Nike's three words, or Coca-Cola's 'open happiness.' You didn't go looking for them, you never studied them, and yet there they are, burned in. A good slogan does that: it fits in a single breath and stays with you for years. For a small business, that one line can be the difference between being recommended by your exact name and being 'the place on the corner, I forget what it's called.'

The curious part is that creating a memorable slogan isn't the same as creating a likable one. Recent research put its finger on exactly that tension, and understanding it completely changes how you write your line.

What the science says about slogans

A study led by Professor Zachary Estes of Bayes Business School in London, together with the universities of Missouri and Arizona, analyzed 820 real brand slogans with around a thousand participants. They identified five properties of language that determine whether a line is liked or remembered: length, whether it includes the brand name, how common the words are, how concrete they are, and their distinctiveness.

The uncomfortable finding is this: the same things that make a slogan likable tend to make it forgettable, and vice versa. Short slogans, without the brand name and with common, abstract words, are better liked but worse remembered. Longer ones that include the brand name and use unusual, concrete words are better remembered even though they land less well.

The properties that make a slogan more likable also make it less memorable, and vice versa.

This isn't cause for despair; it's cause for deciding with your eyes open. If you live off people remembering you by name, you should lean toward the memorable even if it sounds a touch less polished. If your brand is already well known and you just want to be liked, you can afford the pretty version.

Put your name inside (almost always)

For a small business that's barely getting known, working your name into the slogan is one of the most profitable things you can do. The study confirms it: including the brand improves recall. There's no point in people remembering the clever line if they don't connect it to you. 'At The Shears your cut comes out perfect' works harder than an anonymous 'perfect cuts' that could belong to anyone.

Use concrete words, not smoke

Concrete words, the ones you can see, smell or touch, stick better than abstract ones. 'Quality and commitment' says nothing to anyone because any business on the planet could sign it. 'Your coffee, ready before you hang up the phone' creates an image. The brain remembers images, not concepts. When you're torn between an elegant word and a word you can picture, pick the one you can picture.

Make it sound good out loud

There's a reason so many slogans rhyme or repeat sounds. Rhythm, rhyme and alliteration make it easier for the brain to process and store the line. When something is easy to say, it's easy to remember. You don't have to force a cheesy rhyme, but you do have to read your slogan aloud: if you stumble saying it, your customer will stumble remembering it.

A quick guide to tune the sound and the sense:

• Read it aloud three times; if it doesn't flow, trim it or change it.
• Stay under seven or eight words: short gets in and stays.
• Promise a clear benefit, not an empty adjective.
• Slip in a concrete word and, if you can, your name.
• Avoid anything a competitor could say; if it's interchangeable, it isn't yours.

Make it felt, not just understood

People remember how you made them feel, not the list of your services. A slogan that only describes ('we sell comfortable shoes') informs, but it doesn't stay. One that touches an emotion (the relief of not worrying, the pride of looking good, the calm of arriving on time) anchors itself. You don't have to be poetic; you have to aim at the feeling your customer is after when they choose you over the place across the street.

The takeaway

A memorable slogan isn't the prettiest one, it's the one that sticks. Decide first what you need more, to be remembered or to be liked, because you'll rarely get both at full strength. If you're just starting, lean toward memorable: put your name in, use a concrete word you can picture, make sure it sounds good out loud, and aim at a real emotion. Read it aloud, trim it until it fits in one breath, and let it loose. The perfect line isn't the one you admire; it's the one your customer repeats without noticing.

Sources

• Marketing Week — https://www.marketingweek.com/brand-slogans-memorable/
• Phys.org (Bayes Business School study) — https://phys.org/news/2023-06-reveals-words-brand-slogans.html
• ScienceDaily — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230627225207.htm
• Adobe Express — https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/30-companies-with-famous-brand-slogans-taglines