Businesses want to be ranked #1 in the eyes of their customers; they want their businesses to be talked about. However, there are many businesses in the same industry, targeting similar markets, fighting for the same potential clients’ attention. The same is true for politicians: they compete with each other for the same voters.
If you want your customers to select you instead of somebody else, you need to be different. It is not enough just to be different, but also different in a way your customers will appreciate. For instance, if you are the only one in your industry packaging the items in a blue case … this will make you different; but maybe is something your clients don’t care much. On the other hand, if you are the only one in your industry offering free shipping, chances are that you will be at the top if the rest of your service also matches your clients’ expectations. You have to find what makes your business unique (usually called “unique selling proposition” in marketing terms) and tell everybody.
The question now is how to articulate your “unique selling proposition” in a way that your clients and potential clients will not only understand, but effortlessly remember. The solution is: use a slogan. A slogan is a short sentence that explains what makes you unique. Good slogans are easy to be remembered, they stick on people minds. A slogan makes it easier for your business to be remembered and talked about. It can help setting your business in a privileged position in a competitive industry.
Finding the right slogan is both a difficult and easy process. While it is difficult to come up with good slogans, it is easy to recognize good ones. You, as business owner, can easily recognize if a slogan is appropriate for your business. No one else knows more than you about your business. The question is who can come up with the slogans? You could involve your employees for instance. After all, they know the message that you want to transmit … In fact, they know it so well that they most probably suffer from the “Curse of Knowledge” syndrome. The curse of knowledge means that they know so much about your business’ unique selling proposition that for them, an also for you, it is difficult to realize what it feels like not to know it. Any slogan crafted under the curse of knowledge syndrome effect will not take into account that potential clients do not know yet about what makes you unique.
Therefore, the slogan development process must include outsiders. You need sloganeers that are not affected by the “curse of knowledge”. They can provide you with their slogan suggestions and you can recognize what works for your business. It works best when the process follows an iterative refinement: sloganeers suggest slogans first, then you tell them what works for your business and what does not and sloganeers provide suggestions again. This way, your preferences are taken into account in successive slogan suggestions. It is hard to tell how many slogans suggestions you will need. Usually, business owners get the right slogan after 20 – 30 slogan suggestions, but more may be needed.
You have done already the hard work of building your business and differentiate from your competitors. Now, all you need to do is to communicate in an effective way what is especial about you, what makes your business unique. Find some outsider sloganeers and get a slogan for your business; it is a small investment with a huge return.