Do Not Create A Business Logo Without A Slogan!

by Susan Mary Custom Logo Designer

There is an infinite amount of material available online that serves as a guide for entrepreneurs to create a business logo. You could possibly find theoretical articles that throw big words at you like ‘Brand Identity’, ‘Competitive Advantage’ and ‘Differentiation’. This gets almost all of the readers very interested in the logo theory, ending further research on the subject.

For a moment let’s analyze the marketing theories, for example, we agree that the logo creates a separate brand identity for your businesses but does that lead to differentiation and competitive advantage?

We think not, at least not always and not in the case of every business. When many designers create a business logo, the design proposals they generate are trendy and attractive but not truly unique or customized to the businesses they represent. What this means is that the marketing theories pertaining to logos and branding are subjective.

Now that we have established this, let us bring slogans into the mix. Slogans are widely used by businesses to communicate clearly with their customers. They usually have catchy tag lines such as ‘Just-do-it’ or ‘I’m Lovin it’ to convey the business’s aspirations to the consumers and connect with them at a deeper level. Many start-ups create a business logo with expectations of glory and a sustained competitive advantage but fail to capture their forecasted revenue targets.

Logos used without slogans are like plants without flowers. They lack the engaging aspect needed to interact with the customer in a way that makes them think about your brand and attempt to associate with it. Imagine the first time you went to the KFC and right after finishing your fried chicken you read the slogan ‘Finger lickin good’. When slogans are used in conjunction with the logos the outcome could be very positive for strengthening of the brand identity.

There are other brands that are discussed in even fewer articles that have used slogans as their logo ,for example, Marks & Spencer. When designers create a business logo they often underestimate the power of a strong slogan that could be used as a supporting feature or a stand-alone identifier of your brand. When the slogan is used in conjunction with the logo, the resulting outcome is usually memorable and positive with faster spreading brand’s identity recognition.

Powerful slogans take time to get recognized but once they are developed, they could potentially quadruple the branding impact in comparison with businesses using only the logos.