How do you create great slogan ideas?

Great slogans can elevate a company from ho hum to world class. Who can forget sayings like "Where's the beef?", "We try harder" or "Just do it". A truly great slogan encapsulates a company's point of difference in an engaging and succinct way. It makes people notice and it makes them remember.

If your company lacks the right words to help people understand how you're better, there's no better time than the present to fix that issue. While it would be nice if the perfect slogan ideas popped into your head during your next shower, it doesn't usually work that way.

Instead, it's better to start with some good, old fashioned research. Grab a blank pad of paper and go on a quest. Fill that paper with answers to questions like, what makes our product or service truly unique? What do customers most say they value about us? What does everyone else do wrong that we do right? You might want to even call up some customers and ask them what about your company they most value, because the answers might surprise you.

One place where many businesses go wrong is they stop halfway. By that I mean, say they make nails. They tend to focus all their brainstorming on nails, but customers don't really care about nails. They care about pictures that stay on the wall. As you brainstorm be sure to take your thinking all the way to what your customers really get when they work with you. It's not IT services (boring), it's the lowest computer crash rate in the state. It's not human resources (zzzz), it's putting the perfect person in the chair quickly time after time.

Once you're clear on the main benefit you most want to highlight, it's time to brainstorm slogan ideas. Grab some associates or friends if you can and write down every adjective you can think of that goes along with that benefit or key point. Go online and see how competitors use language to sell themselves. Think about metaphors that aptly describe your firm.

Anything visual is extra memorable because so many of us think in pictures. For example, I called my firm BlueTree Media because so much of my marketing practice is geared around helping my clients stand out and get noticed, so they become like a single blue tree in a big green forest. When I worked on the w.G. Grinder's sandwich chain, their main point of difference was that their sandwiches were toasted, so we came up with "Anything ele is half baked." For a new cable company looking for subscribers, "Get with the program," was perfect.

Play around with matching up words that don't usually go together or making a play on words. Be sure whatever you come up with is unique to your firm, it shouldn't be applicable to all of your competitors as well. "Our chocolates taste great," is not a winner because every chocolate company in the world could say the same thing.

Ultimately you'll know when you've got a great slogan because people will say, "That is a great slogan." Don't stop until you're there.