Differences between Headlines and Slogans

A reader, Ed Klein, asked “How do you best go about copywriting a slogan?” in my earlier post, 7 Famous Slogans of 20th Century.

I offered the “standard” answers that we all look at
1. brand promise (what is my promise to you, the customer),
2. brand deliverable (what can my product do to solve your problem?) and
3. brand philosophy (what is the overall belief system of the company).

Actually, there’s more than that.

When I was asked by Laura Spencer to guest write on her excellent writing blog, Writing Thoughts, I decided to discuss a little more on slogan writing. There’s some misconception that writing a headline and writing a slogan is the same. Seeming so because both are supposed to be short copy, however, conceptualizing and writing the two will take 2 different routes.

Writing a slogan is not about creating a brand image or corporate identity. The company must BE it (what the slogan represents) before the slogan itself can be created. It’s a “Be. Do. Have”. The company must do what it takes to add value but while the “doing” part is critical, “being” comes first. If the company is not what it claims to be, whatever it does will not be congruent to the crafted slogan. If your client can call your bluff, the company can forget about having loyalty, sales and revenues. From the slogan, the client can tell a thing or two about the company’s personality, business, and even ethics; blueprint.

Please follow the link and read more about the differences between headlines and slogans at Laura Spencer’s WritingThoughts now. You may want to explore Laura’s blog a little further while you are there. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience on writing and her blog is a constant source of information and inspiration for me.

[tags]slogan writing, copywriting[/tags]