There’s no way you can think of the Nike brand without thinking of their legendary “just do it” slogan. However, when we think about putting a slogan or tagline next to our logo, the big question is whether to “just do it” or not to do it at all!?
What is the role of slogans, that is, taglines, how they shape logo ideas and concepts, and whether and when they should be used in logo design? These are the topics we explore and analyze in this article.
Slogans and taglines: Is there a difference?!
There are different definitions of slogans and taglines, some less some more successful, but it still seems that the definition of the difference between the two is not clear.
However, let’s try to determine the exact difference. After much deliberation, the editors of our blog came to the conclusion that there are several things about the difference between slogans and taglines, but that there is no space for any absolute final conclusions.
Anyway, we came to some things we want to share here with our readers… The slogan is a message related to what is called “brand promise”, ie, what a certain brand or company strives for, or better said, the message is more related to the corporate brand, company philosophy and its broader mission, and the tagline is a message addressed to a factual situation, regardless of whether it is a message about the company or the products/services of that company, so taglines in relation to the slogans could be called more “descriptive” messages.
In other words, a tagline is more of a descriptive message than a slogan, which is mostly a kind of call to action.
Slogans in a certain way address users/customers more strongly personally and call for a certain action or want to inspire acceptance of a certain way of thinking, while tagline messages are more a kind of description.
For example, more philosophical and call-to-action messages such as “for peace of your mind”, “making the difference”, “buy natural”, could be characterized as slogans, and more simple and more descriptive messages such as “since 1915”, “naturally grown”, “number one on the market”, etc., are more in the tagline category.
More or less, it seems that the longer one thinks and analyzes the question of the difference between a slogan and a tagline, the more it seems that there is no difference or it is very difficult to grasp.
Probably those who understand slogans and taglines simply as synonyms are completely right.
Some of the observations that we will list here, and which, given the philosophical broad spectrum of this issue, we ourselves take with a grain of salt, are the following:
- slogans are calls to action or messages that inspire acceptance of a certain way of thinking, while taglines are descriptive messages
- slogans are loud, taglines are quieter
- slogans are more future-oriented, taglines are more oriented to the past or present
- slogans more describe the motto and philosophy of the company, taglines are more focused on the value of products or services
When (not) to use slogans and taglines!?
However, there are different motives and use values for using slogans and taglines in the logo concept.
Taglines and slogans for emphasizing the values of products and services!
If you want or need to describe your products and services using the power of your logo, to emphasize their value and uniqueness, then the use of slogans, that is, a tagline is a right decision.
Taglines and slogans for emphasizing the mission and philosophy of the company!
Additional promotion and expression of the mission and philosophy of your company. An important reason for putting slogans and taglines into operation.
Taglines and slogans to provoke emotions in users and customers!
If you want your concept of communication in the market to provoke emotion or acceptance of a certain lifestyle and way of thinking by your existing or potential users and customers, then slogans and taglines are a natural solution.
Taglines and slogans in order to target the specific group!
Some companies need to pay special attention to a certain gender or age. For example, for companies that deal with hunting equipment, in most cases the population with which it communicates is the male population, so logos of hunting companies can have slogans and taglines addressed to men. The same thing is with firearms logos.
If your products or services are primarily intended for a certain population, then paying special attention to that population in the form of slogans and taglines is the right thing and a good decision.
Taglines and slogans for a specific niche!
There are specific niche markets that by their nature impose the need for the logo to have an additional explanation. A good example of this is a podcast logo, we wrote about that in one article before. Simply, no matter what kind of logo you make for a podcast, it is important to point out that it is a podcast.
When designing this kind of specific logo such as for a podcast, you have to keep in mind that the logo of your podcast will not be shown only on podcast platforms so that it is logical and “quite clear” that it is, of course – a podcast, but that you will use and apply that logo in spheres that have nothing to do with podcasts. In such cases, it must be clear to the public that it is a podcast.
Taglines and slogans in “must-have it” situations!
And finally, there are companies that have to put a slogan or tagline. Ok, conditionally speaking, they have to, but here we primarily mean on the situation when the company has an extraordinary best position on the market. If that company wants to communicate all its brand strength, then that fact of a leadership position “must” go with the logo. Here we mean classic tagline sentences such as “No.1 manufacturer of …”. That would be another sensible reason to use slogans and taglines.