You Don't Need to Use a Slogan Generator

By Adam  |  23 Jun 2015 08:00:00

Coming up with a slogan can be hard. What short phrase can you use to summarise your business without it sounding really forced? It's a tricky one and, even though it's a small thing, you might spend quite some time trying to think of something. Of course, you don't have to have a slogan, but it's certainly a good idea; if you can come up with a phrase which will stick in the customers' heads, you've found a way to keep your business in their heads.

A common tool that you'll find on the internet is a slogan generator but I would suggest that you not use this for your business. These slogan generators provide empty and meaningless slogans which are not going to be of use. "Every little helps" is the slogan of Tesco and is known so well, that "every little helps" seems to be entering the language in a way that is independent of its Tesco origin. A slogan of that calibre will not be spontaneously generated by a slogan generator. In fact, any slogan that is created by a generator is likely to seem cheesy or unoriginal, if not downright weird. A quick experiment, in which I put "eCommerce" into a slogan generator to see what would be produced, gave me "eCommerce, the secret of women" as one of the options, so, I think it's quite clear that you're not going to get anything worthwhile out of them.

So, when it comes to writing the slogan for your eCommerce website, try to think of something yourself. I can guarantee that whatever you think up yourself is going to be better than anything a generator can produce. But if you're unsure, here are a few pointers: unlike the one that the generator gave me after my brief experiment, don't write anything that assumes the gender (or anything else) about the customer because you never know who your product might appeal to and you don't want to risk alienating or offending anybody. It's also important that the slogan matches the 'tone' of the business; if you're selling something light-hearted, or something for children, you might want a catchy or even comedic slogan. However, if you have an older consumer base you might instead go for a simple line about why your business is so good.

In the end, the reason you should try to think of a slogan yourself is because even if you come up with one that isn't that great (and you'll probably be fine) your worst idea won't be worse than anything a slogan generator will generate anyway. If you are completely stuck and can't even think of a starting point, then maybe use a slogan generator just to get the ball rolling, but generally it would be wise not to put too much faith into them. Use them as a means to an end, rather than an end in themselves.