How to Write a Slogan: A Practical Method, Tips and Famous Examples
Learning how to write a slogan is mostly learning what to leave out. A good line makes one promise, sounds right when spoken and still fits on a pen. This guide sets out a working method, the sound devices behind famous lines from De Beers, Kit Kat, Nike and Molson, and the tests a slogan should pass.
How to write a slogan: start with one promise
Most weak slogans try to say three things at once. Before any wordplay, write a plain sentence that states the one benefit or attitude the brand wants to own. Fast delivery, lasting value, quiet confidence. Only one survives. Knowing how to write a slogan starts there, because every clever line built on a muddled idea collapses quickly.
Consider De Beers. The line A Diamond Is Forever was written in 1947 and has appeared in the company’s advertising for decades since. It does not mention sparkle, price or quality. It makes one promise, permanence, and that promise conveniently discourages anyone from reselling a stone. The commercial logic sits inside four ordinary words.
What makes slogan examples stick
Look at enough famous slogan examples and a pattern appears: they are short, they sound like speech, and they could only belong to one brand. Kit Kat’s Have a break, have a Kit Kat, first used in 1957, turns the bar’s snap-apart shape into an invitation to pause. The product and the promise become the same thing.
Nike’s Just Do It, introduced in 1988, works differently. It is an instruction, not a description, and it says nothing about shoes at all. That gap is deliberate. The line speaks to anyone who has hesitated before a run or a workout, and it lets the brand stand for an attitude that does not depend on any single product.
Some slogans succeed by asking a question. Got Milk?, launched by the California Milk Processor Board in 1993, reminded people of the moment they ran out, mid-cookie or mid-cereal. Two words and a question mark carried the entire idea. It also left room for endless visual variations, the famous milk moustache among them.
Sound devices: rhythm, rhyme and repetition
Sound matters because slogans are remembered by ear. Repetition, as in the Kit Kat line, gives a phrase a built-in echo. Alliteration, repeating opening consonants, helps a line roll off the tongue. Rhyme can make even an awkward idea stick, although it easily sounds childish. Rhythm is the subtlest device and the one most often ignored.
Read a candidate aloud and tap out its beats. Lines with a strong, regular stress pattern are easier to recall than lines that stumble. McDonald’s I’m lovin’ it, launched in 2003, drops the g to sound like casual speech, which also smooths the rhythm. A small spelling choice like that can matter more than a clever word.
How to write a slogan in seven steps
The method below is not the only answer to how to write a slogan, but it holds up for a café, a charity, a hardware store or a campaign poster. It moves from meaning to sound to legal checks, in that order, because polishing a line nobody can legally use wastes an afternoon.
- Write one plain sentence stating the benefit or attitude.
- List the words customers already use about the brand.
- Generate at least fifty lines without judging any of them.
- Try each device: instruction, question, repetition, rhyme and a twist on a familiar phrase.
- Cut every line to the fewest words that keep the meaning.
- Shortlist five and read each one aloud in context.
- Search trademark registers before choosing.
The third step is where most people quit too early. The first ten lines are usually clichés, because they are the phrases everybody else already wrote. Pushing past them forces new combinations. The brainstorming techniques guide has structured ways to keep going, from Alex Osborn’s rules to timed sketching drills.
Slogan tips for length and wording
The most useful of all slogan tips: cut. Write the line long, then remove words one at a time until the next cut would break the meaning. Most memorable lines end up between two and seven words. If a slogan needs a comma and a second clause to make sense, it is probably two slogans trying to share a space.
Pronouns deserve attention too. L’Oreal’s Because I’m worth it, coined in 1971, put the customer in the first person, so every reader spoke the line as her own. The company later changed the pronoun to you and then to a plural form. Each version shifts who is speaking, and each one changes the feeling of the line noticeably.
Avoid words that any competitor could use. Quality, best, trusted and innovative appear on so many signs that readers skip them. A good test is to swap in a rival’s name. If the line still works, it is not yet a slogan, only a description of the product category, and it needs another round of writing.
Testing a slogan before it goes public
Testing is the step of how to write a slogan that most people skip, yet it needs no budget. Show the shortlist to five outsiders and ask them, a day later, which line they remember. Recall beats preference; people praise polite lines and forget them. Then check each one on a business card and a storefront.
Legal checks come last but cannot be skipped. In Canada, a slogan can be registered as a trademark through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office if it is distinctive. Search that database and the registers in any country where you sell. A great line that another company already owns is worth nothing to you, however good it sounds.
A Canadian case: three words that became a rant
Molson Canadian used the slogan I Am Canadian from 1994. In March 2000 the brand aired a commercial now known as The Rant, in which actor Jeff Douglas, as Joe, listed differences between Canadians and Americans before shouting the slogan. Audiences repeated it at hockey games and in bars. The line had become the punchline.
The campaign was retired in 2005, shortly after Molson merged with Coors, yet in 2025 The Rant resurfaced across social media during a period of trade tension with the United States. Douglas himself appeared in a new video. Three words written for a beer had outlived the campaign by twenty years. How many slogans written this year will manage that?
Questions about writing a slogan
What are the 5 rules of a good slogan?
Most writers would agree on these: keep it short, make one clear promise, make it easy to say aloud, make it distinctive enough that a competitor could not use it, and make sure it still fits the brand in ten years. Rhythm, rhyme and repetition are helpful devices but not requirements. Clarity matters more than cleverness.
How many words should a slogan be?
Most memorable slogans run between two and seven words. Nike's Just Do It has three, Got Milk? has two, and Kit Kat's line has six. Longer lines can work when they have strong rhythm, but each extra word makes the line harder to remember. Write long first, then cut until any further cut would lose the meaning.
What is the difference between a slogan and a tagline?
The words are often used interchangeably. When people draw a distinction, a tagline is the lasting line attached to a brand, often placed under the logo, while a slogan belongs to a particular campaign and may change every few years. Many famous slogans, such as De Beers's line about diamonds, eventually became permanent taglines.
Can I trademark a slogan in Canada?
Yes, a slogan can be registered as a trademark in Canada through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, provided it is distinctive and not merely descriptive. Before adopting a line, search the CIPO database and the trademark registers of other countries where you plan to sell. A lawyer or registered trademark agent can advise on the details.
How do I come up with a catchy slogan for my business?
Write down the single benefit a customer gets, then generate at least fifty lines around it without judging them. Try rhyme, alliteration, an instruction, a question and a twist on a common phrase. Shortlist five, read each aloud, sleep on them, and show them to people outside the business. The one they repeat back unprompted is usually right.