It's important to choose your slogan wisely: Using a slogan
as a management tool involves some risk. One danger is that you
won't be able to live up to the slogan's promise.
That's especially true if your slogan makes a quantitative
claim, as does Embassy Suites' "Twice the hotel,"
referring to its claim of charging one-room rates for two-room
suites. Although quantitative slogans can be very effective, if you
make a promise and can't live up to it, you'll succeed only
in looking foolish in front of your employees and customers.
You may also err by coming up with a slogan that focuses
employees' attention on the wrong issues. For instance,
it's probably not a good idea to have a slogan that deals
strictly with financial matters. "Your cornerstone
shouldn't be something like `Maximizing profit,' "
says Miesing.
Another way to go wrong is to choose something employees
can't believe in. It's easy to do this when you're
trying to evoke a vision that will force your employees to stretch
their capabilities. "The biggest mistake is coming out with a
slogan they simply can't live up to," says Keidel.
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Creating the right slogan can be inexpensive--or very costly.
Large companies spend millions of dollars to have ad agencies and
image consultants create new slogans. Communicating the new slogans
can be expensive, too; Ford has budgeted $40 million for the
corporate advertising campaign that will roll out its new slogan,
"Better ideas. Driven by you." But you don't have to
break the bank. Printing slogans on posters, memo pads and other
visible places works well for smaller companies, says DuBrin.
Keep in mind that not every company is ready for a slogan. If
your business is changing direction and you're uncertain about
where it's going, you should wait until you have a firm
strategy before trying to develop a slogan to express it. "You
need a fair sense of where you're headed," says Keidel.
"And you'd better be sure it's something you want to
live with for a while."
Similarly, if you're experiencing serious business problems,
you should delay creating a slogan until the issues are settled.
"You can't use a slogan to paper over a crack," says
Miesing.
At Kelliher/Samets/Volk, the only crack that's appeared is
the widening gap between past and present performance. Samets
credits much of a 20 percent increase in billings this year to the
energizing and focusing effects of the company's 2-year-old
slogan. And he's ready to subject his own performance to the
"Where's the wow?" question.
"If I were standing in front of a board of directors
today," he says, "I could definitely wow them with the
caliber of work we're doing and the profits we're
generating now versus 24 months ago." Wow.
Contact Sources
Kelliher/Samets/Volk, (802) 862-8261, ysamets@ksvc.com
Robert W. Keidel Associates, (215) 576-5823, fax: (215)
576-7881
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