[One Thousand Characters a Day] Kim Il-ri's 'Writing for Branding' <5>

Editor's NoteThere are many excellent brand slogans around us that have maintained their place for quite a long time. Some slogans, like Bacchus's 'Relieve the fatigue of the day on the same day' and Hi-Mart's 'When buying electronics, go to Hi-Mart,' are so familiar they evoke catchphrases. Others, like Apple's 'Think Different' and Nike's 'Just Do It,' are naturally engraved in our minds. Why are these slogans particularly special? Is it simply because they are well-crafted sentences? Or is it because they have consistently conveyed a single message for decades? The author explains that so-called 'good slogans' with long vitality and excellent communicative power share common attributes: they encapsulate the brand's core values, reflect the brand's tone and language well, and stimulate the brand's fanship. Word count: 1029.

Many people use slogans and catchphrases interchangeably, but in fact, these two are distinctly different concepts. To distinguish between them, the branding and marketing perspectives we touched on at the very beginning of this book are once again necessary.

First, a slogan is a phrase that mainly focuses on the brand itself, containing the brand identity or the brand's core values, showing the brand's goals and direction. Since it represents the brand's identity, it can be seen as a phrase that maintains longevity as long as the brand strategy does not change.

On the other hand, a catchphrase is, as the name suggests, a phrase used in advertisements or products to induce consumer behavior. These sentences directly influence actions such as encouraging the purchase of a specific product, raising awareness of a newly released product, or highlighting points of differentiation compared to competing products. Because they are heavily influenced by external factors like the current zeitgeist and market environment, they tend to have relatively short lifespans. Advertising copy that we commonly know can largely be classified as a type of catchphrase. Therefore, if catchphrases belong to the realm of marketing, slogans can be summarized as belonging to the realm of branding.

At this point, you might wonder, 'Nowadays, many brands don't have slogans; are slogans really necessary?' or 'Wouldn't it be enough just to express the branding elements we've already created well?' Of course, these are not entirely wrong points, but even if not directly exposed to consumers, creating and utilizing brand slogans is very meaningful in building brand equity.

As we have learned in previous parts, branding serves as an important foundation for effective marketing, so having a well-crafted slogan makes it much easier to set the direction for various advertising copies, including catchphrases. Also, for newly established brands that have not yet accumulated much brand equity, a strong one-line brand slogan can play a significant role.

－Kim Il-ri, <Writing for Branding>, Wisdom House, 18,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.