A study on linguistic features of english advertising slogans of fashion

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

LÊ THỊ CÚC

A STUDY ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH
ADVERTISING SLOGANS OF FASHION
(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGÔN NGỮ CỦA
KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO THỜI TRANG TRONG
TIẾNG ANH)

M.A. THESIS
Field: English Language
Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2015


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

LÊ THỊ CÚC

A STUDY ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH
ADVERTISING SLOGANS OF FASHION
(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGÔN NGỮ CỦA
KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO THỜI TRANG TRONG
TIẾNG ANH)

M.A. THESIS
Field: English Language

Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr Vo Dai Quang

Hanoi, 2015


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled

A

STUDY

ON

LINGUITIC

FEATURES

OF

ENGLISH

ADVERTISING SLOGANS OF FASHION submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language. Except where
the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due
acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2015

Le Thi Cuc

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Assoc. Prof, Dr Vo Dai Quang
Date: December, 1st, 2015

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support
from a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to
Assoc. Pro. Dr Vo Dai Quang, my supervisor, who has patiently and
constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose
stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through
my growth as an academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to my friends and many others, without
whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me
to have this thesis accomplished.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially to
my husband for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this
academic work.

ii

ABSTRACT
This thesis deals with fashion advertising slogans in English, especially
with phonological, lexical, syntactic and pragmatic features of them. It is aim
to help copywriters to have a better understanding of language of fashion
slogans. The data of the study were collected from mass media such as TV,
posters, or websites of fashion companies, newspaper and magazines in
English. They were then described and analyzed on phonological, lexical,
syntactic and pragmatic aspects under qualitative and quantitative approaches.
The work also made some suggestions of how to write good slogans in
English. The findings of the study show the phonological, lexical, syntactic
and pragmatic features of fashion slogans in English. Hopefully, this research
is useful to those who are teaching and learning English as well as the
copywriters.

iii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
S : Subject
V : Verb
O : Objective

iv


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 1: The frequency of phonological features in English advertising
slogans of fashion......................................................................................... 35
Table 2: The frequency of lexical features in English advertising slogans
of fashion ..................................................................................................... 43

Table 3: The frequency of syntactic features in English advertising
slogans of fashion......................................................................................... 52
Table 4: The frequency of pragmatic features in English advertising
slogans of fashion........................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 1: The distribution of typical phonological features of English
advertising slogans of fashion ...................................................................... 36
Figure 2: The distribution of lexical features of English advertising
slogans of fashion......................................................................................... 44
Figure 3: The distribution of syntactic features in English advertising
slogan of fashion .......................................................................................... 53
Figure 4: The distribution of pragmatic features of English advertising
slogans of fashion......................................................................................... 58

v


TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................ iv
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. vi
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1
1.1

Rationale for the study ........................................................................... 1

1.2 Aims of the study ...................................................................................... 2

1.3 Objectives of the study .............................................................................. 2
1.4 Scope of the study ..................................................................................... 3
1.5 Significance of the study ........................................................................... 3
1.6 Structural organization of the study ........................................................... 3
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................. 5
2.1 Review of Previous Researches ................................................................. 5
2.1.1 Previous studies overseas .................................................................... 5
2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam ................................................................ 5
2.2 Review of Theoretical background ............................................................ 6
2.2.1 Advertising and Advertising Slogan .................................................... 6
2.2.2 Phonology…………………………………………………………16
2.2.3 Lexicon ............................................................................................. 18
2.2.4 Syntax ............................................................................................... 21
2.2.5 Pragmatics ......................................................................................... 24
2.3 Summary………………………………………………………………31
Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................... 28
3.1. Research-governing orientations............................................................. 28

vi


3.1.1 Research questions ............................................................................ 28
3.1.2 Research setting ................................................................................ 28
3.1.3. Research approaches ........................................................................ 29
3.1.4. Principles for intended data collection and data analysis .................. 29
3.2. Research method .................................................................................... 29
3.2.1 Major methods and supporting methods ............................................ 29
3.2.2 Data collection techniques ................................................................. 31
3.2.3 Data analysis techniques.................................................................... 31
3.3 Summary ................................................................................................. 31

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .................................................... 33
4.1 Phonological and lexical features of English advertising slogans of fashion
...................................................................................................................... 33
4.1.1 Phonological features ........................................................................ 33
4.1.2. Lexical features ................................................................................ 36
4.2 Syntactic and pragmatic features of English advertising slogans of fashion
...................................................................................................................... 44
4.2.1 Syntactic features .............................................................................. 44
4.2.2 Pragmatic features ............................................................................. 53
4.3. Implications ............................................................................................ 58
4.4 Summary ................................................................................................. 58
Chapter 5: CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 60
5.1 Recapitulation ......................................................................................... 60
5.2 Concluding remarks ................................................................................ 60
5.3 Limitations of the study ........................................................................... 61
5.4 Suggestions for further studies ................................................................ 62
REFERENCES................................................................................................. 63
APPENDICES.................................................................................................. 66

vii


Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale for the study
Today, with the rapid development of economy around the world,
business competition becomes very fierce. There is an enormous number of
companies in the world. Each businesses has its own products or services and
how can these companies demonstrate their products or services to the
customers? The companies are required to try many ways to exhibit their

products or services. One of the effective ways to introduce them to the
community is advertising.. The company makes acquaintance goods through
all mass media such as television, radio, traditional and modern market,
newspaper, internet and magazine.
Advertising is so familiar to modern readers that it may seem need to
ask what an advertisement is. Generally, advertising is a written or oral of
company using creative and powerful contribution to persuade people in
goods.
Advertisements are identified as the texts that do their best to get
people’s notice to make people turn towards them. The purposes of
advertisements are to attract, inform, motivate and appeal curiosity of the
public to buy and use the products or services.
And a slogan is one of the most important communication tools in
marketing which triggers the feelings and shows the product or service and
company’s claim. The language of slogan represents the particular product.
Slogans can be considered the heart of advertisements wherever they appear.
Slogans are the most important and condensed messages advertisers would
like to send to their customers. Sharp and intelligent slogans can help

1


advertisers leave unforgettable impressions on their potential customers’
minds. However, creating a successful slogan is never an easy task. The use
of just a few words in a slogan proves to be harder than it appears. It requires
a sophisticated linguistic insight of phonology, lexicology, syntax as well as
semantics and pragmatics. Hence, the study on some successful slogans
promises a lot of interesting facts in the art of using language among
advertisers.
On the other hand, what can be called a successful slogan is still a

question. The answer depends on the area of products and services the slogan
is used for, the country or geographical regions it is used in and maybe the
population of its target customers. Therefore, choosing one kind of products
or services to study the slogans used in it should bring more thorough and
detailed results of aspects of language exploited.
This study can help the learners improve their understanding of slogans
and help the fashion companies write good and impressive slogan, one
element that can enhance their competitive ability in the market.
1.2 Aims of the study
The thesis is hopefully conducted with a view to helping Vietnamese
learners of English to have better understanding the typical linguistic features
of English advertising slogan of fashion. Thus they could use English
effectively to design advertising slogans.
1.3 Objectives of the study
From the aim above, the study is focused on some specific aspects of
the language. The objectives of this study is to:
- Describing phonological and lexical features of English advertising
slogans of fashion.

2


- Point out syntactic and pragmatic features of English advertising
slogans of fashion.
- Propose some implications for learning English via the linguistic
features of advertising slogans of fashion in English
1.4 Scope of the study
The study is mainly focused on some phonological, lexical, syntactic
and pragmatic features of English advertising slogans of fashion. Sound,
image and other features of slogans are out of scope of this study.

All the slogans investigated in this study are taken from the advertisements
of fashion companies over the world which are written in English language.
1.5 Significance of the study
This research is expected to be useful in both theoretical and practical
aspects. Theoretically, the study helps to find out linguistic features
employed in advertising slogans of fashion in English language. Practically,
it helps to find out the effectiveness of those linguistic features when
applying to the act of advertising and hopefully suggests some ways of
achieving great impression on customers’ minds through the art of using
words by advertisers. The finding of the study can be a necessary source for
suggesting some good implications for teaching and learning the language
of fashion slogans.
1.6 Structural organization of the study
The study consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1, entitled “INTRODUCTION”, outlines the background of the
study. In this chapter, a brief account of relevant information is provided on
the rationale, aims, scopes, and design of the study.

3


Chapter 2, with the title “LITERATURE REVIEW”, can be considered a
slight overview of some previous researches on the same subject both in English
and Vietnamese. At the same time, it gives a theoretical background to this study
with theoretical preliminaries directly related to the investigation of English
employed in fashion advertising slogans, namely advertising slogans, lexicon,
syntax and pragmatics.
Chapter 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY – refers to the research
approach of the study and the method to collect and analyze the collected data
to help the author achieve the best results in the study.

Chapter 4 is called MAIN FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS, in which
the author summarizes her findings in the characteristics of the English
language used in fashion advertising slogans and also her conclusions on the
percentage of slogans employing those characteristics.
The last chapter is Chapter 5 – CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS,
which provides the recapitulations, implications of the study to the creating
process of advertising slogans in general and fashion slogans in particular,
and suggestions for further studies.

4


Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Review of Previous Researches
2.1.1 Previous studies overseas
In the US and European countries, advertising is a kind of industry.
Studies have been carried out in the aspect of advertising language, of which
some well-known studies are “English in advertising: A linguistic study of
advertising in Great Britain” by Geoffrey N.Leech (1996), “Advertising as
communication” by Gillian Dyer (1982), “English for sale: A study of the
language of advertising” by Lars Hermeren (1999), or “The discourse of
advertising” by Guy Cook (2001). There are also some studies which only
focus on certain language features of advertisements. Some of these are
“Selling America: Puns, language and advertising” by Michel Monnot (1982),
“Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising” by Char Forceville (1998). There are also
some contrastive studies which compare the advertising language in English
and that in other languages, for example “Advertising language: A pragmatic
approach to advertisement in Britain and Japan” by Keiko Tanaka (1994).
2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam

In Vietnam, advertising activities are quite new and have been rapidly
expanded for the last few years. Therefore, the number of studies in this field
in Vietnam is limited. Some notable researches on the language of advertising
include two PhD theses done by Mai Xuan Huy (2001) on “Các đặc điểm của
ngôn ngữ quảng cáo dưới ánh sáng của lý thuyết giao tiếp” (Features of
advertising language in the light of communicative theory), and Ton Nu My
Nhat (2005) “A contrastive discourse analysis of travel advertisements based
on the theory of Functional Grammar”.
5


Besides, there are many articles on the matter of advertising language
which are collected by Nguyen Kien Truong (2004) in a book called “Quảng
cáo và ngôn ngữ quảng cáo: (Advertising and the language of advertising).
Also, there are some MA theses carried out at institutional level. For
example, at Vietnam National University, Hanoi College of Foreign Languages,
a thesis on advertising language used in trade was studied by Hoang Thi Thuy
(2005); “Presupposition and Implicature in English and Vietnamese
Advertising Slogans” by Tran Thien Tu (2007) and “An Investigation into the
Style of the English Language used in Advertising Slogans issued by some
World-famous Airlines” by Bui Thi Bich Thuy (2008).
All these works have revealed typical and very interesting features of
advertising language in general and slogans in particular. Also in the spirit of
inheriting and upholding the previous studies, what is being done hereafter is
to partially find out some similarities and differences in certain stylistic
features between some English and Vietnamese advertising slogans.
2.2 Review of Theoretical background
2.2.1 Advertising and Advertising Slogan
2.2.1.1 Advertising as a kind of Communication
a. Communication

Communication plays a vital role in human life. In his work, Fiske
(1990:51) defines communication as social interaction through messages. It
can be inferred that communication appears in social contexts among people
with messages to be transferred. Here, he emphasizes that the messages are
not only information but also relationship between the speakers and the
hearers. However, this definition seems too broad and blurred in meaning.
According to Bovee and Thill (2000:57), communication can occur in
various forms, written or spoken, verbal or nonverbal, to show a process of

6


sending and receiving messages. This concept has much to share with the
definition given by Saundra Hybels and Richard L. Weaver (1992: 7) which
says “communication is any process in which people share information, ideas,
and feelings. That process involves not only spoken or written word, but also
the body language, personal mannerism and style, the surroundings – anybody
that adds meanings to a message.” As seen from this definition,
communication itself is an on-going process with a lot of factors that help.
Based on particular situations, communicators will choose to make use of
some factors that are most useful and available in such cases to make their
messages understood.
For Shannon (1948:379-423 and 623-656), he breaks the process of
communication down into eight discrete components:
1. An information source. Presumably a person who creates a message.
2. The message, which is both sent by the information source and
received by the destination.
3. A transmitter.
4. The signal, which flows through a channel.
5. A carrier or channel. The most commonly used channels include air,

light, electricity, radio waves, paper, and postal systems.
6. Noise, in the form of secondary signals that obscure or confuse the
signal carried. Today we use noise more as a metaphor for problems
associated with effective listening.
7. A receiver. In Shannon's conception, the receiving telephone
instrument. In face to face communication a set of ears (sound) and eyes
(gesture). In television, several layers of receiver, including an antenna and a
television set.
8. A destination. Presumably a person who consumes and processes the
message.
7


The model of the communication process by Shannon (1948) provides,
in its breakdown of the flow of a message from source to destination, an
excellent breakdown of the elements of the communication process that can
be very helpful to students who are thinking about how they communicate
with others.
b. Advertising
In business, advertising is a form of marketing communication used to
encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience (viewers, readers or listeners;
sometimes a specific group) to take or continue to take some action. Most
commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a
commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also
common. This type of work belongs to a category called affective labor.
(Wikipedia.org)
According to Bovee (1992) “ Advertising is the nonpersonal
communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in
nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsor through the
various media” (Bovee, 1992: 7)

Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information because
it is not aimed at any individual; it aimed at the public or a certain group of
people. It is different from interpersonal communication in which both
speakers and hearers are there to interact with each other.
According to Churchill and Peter (1998) “Advertising is noted as any
announcement or persuasive message placed in the mass media in paid or
donated time or space by an identified individual, company, or organization to
serve a number of audience about products and persuade or remind them of
buying, to convey information about the organization itself or issues
important to the organization in order to create or enhance perception of the

8


quality or reliability of a product, thus encouraging customer loyalty and
repeat purchases”. (Churchill, 1998:142)
For Geis (1982) advertising is a promotion or "any means of promoting
sales and use of a product" (Geis, 1982: 1). Dyer (1982), on the other hand,
defines it as ''drawing attention to something or notifying or informing
somebody of something'' (Dyer, 1982: 2). The former definition is valid only
for those products that are advertised with the single purpose of being sold.
As we all know, there are also advertisements which offer certain services or
try to encourage or move recipients to do something without the intention of
selling anything; and here the latter definition holds true.
Cook (2001: 182) stated that advertising is not some “external
curiosity” into which we investigate but it is “something of which we are part,
and which is part of us”.
From a linguistics perspective, Adler (1985:25) defines advertising as
“a communicative situation” in which language can function in reference to
the purposes and real possibilities of this type of communication. With a

different view on advertising, Goddard (1998:10) focuses on the aim of
advertising with these words below:
Advertising is not just about the commercial promotion of branched
products but can also encompass the idea of texts whose intention is to
enhance the image of an individual, group or organization. An advertisement
is identified as a public notice created so as to spread information with the
intention of promoting the sales of goods and services in the market
(Vestergaard and Schroder, 1985:2)
Basing upon the above definitions, we might summarize the features of
advertising as follows: Advertising is to tell about or praise products, services,
ideas,… publicly, not personally; Advertising draws support from mass media,

9


such as newspaper, radio, TV and internet. The aims of advertising are to
increase the sales of the product or service to create and maintain a brand
identity or brand image, to communicate change in the existing product line,
or to introduce a new product or service.
c. Advertising as kind of communication
Churchill, Jr. and Peter (1998:142) show their opinions about
advertising by stating as follows: Advertising is noted as any announcement
or persuasive message placed in the mass media in paid or donated time or
space by an identified individual, company, or organization to serve a number
of audience about products and persuade or remind them of buying, to convey
information about the organization itself or issues important to the
organization in order to create or enhance perception of the quality or
reliability of a product, thus encouraging customer loyalty and repeat
purchases. Therefore, advertising is, in its nature, a form of communication
between advertisers and customers.

Goddard (1998) discusses the communication of advertising under the
idea of narrators and narratees. She states that the writer is the person who
constructs the text in reality (in advertising texts, the real writers are the
copywriters and artists who work in an advertising agency’s creative
department), while the narrator is the storyteller within the text. Copywriters
can “construct all sorts of different narrators to convey to us the message of
an advert” (Goddard, 1998:29), for example, a female writer can construct a
male narrator, or an adult writer can construct a child narrator. Narratees are,
on the other hand, people who appear to be addressed. In fact, in advertising
communication, a narratee is not a certain person, but at least a target group,
or the whole public.

10


The communicative situation of advertising is a type of communication
called mass communication. The participants of advertising communication
are a copywriter and audience who do not refer to any single person but also
to a collective. The first category is usually represented by an advertising
agency where a group of people works on the production of a certain message
on behalf of the advertiser. The second category stands for a group of people
or audience who are usually exposed to advertising from different sources.
The audience differs in terms of sex, education, social status, age and income.
Hence, the copywriters have to take who different advertisements are
made for into great consideration. Then, the objects of the communication are
products and services which are advertised. Finally, the most important
distinction of media is between speech and writing.
2.2.1.2 Functions of Advertising
Although the primary objective of advertising is to persuade, it may
be achieved in many different ways. One of the most commonly advertising

formula used to creating an advertisement is the acronym AIDA- Attention,
Interest, Desire and Action. In other words, an advertisement should have
four functions:
Attention: a good advertisement should attract the consumer to direct
their attention to the product of it. Most advertising campaigns rely on a mix
of visual stimulus to capture the viewer’s attention, using images to help an
advertisement stand out and create a lasting impression.
Interest: Once the product or service has secured people's attention, the
next job is to hold their interest. This is done by promoting product features
and clearly stating the benefit the product has to offer. The aim at this stage is
to provide the customer with information that will move them to the next
stage of the process, desire.

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Desire: the publicity of advertising should stimulate consumers’
desire to buy the product, and make them realize that this product is just
what they want.
Action: the advertising makes consumers to response to the advertising
information and evokes them to take the action of purchasing. It is here that
the topmost task of advertising is fulfilled.
2.2.1.3 Types of Advertising
Advertisements

are

classified

based

on

different

criteria.

Geographically, there are local, national and international advertisements. In
terms of advertising medium, they are divided into print and electronic
categories. Besides, as for their purposes, advertisements can be classified
into commercial and non-commercial categories. The basic difference is
that “commercial consumer advertising is directed towards a mass audience
with the aim of promoting sales of a commercial product or service” (Leech,
1966:25) while the non-commercial is produced by governmental agencies or
associations. In other words, the most important aim of commercial
advertising is to sell a product or service whereas the objective of the noncommercial one is to influence the public through political propaganda or
through the contribution to charity.
Even though there exist other types of advertising, it is the commercial
one which uses the largest amount of money, professional skill as well as
space in the media. Vestergaard and Schroder (1985, p1-2) consider three
types of commercial advertising:
- Prestige or good-will advertising - where firms advertise a name or
an image
- Industrial or trade advertising – where a firm advertises its products
to other firms

12


- Consumer advertising – where a firm advertises its products to

potential consumers
Most television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertisements are
consumer advertisements. The consumer advertising includes alcoholic ads,
cigarette ads, drink ads, food ads, wear ads, cosmetic ads, automobile ads, home
electric appliance ads, and other products which are used and purchased by
ordinary people. To this kind of advertisements, most people have developed a
kind of ambivalent psychology. On one hand, they are bored with the endless
advertisements hiding in the newspapers and magazines, clamoring on the radio,
or dazzling on the TV. On the other hand, they still need the information to guide
their purchasing. Therefore, to attract the consumers’ attention is the most
important task for an advertising copywriter. All advertising slogans which are
analyzed in this study belong to consumer advertising category
Non-commercial advertising can be also called Public Interest
Advertising. The general objective of public interest advertising is to inform,
persuade, or remind people about the particular idea, cause, or philosophy
being advertised. This kind of advertising is often used by non-business
institutions, such as schools, hospitals and charitable organizations. We also
see advertising by associations or government organizations. Much
government advertising announces the availability of such valuable
government services as consumer assistance, welfare aid, or career guidance.
Many state governments use advertising to attract new businesses, tourists, or
workers to aid their economy. Due to the fact that public interest advertising
is nonprofit, the words it uses are much more different from the other three
kinds of advertising. Its purpose is not to urge readers to spend their money,
but to disseminate a kind of concept or advocate a social ethic.

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2.2.1.4 Advertising Components

According to the definition of the advertising, most of the
advertisements should have the following components:
(1) Advertiser
The advertiser is the sender of information and all the advertising
activities should be consistent with the purpose and willingness of the
advertiser. The advertiser should be a recognizable group, including
corporation, enterprise, government, organization and individual.
(2) Advertising Fee
The advertising fees are paid by the advertiser no matter it’s operated
by itself or other agency. Because advertising is a kind of marketing action,
an advertiser has to pay for its advertisement.
(3) Advertising Information
Advertising information is the principal contents an advertisement
wants to disseminate. Advertising is a series of planning actions, so the
information of advertising should be aimed at the certain target market and
consumers, and should avoid aimlessness. The dissemination of information
should be accurate, definite, recognizable and moderate in length.
(4) Advertising Media
Media are the means of the dissemination of advertising, including
newspaper, magazine, broadcast, TV program, billboard and mail. The
newspaper, magazine, broadcast and TV are called the four main media of
advertising. Moreover, any kind of objects or tools can be a medium for the
advertisement, such as airplane, train, bus, building, neon light, movie,
package, exhibition, and etc. Different kinds of media have different features,
disseminating area, target audience and speed.

14


Within the advertisement itself, the components are headline, body

copy, slogan, illustrations and colors, trademark, and brand name. These
elements are named as visual elements. Another kind of elements - audio
elements are advertising commentary, advertising music and advertising
sounds. In these elements, headline, body copy and slogan are the most
important elements in an advertisement. In this study, I would like to pay
more attention to slogans, which carry the features of being explicit, refined
and inflammatory.
2.2.1.5 Advertising Slogan as an Essential Part of an Advertisement
a. Definition of a Slogan
The word slogan is derived from a Scottish Gaelic word sluagh-ghairm
pronounced as slogorm which used to mean battle-cry.
According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1995), “a
slogan is a short easily-remembered phrase used by an advertiser, a
politician, etc.”
A slogan is defined as a memorable motto or phrase used in a political,
commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea
or purpose. Slogans vary from the written and the visual to the chanted and
the vulgar. Their simple rhetorical nature usually leaves little room for detail
and a chanted slogan may serve more as social expression of unified purpose
than as communication to an intended audience. (Wikipedia.org)
An advertising slogan or a tagline is, as Geis (1982:49) defines it, a "unique
phrase identified with a company or brand". It is often a summarized "big idea"
which gives the product or the company a concept in the contracted form and "ties
together all of the elements in an advertising campaign" (Geis, 1982: 54). A
slogan has "to say something about the product uniqueness or values" and it
"should command attention, be memorable and be brief" (Geis, 1982: 54).

15

b. Requirements of a good advertising slogan
A perfectly-formed slogan should fulfill several criteria. First, it should
be memorable. Memorability has to do with the ability the line has to be
recalled unaided. The more the slogan resonates with the big idea, the more
memorable it will be.
A good slogan should recall the brand name, and ideally, the brand
name should be included in the line. A good slogan should include a key
benefit. In addition, a good tagline should differentiate the brand. The
distinction here is that the slogan should depict a characteristic about the
brand that sets it apart from its competitors. A good slogan should also recall
the brand name. This use of semiotics is immensely powerful when it works,
because it forces the viewer to say the brand name.
One of the best techniques for bringing in the brand name is to make
the tagline rhyme with it. A fall-back position is to use a rhyme and mention
the brand name without it actually rhyming.
An effective slogan should impart positive feelings about the brand.
Importantly, a good slogan should not be usable by a competitor. A slogan
should not be able to substitute a competitive brand name and use the line.
Many slogans have absolutely no competitive differentiation.
A good tagline should be strategic: Some companies can effectively
convey their business strategy in their lines. Catchy taglines also try to
be trendy, often without success.
1. Be memorable
2. Recall the brand name
3. Include a key benefit
4. Differentiate the brand
5. Impart positive feelings for the brand

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