You may have heard phrases such as:

• Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!
• That’s Hot.
• Just do it.
• Bam!

and more recently,

• There’s an app for that.

Each one of these phrases, you can slap on a ® or ™ symbol because – that’s right – it’s trademarked! Phrases or slogans become synonymous with your brand. They are words, symbols, or adages used to identify particular products. In short, a trademark is a brand.

The examples above are the intellectual property of an organization or individual that were successful in turning their catchphrase into a trademark, and in some cases, a profit.

Trademarking these phrases will keep anyone trying to profit from using it, but also helps protect it from misuse. Apple was successful in trademarking this slogan and almost immediately upon its use, the sentence became synonymous with Apple’s app store.

Business slogans are critical to the image of your business, regardless of the size. The slogan or tagline is part of your business image. It is a major part of your branding.

One of the most important things an advertising agency does is to create a brand for a company. One of the key tenants of a strong brand is consistency of execution, the properly implemented brand and slogan. The size of your company or business doesn’t matter. Large or small, you need a brand.

You need a brand image and/or tagline for your Web site and for all of your sales material. While a slogan contains just a few words, it is not easy to write. It takes more effort to write a meaningful slogan in a few words, than it does to write a long sales letter. That slogan sums up the product and or company in a limited amount of words.

It can be very hard to make a good brand, it takes research, analysis, and interviews. Just look at the recent criticism coming from the new GAP logo. Customers are important participants in the branding process, and it’s the marketer’s job to harness customers’ enthusiasm, knowledge and the authenticity and make it work with the brand. Small but strategic steps can create a tremendous cumulative effect.