An empirical study on the recall of slogans

Abstract

The general purpose of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of slogans. An empirical quantitative study was conducted, in order to access the effectiveness of twenty one brand slogans from nine business-to-consumer product categories, measuring their recall and recognition rates and possible intrinsic characteristics impacting it: slogan antiqueness, slogan length and product category as independent variables. The main global finding is that a slogan can play an important role in branding, but the slogan should be managed in a long-term perspective, coherent with long-term brand positioning and avoiding frequent radical changes. This means that slogans can be important, but in a slow and incremental way, due to its long-term benefits. It was also found that shorter slogans have higher spontaneous recall rates.