ScubaDive -
There are a lot of good points mentioned here and many that follow the traditional methods that have been used for decades. I myself, however, tend to be a bit non-traditional and want to give you a few things to think about and a great book to read. Now, I'm not sponsored by them, so I'm not trying to sell it...but it is a
GREAT book that motivates any entrepreneur and gives you great advice on what to do in situations.
You ask how to come up witha good business slogan. For years we've combined this or pulled this from our company's mission statement. When we do this, we start to duplicate phrases (which isn't a bad thing to enforce your core mission) and sometimes it forces us to create not-so-catchy, long slogans.
May I suggest what
Guy Kawasaki suggests in his book (the one you should read)
"The Art of the Start," that instead of a company slogan...think of your company
motto.
What is a motto?
Using Wikipedia it is: a phrase or a short list of words meant formally to describe the general motivation or intention of an entity, social group, or organization.
So that answer one question you had. Make it short and sweet! Imagine trying to put a two sentence "slogan" under your logo on a business card? It would look weird wouldn't it?
What does your motto do? It describes in a way, what you do, or what I believe is your value. That is what is important to your potential customer.
Take Hewlett-Packard for example, is "invent" their slogan or motto? Well, it probably treated as both. But as a "traditional" slogan, how does that give you ANY clue what they do? Does it tell you that they make PCs, printers, networking components, etc.? Probably not. Does it clue you in that they are an organization focused on innovation and putting the next great innovative ideas into their products (whatever they may be) to make them continually better, YES!
So to help you out. Think, what is my value? (maybe you know Maui and sights in Maui that no other competitive firm does...so your knowledge of all things Maui.) What do I REALLY do? (you help people explore a "world" that they've probably never been to before.) What's my motto? (maybe something like "Opening Your Eyes to Maui")
