Among the harder parts of starting a company (or any organization for that matter) is coming up with a name and slogan. My side company, Gemini Connect, was lucky to have both decided upon relatively quickly. The story behind the name was quite simple. Martin and I agreed that one of the things we have in common is our gemini zodiac signs, as his birthday comes 1 day after mine. And what is one of the qualities of gemini people? A strong sense of connecting with people, which is the main mission and purpose of our company. Bam! Gemini Connect it was.

I initially feared that coming up with the next part, a slogan, would be far more painful. I actually really love company slogans, as they have to be both short and memorable. It’s a challenge to come up with slogans, and many of the ones that stick are extremely witty. As I did my research on other popular slogans, I came across a bunch , some of which I’d grown up knowing, and others I hadn’t even known before. Others yet were ones that changed over time to reflect a character shift in the brand. Ever wonder how many slogans McDonald’s has had? TONS!  Here’s a partial list of some pretty famous brands and their slogans.

  1. Harley Davidson – American by Birth. Rebel by Choice.
  2. Volkswagen – Think Small.
  3. Porsche – There is no substitute.
  4. Aston Martin – Power, beauty and soul.
  5. Walmart – Save Money. Live Better.
  6. Reebok – I am what I am.
  7. Nike – Just do it.
  8. Adidas – Impossible is Nothing.
  9. Calvin Klein – Between love and madness lies obsession.
  10. Marks & Spencer – The customer is always and completely right!

To aid in coming up with a slogan, it’s crucial to know the definition and intention of a slogan. The Free Dictionary defines a slogan as “a phrase expressing the aims or nature of an enterprise, organization, or candidate.” With that in mind, the first question to ask yourself is “what does your organization aim to accomplish?” Try to summarize your answer in a statement consisting of not more than 2 sentences, and make them keyword rich. In the case of Gemini Connect, we decided that our main mission was to make a significant impact on lifestyles using technology. Our two keywords were “lifestyles” and “technology,” so those would definitely have to be a part of the slogan.

After you have your mission statement in mind, take your keywords and add some adjectives or verbs to bring life to them and really illustrate your intent. We had to ask ourselves, “what words describe what we want to do with lifestyles and technology?” Change, revolutionize, improve…reinvent! Reinventing lifestyles with technology. But was technology too long of a word? What’s another word for technology? New media!

Our final slogan came down to “Reinventing lifestyle with new media.” Not over the top, but keyword rich and very descriptive of what Gemini Connect aims to accomplish. And it only took about 10 minutes to come up with. The next time you’re slumped for a slogan, use these two questions to jumpstart your creativity and better tell your story.