Question

Topic: Taglines/Names

How Much To Start Off Charging For A Slogan

Posted by Anonymous on 11/16/2021 at 1:38 AM ET 125 Points
I am a marketing analyst that wants to get in to freelance slogan writing. I want to make money, but be fair without underselling my service. What and/or how should I charge a company? Can someone give me a simple honest answer please.
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  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 11/16/2021 at 8:44 AM Accepted
    You charge based on perceived value. You can charge a multinational company that needs a slogan (and hasn't been able to develop one successfully) more than a newly launched startup. But in both cases, you need to show how YOUR service is much better than your competitor's (and ideally your results).

    You wanted a simple answer: figure out how much time you're willing to devote on a slogan development, and multiply that by your hourly rate. That'll give you a baseline.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 11/16/2021 at 10:34 AM Accepted
    No simple, honest answers. We've worked for clients in the Fortune Top 25 and we've worked for small family-owned local businesses. Some projects take a week or two, while others take months. Fees ranged from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. Depends on how much time/effort we think will be required, the full scope of the assignment, what the perceived value is to the client, and how busy we are at the time.
  • Posted by chiron34 on 11/17/2021 at 9:21 AM Member
    One point a new participant needs to think about a lot in addition to my colleagues' points set out above, is a follow on from a point briefly referred to by Jay. You have to be confident that you can compete with competitors on the quality of your work. How much experience have you had writing slogans? In many cases, as alluded by Michael, if you already have some practical experience in this field or have some examples of your work where a client or more has accepted a slogan of yours, then that will put you in a better bargaining position to negotiate a more reasonable (from your perspective) fee. The elephant in the room here is that in the final analysis, the fee agreement often depends upon your own negotiation skills in your interaction with prospective clients. You just need to first establish your own downside limit under which you will not work, but you also need some negotiating ability to try to reach agreement with prospective clients on a fee that you will feel comfortable with.

    There are many books on negotiating techniques. I suggest that you read a couple, if you are not already an experienced negotiator.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 11/17/2021 at 3:20 PM Moderator
    You will soon learn that good or great slogans express an emotional payoff for the target audience. And many clients haven't identified that payoff, or core benefit. So in order for you to deliver a great slogan you may have to do a lot more digging/research before you can craft the slogan.

    That is the start of "project creep" -- familiar to all experienced consultants. You will learn to identify symptoms of project creep and find some way to budget -- and charge -- for it. Otherwise you will find yourself (a) losing money on your slogan projects, and/or (b) having to randomly pick a benefit that doesn't reflect the true needs of the client's target audience, and thus have a project failure instead of a success.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 11/20/2021 at 11:48 AM Accepted
    Do you mean a slogan? Or are you talking about a tagline?

    Slogans are generally applied to companies and causes, whereas taglines are usually applied to specific campaigns.

    I wrote about this subject in response to a question here on the KHE back in June of 2009. Here's a link:

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstid=29234

    As for what to charge, the wisdom of the others (above) is your best source of information here. Their decades of in-the-trenches experience can't be equalled. The key though, as Jay mentioned, is the amount of value your create.
  • Posted by alan on 11/25/2021 at 9:58 PM Accepted
    My first visit back here for many years, and as I crack some knuckles and get ready for work I'll offer my $5... (inflation!)

    My first question is why start off slogan writing? I'd incorporate that within copywriting in general. As Goodman pointed out, you often get project 'creep'. You can use that to your advantage to upsell your services, but tie yourself down as a slogan-writer and you'll just find yourself as an underpaid and overworked slogan-writer.

    Where's the fun in that?
  • Posted by Shelley Ryan on 2/10/2022 at 9:49 AM Moderator
    Hi Everyone,

    I am closing this question since there hasn't been much recent activity.

    Thanks for participating!

    Shelley
    MarketingProfs
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