Comments on: What should our new slogan be?

By: me

me — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:34:08 +0000

I added “Knowledge is power. Empower your ethics.” It may need tweaking: values (or something else) rather than ethics? I suspect I chose it because it’s alliterative. I agree with Pete H, too. BILUMI (although the acronym makes me think of bulimia) is probably sufficient by itself, but I’d suggest that if a second slogan is used it says the same thing but in a contrasting way. “Tools for responsible shopping” does that, though it’s a bit boring IMO.

Best of luck with this project!

By: Clay

Clay — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:18:52 +0000

Good point, Ben. Citizen’s Market has a very similar service to ours and we wouldn’t want to overlap. My oversight.

By: ben s.

ben s. — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:32:33 +0000

Perhaps another negative on #4 is that Citizen’s Market is presently using a very similar slogan “Your Values. Your Money. Your Choices.” It would seem important to differentiate bilumi branding from their’s.

By: Ben S.

Ben S. — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:56:34 +0000

After making my post I spent a while questioning what I had said… feeling like I had posted something negative and hadn’t been clear or constructive enough. I like how Lucy clarified the role of imperatives. They can be really good, like a mantra or something to rally around. For example I really liked how “buy it like you mean it” sounded as Clay used it in his nubtalk audio post on the blog. The phrase captures the mission really well — it contains the action, it contains our intent, and it contains “you” — as I think Clay said in the audio “we want us to be you.”

Maybe one should as Lucy says just avoid multiple imperatives, or ones that conflict.

If I could revote I would vote for #7 “Tools for responsible shopping” as something that best backs up and amplifies the mission of “buy it like you mean it.”

Thanks so much, Clay, for making so much effort to encourage input and discussion!

By: Kawika

Kawika — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:03:04 +0000

“Put your mind…” is really smart, but perhaps just a bit too smart for most people to identify with the first time they read it. I went with “Your money…” because it seemed direct and catchy. No one will mistake what your website is about.

By: Lucy

Lucy — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:33:15 +0000

I voted first based on gut reaction. Then I read the comments, which were all interesting and sounded reasonable to me.

I like the last three because they each succinctly answers what we are doing.
# 5. Collective wisdom for individual choice.
# 6. Responsible shopping made easy.
# 7. Tools for responsible shopping.

We are making tools for making responsible shopping easy. I agree that #7 does this best (the easy part of #6 seems a little simplistic. We’re making it easier to get information at the point of sale)

I voted for #5 because I think it expresses our soul: openness and enablement.

IMHO, #5 and #7 are the most straightforward and trustworthy statements.

#4 I understand logically (org’s care about money, people have money and care about lots of other things…), but the short quip sounds empty to me.

I don’t like the overt money or wallet mentions because our mission is that people care about *more* than money and bottom lines and profits. The imperative tone of #2 and #3 are especially discordant with the permissiveness of our mission. I agree that given our name, which is already imperative, and also fun in long and short form, we might consider avoiding futher imperative statements that dilute our overall branding.

Thanks for the polls and questions, Clay. It’s fun to be part of this community.

By: ben s.

ben s. — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:53:40 +0000

I voted for “your money your values” because it emphasizes how the service allows people to do what they already believe in with what they already have — it avoids the tone of “telling people what they should do” that the imperative “buy it like you mean it” has (for me). In this way it seems like a helpful emphasis on individual empowerment… an invitation to people to connect their values with their use of money. It highlights what seems like a unique aspect of the service — that it will customize ratings based on the user’s values. This makes it so much different than advocacy newsletters of the past, and perhaps other websites of the present.

I guess a negative could be that the slogan plays into the blind invidualist language that groups like tax-payers revolt, etc. use to tell people that their money is all theirs and they should ignore how the social structure around them helped them to get it.

p.s. I really like the abbreviation bilumi — to me it is a hip-sounding short name like kijiji or google or yahoo.

By: Bee

Bee — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:52:05 +0000

I suggest you do not publish the comments, since this influences the decision of the people answering later.
I don’t like #2, cause I don’t want to carry my mind in my wallet.
I like #3, very idealistic. #7 is ok too.

By: Clay

Clay — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:33:32 +0000

Hi all, since people are expressing choices I’ve changed this post to include a poll so that you can choose which option you like best. Please please feel free to add more options!

By: Julia M

Julia M — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:15:24 +0000

I like the last one too (#7). Buy It Like You Mean It; Tools for responsible shopping.
It is relatively short and answers the customers’ confusion quickly as to how you are going to help them.

By: pete h.

pete h. — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:10:35 +0000

I like the last one (#7). But I also think that having your name as your slogan is quite useful and there is the risk of diluting or muddying that message by the use of too many slogans. Thus, I would use this (what I think of as secondary) description/slogan sparingly.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:07:41 +0000

I love ‘Put your mind where your money is.’
That’s perfect!
All the best, C