Summary: A slogan is an integral part of a company’s branding, which can contribute to the company’s success. However, between a great company and a good slogan, it is not easy to determine which should come first. A good slogan can be very catchy; however, the company’s real value is not only shown in the slogan but also in its real actions. The same story happens in the audit industry when people tend to focus more on audit failure. If you trust a company’s product/service quality just because of its slogan, it might be misleading and naïve.

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What is “slogan”? According to Oxford Dictionary of English, slogan is “a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising.” So, in that definition, slogan is “used in advertising“, a component of marketing. What is the purpose of the slogan? It is a “repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group“. What makes a good slogan? Normally, they are “memorable“, “concise” and “appealing“.

General speaking, slogan is an integral part of a company branding. Clearly, a good slogan can contribute greatly to the success of a company. Because it can create a good impression, and then attract more customers. Few example, “Just do it” – Nike, “Think Different” – Apple, “Save Money. Live Better” – Walmart, “It’s finger lickin’ good” – KFC. Those slogans satisfy all requirements of a good slogan, don’t they?

Great company and good slogan – Which should come first?

However, there is one matter that we can dive deeper: which comes first – a great company or a good slogan? Should a great company come first, then comes a good slogan, or a reverse way? Or should both come together?

There are a few arguments on that matter. In those above-mentioned examples, it seems to be that both great company and good slogan come together. Someone can argue that great companies come first, then they can change their slogan to reflect their new status and development stage. The slogan is not fixed but changed overtime. Some others may think slogan is one way to define the vision of a company. Without the good slogan, it is hard to unite the employees or do business with customers. Then, good slogan should come first. All have some valid points, but not the conclusive ones.

To be honest, I don’t know the exact answer to the above question. I am not a scientist to do research on that topic. Also, at the current time, I’m unable to look for previous research on that matter. Maybe someone will help me search for that research and give me a reply here. Or, someone can do a research in the future, then we can discuss the results at that time.

Slogan – A guarantee for quality?

Back to the question in the title, the answer is not straight-forward to find. Basically, when you want to find out the slogan of any company, you can search on its website. The company will tell you the reason behind it and an appealing story about its slogan.

However, the company’s real value does not show in slogan only, but in their real actions also. You can simply think that the company has to do everything right to fit its slogan, or you trust its work quality because of an appealing slogan. Sometimes it is, take some above-mentioned companies as examples. Sometimes, or even many times, it is not the case. We can easily spot examples of the inconsistence between slogan and real actions.

What are the slogans of FLC, Tan Hoang Minh, and Van Thinh Phat? No matter how fancy those slogans are but looking at what the companies did and their involvements in recent legal & criminal cases in Vietnam.

What are the slogans of Enron, WorldCom, Lehman Brothers, Wirecard? You can search by yourself to check how fancy their slogans are. What is one of the common things in all those companies? Accounting & reporting fraud, causing damages to stakeholders’ interest and trusts from market.

Slogan of Big4 firms – the face of audit industry.

What are the slogans of Big4 audit firms? To be super frank with you, I have to search them on the Internet. Here we go:

• Deloitte – “Make an impact that matters“,
• PwC – “Building relationships creating value”,
• EY – “Building a better working world”,
• KPMG – “It’s time for clarity” (?).

Seriously, are all of them true? That’s what I found thanks to Bing search in Germany. Can someone help me check and confirm?

All hear so good, right? Many times, the firms did a great job. However, in a few times that they did a poor job, this is enough for outsiders to mock them. Quickly typing “firm name + audit failure” on Google search, then you can see a list of fines and penalties imposed on those firms. For example:

• Deloitte – “impact” on Autonomy, China Huarong Asset Management
• PwC – “creating value” on Luckin Coffee, Evergrande, London Capital & Finance
• EY – “better working world” in Wirecard.
• KPMG – “time for clarity” on Carillion.

To audit firms, most of the time, they did as great a job as they were supposed to do. Audit is an important industry and gives a lot of value to stakeholders. Especially, in the green transition, ESG, AI, big data, etc… the role of audit firms has become more & more crucial than ever. The unfair matter to audit firms is that no one seems to care about the “audit successful story”. But, when talking about audit failure, people talk a lot and make a lot of noises. In that situation, no one cares about the firm’s slogan. Instead, they are simply interested in responsibility, what went wrong, protection of their interests, and etc.

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So, what can we conclude? Is slogan a marketing tool, or a reflection of real company value? Certainly, you have your own viewpoints on that matter. If you trust the product / service quality of a company just because of its slogan, it might be misleading and naïve. Slogan cannot be a guarantee for the quality. Why? As auditors, we always ask for supporting documents or evidence for the statement. Slogan is consider a statement, and what is considered “evidence” here? You have your own answer, I trust so.