It would be interesting to know how long it took DHL to come up with its slogan/tagline (first, most important story).

You can see it on their distinctive yellow courier vans – Excellence. Simply delivered.

According to DHL’s website, this its actually its mission; its vision being to be the Logistics Company for the World.

Usually I’m not that keen on using deliver in your Million Dollar Message – after all, everyone delivers something. But delivery’s DHL’s stock-in-trade so is a legitimate use in their case. (It’s similar to a chemical company have fair rights to the use of solution if they so wish).

However, all three words and their punctuation are superb in DHL’s case.

The use of a standalone ‘Excellence’ is excellent. The full stop after it gives it emphasis. There’s a delightful ambiguity around whether excellence is what DHL provides, or what their customer receives.

‘Simply delivered’ is a nice double play on words. An emphasis can be placed on either, and as a consequence provides slightly different meanings.

The overall effect of the slogan is effortless; which is ideally what you want when describing yourself.

But while it appears effortless, you can be certain a lot of time and thinking went into its creation.

Any business can and should express an essence of its own story as succinctly as possible.

Perhaps reducing it to three words is too big an ask for many – but such an objective should not be sneezed at.

After all, we all have access to the clever storytelling use of language. And it may be the trigger that helps people remember our what and why.

At the same time it should be recognised that finding that essential truth about yourself is no easy thing. If you need a hand, give Punchline a call – it’s our stock-in-trade.