Copywriting – Page 31

More About Copywriting Legend Rosser Reeves

In a previous post (“Attention Copywriters – Differentiate Or Die”) I mentioned legendary copywriter and ad-man Rosser Reeves. Here’s a little more about the man.

Reeves was a disciple of the Claude Hopkins / John E. Kennedy school of advertising and was an advocate of what was known as the “Hard Sell” approach to advertising.

He spent most of his career at the Ted Bates agency. Bates and Reeves formed a very succesful partnership with Bates as the account man and Reeves the star copy man.

Reeves became known for devising the concept of the “Unique Selling Proposition” (the USP) which he defined in this way…

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Attention Copywriters – Differentiate Or Die

…and that applies to marketers as well.

Jack Trout is a marketing expert whom I hold in great esteem. Together with Al Ries he wrote the classic marketing text “Positioning”.

Jack has recently published the second edition of his book “Differentiate Or Die”, with the arresting subtitle…

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Putting Emotion Into A Tagline…

Out on my morning walk, I noticed this tagline on the side of a van…

“Making People And Appliances Happy!”

It was a Fisher & Paykel van (they’re a white goods and appliances firm), part of the service department.

Now this might seem a little “cute” (there was a “Smiley” face on the van too!) but it brought a smile even to this cynical marketer and copywriter.

And it seemed to me that someone had “got” what the service department needed to be about.

Because we often talk about getting the emotional benefits into our copy and advertising. This is a practical example.

After all, when someone needs their fridge or washing machine fixed, being happy at the end of it is a desirable outcome.

Now the hard-core direct response copywriter in me would suggest that a better proposition would be something like…

“When you have a problem with your appliance, we guarantee to be there in 90 minutes or less…”

The “Happy” idea certainly needs to be backed up by some tangible results. Deliver great service and the result is likely to be happy customers.

But imagine the benefits of making the mission of the service department to make customers happy! It’s likely you’d end up with loyal customers and raving fans.

Worth thinking about.