something special that makes the consumer feel his or her needs are being
catered to and he or she is being pampered. One of the best lines of
copywriting in the last 15 years is the L’Oréal campaign where the key words
were “Because you’re worth it.”
The message you need to get across in copywriting has to be that powerful.
When you consider that catchphrase, it was clever because it was aimed
toward women who may have thought purchasing expensive items for the
sake of vanity should be lower on their priority. However, when people
latched onto the catchphrase “Because I’m worth it,” millions of women saw
another side of the beauty product industry. They began to justify their
purchases simply because they began to feel they were special and that the
products were specifically made and tailored to their needs.
Believing in the product helps considerably because it gives the copywriter
food for thought. Brevity is everything. If you are working on writing words
that will appear on a billboard or an advertisement on the side of a bus,
people only get a few moments to read it. Thus, lengthy explanations will be
wasted. Copywriters produce advertising all around us. If you don’t
understand the message about the product or event being advertised, the
copywriter didn’t do a very good job.
As a copywriter, you must take the product, look at it, and consider the best
way possible to present the product so the public will see it as advantageous.
If you get it right, you will experience success. If you get it wrong, chances
are your copywriting days will be short-lived.
Exercise in copyright
Pick up an object in your room and imagine you have to sell this object.
Close your eyes and imagine words that would make the public know they
need that product. Then, instead of using the obvious descriptive words you
wrote down for the product, look into alternative adjectives and widen your
vocabulary. It’s not enough to say something is great. In fact, this may limit
the type of market you are trying to impress. Your audience may be more
tempted by words such as “innovative” or other adjectives that seem to fit the
product. Think of Apple computers and the immediate words one may think
of are “crisp” or “sharp.” When you begin to think in this manner, it helps
you more easily fit the adjectives to products.