Page 54 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

And best of all, by some considerable margin, in an advert for the
lingerie section of a local department store:

• “Bra solutions.”

This is what’s known in the copywriting business as me-too-itis.
The funny thing is, nobody who actually buys any of this stuff
actually gives an expletive solution for “solution.” Householders
who want new wooden window frames generally call them just that.
And, having checked with a couple of my female acquaintances,
I can confidently assert that women go shopping for a new bra—not
a new bra solution.

So what’s going on? I suspect it has something to do with bored
marketing executives wishing their products were more “exciting”
and trying to jazz them up by hitching them to the s-word. Either
that or imagining their customers will somehow feel cheated at
being offered just a spade instead of an “excavation solution.” This
is just laziness. If you don’t think “spade” is sufficient to sell spades,
then do your research and be creative. Truly creative. Call it an “old-
style, drop-forged spade with ash haft and non-blister grip.” More
people will buy it and you’ll make more money.

In practice

• Of course you want your products to get customers salivating.

But that means thinking about what they’re really looking for,
rather than just copying somebody else’s lame copywriting idea.

• And yes, of course they want a solution to a problem of some

kind, but what they don’t want—or ever think of asking for—is a
blah blah blah solution. Avoid.

100 GREAT COPYWRITING IDEAS • 45