Probably one of the best things clients get from typical brand pyramid
exercises is the "who would your brand be?" But how do you use that
information for copywriting? One of our interns this summer loved theater, and she
simplified it well: Branding means writing in character.
I love this copywriting short-hand because our culture's weird fascination with
celebrity makes it easy for writers and clients to mimic a person in
the culture, and to act out that personality when they're writing a
brochure, presenting to customers, or sending an email.
When You Need More Than a Character
Writing in character is a simple way to make a lot of wording
decisions. But when you're searching for how to present a concept — not
just word choice but an actual approach — it requires more than pulling
on a wig while sitting at the keyboard. That's when it's nice to refer
back to the elements upon which you built your brand pyramid.
- Functions: What we actually do or create.
- Attributes: What we need to bring to the table to do it.
- Rational Benefits: How this provides to the person who's on the other end.
- Emotional Benefits: How they feel when they choose/use our service/product.
- Brand Personality: What people should think about us.
Using Brand Pyramids for Copywriting
OK, now look at where your brand pyramid intersects with copywriting. Typically, in your brand style guide, you'll have sections about tone, style, audience, message and voice. But what do those actually mean? Here's how I use and define them.
Message: What you're trying to
communicate. Usually, you'll find this in the rational benefits or
functions section of the brand pyramid. The rational benefit is
actually where you want to end your copy, in my opinion. Someone much
smarter than me said that people tend to make purchasing decisions
based on the emotion of the ad (sexy, whip-smart, pity), then they
literally need to rationalize that whimsical decision with some sort of
logical fact ("oh, it gets good mileage, too!"). But if you lead with
the logical fact without emotionalizing it somehow, you're sunk.
Tone: The emotion you're trying
to elicit or convey. Sometimes you need to convey one emotion to elicit
another, like writing with sadness to elicit pity. Other times, you
write with such glee and excitement that you're trying to sweep up the
reader in the same. Anyway, be sure to reference the emotional benefits
of your brand pyramid.
Style: Style is the approach.
It's the voice. It's the wig. It's the character. It's the brand
personality. It sums everything up. In the theatrical way of thinking,
imagine how Jon Stewart will make a joke about the president, compared
to how Jay Leno would.
Audience and Medium: Who will
be reading it, and in what medium doesn't really have anything to do
with the brand pyramid, but it is the cornerstone of great copywriting.
If you don't know your audience, you're lost. It colors everything you
write: a day laborer has
different emotional and rational needs than a manager. A banner ad on a
weather site (daily check in, ignores everything but EXACTLY the
information they need) has to have more blinding, blinking, blaring sex
than a banner ad on, say, a site that's heavy on educational content
where you can use more contextual information.