On Japanese Food and Making Dull Copy Sparkle
If your copy isn’t resonating, the first step to fixing it is getting the right diagnosis.
You wouldn’t pay an auto shop to change your brakes if your engine was running hot, would you?
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what a lot of people are doing with their copy:
They blow everything up and start from scratch…
When they could have rearranged what they had to make it sparkle.
You might be saying the RIGHT things in the WRONG order. Moving things around might be all it takes to get people to see your message from a more compelling angle.
One word can make all the difference.
Case in point: a Japanese restaurant here in Austin. They focus on healthy options for fitness-conscious types. And they also separate themselves from competitors thanks to how fast they prepare your food.
The restaurant’s name?
“Zen: Japanese Food Fast”
This is genius level copywriting here…
Imagine if things were the other way. What if it was, “Zen: Japanese Fast Food?”
No bueno…
The restaurant would REPULSE their target demographic: fitness-conscious people. People would think their food was just as unhealthy as other fast food places. They’d find somewhere else to eat.
Simply changing the order of the copy helps Zen convey a key benefit (speed) WITHOUT associating their food with fast food fryers and super size meals.
It makes all the difference between sparkling copy and a dud.
Before you scrap the copy you have and start over, take a second and focus on the ORDER you’re presenting it.
You might have everything you need to make the sale…
A restructuring, instead of wholesale demolition, might be in order.
Say the same message in different ways, and you could get a dramatically different result.
It can make as much of a difference as “the dog bit Johnny” vs. “Johnny bit the dog.”