A tale of two wine-drinking copywriters
Last week I was shopping for wine and had to pull a bottle of Leaning Cow shiraz off the shelf. The askew label on the front made it irresistible; it was the copywriting on the equally atilt label on the back that made me buy it. Compare the charming story on the back of the bottle of Leaning Cow with the revolting tasting notes for another shiraz. Which do you prefer?
Leaning Cow is $18 on Coe & Cos website. A bottle of Torbreck RunRig Shiraz 2004 will set you back $239.99 at Dan Murphys. But check out these tasting notes someone sent me:
A revolting-sounding wine
Im told this is a great wine, but I cant say I fancy a mouthful of smoke, graphite and melted tar. But Im mightily impressed that someone could pick out above the tar, the smoke, the graphite, the scorching earth and the slow-roasted meats that the hint of marmalade is of the homemade variety, not the shop-bought stuff.
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The copywriting on Leaning Cows label concentrates on the poetic but irrelevant at the expense of information about the wine. Torbrecks tasting notes are all about the wine but seem to lose all sight of what the ordinary person might think tastes nice. (Although maybe youre not all that ordinary if youre dropping $240 on a bottle of red.)
Theyre two contrasting copywriting approaches: heavy on story, light on info or the reverse. Which approach works for you? And have you thought about whether youre using the right one in your business?