BOL’S RHYMING HEADLINE

This 3-word (Is lunch hour one word or two? Two? Two.) 4-word headline has two clever copywriting tricks going on beneath the surface. Plus, it's just plain fun to say. And we love it when food and drink brands go outside of the "tasty and fast" lane. Straight in the swipe file.

The most obvious thing this h1 is doing is using the Rhyme-as-Reason effect, which is a weird quick our brain has where rhyming statements just feel more accurate, more credible and more memorable than non-rhyming ones with identical meaning. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. No pain, no gain. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Hell, rhyming even got OJ Simpson acquitted. ("If the glove don't fit, you must acquit.") So there's the first pro tip: if you can, make your headlines and big, attention-grabbing messaging rhyme from time to time. Don't overdo it, but if you're looking at a headline and thinking "this feels flat" try a rhyme. (We mean, our h1 used to be "take your copy from meh to hell yeah". Same idea.)

But there's something else going on here too.

"Power your lunch hour" doesn't mention soup at all. It's not selling "a healthy lunch" or "a nutritious meal" or any other food category descriptor.

It's selling a better version of their afternoon. A better version of them.

This is based on an idea called Jobs To Be Done, which is the idea that customers don't buy products, they hire them to do a job in their lives. And that job is rarely as simple as "feed me lunch."

The job BOL is being hired for isn't "provide a nutritious meal." It's "help me win the afternoon." That's an emotional job, a practical job, and a bit of an identity job all wrapped into four words.

Which is huge, because copy that understands the real reason people buy is always better than something like "healthy, tasty soup for busy days" could ever be.

How to nick this for your brand? Ask yourself what's the surface job you do? (Feed me. Clean my skin. Help me sleep.) Now go one layer deeper. What does that job actually give your customer? (Feel sharp after lunch. Feel confident in my skin. Wake up feeling like myself again.)

Then, write copy that speaks to that layer, not the surface one. Instant game-changer.