COAT’S SNEAKY SMART PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Jack is in a seemingly Sisyphean state of renovating his house. Jack also has a four-legged office mate called Ziggy. No prizes for guessing why this bit of copy got screenshotted.

This is an absolute banger of an example on why it's so important to know where a customer's head is at before they hit buy now. And that state of mind can change from product to product. So while people buy neutral tones as a safe choice, bolder tones come with a hint of hesitation. What if it's too much? What if it looks like a children's nursery? What if I repaint it in six months? (We felt uncomfortable making this assertion without backing it up. So we did some digging. Dulux's best-selling paint is Pure Brilliant White, and five of their top ten are greys. A quick search on Rightmove will confirm the same thing too. We know it's exactly peer-reviewed data, but we'll take it.) This is something called loss aversion in action. TLDR: Research by Kahneman and Tversky found that the fear of a bad outcome is roughly twice as powerful as the excitement of a good one. At the moment of purchase, especially for a high-commitment decision like paint, people aren't imagining the positives. They're dreading the downsides. That's why COAT say: "A touch of grubbiness means this soft yellow is warm, without being brash or lemon-y."

It's there to speak to that voice that says "too risky, man". To say "nah, you're all good. We've thought of that and made sure the paint won't feel like a citrus-y nightmare."

And there's an idea to nick there. Sometimes, your copy doesn't just have to sell the dream. Sometimes it has to quell those last minute panic thoughts that flash through their heads. Do both and you're cooking with gas. Pro tip: go to your customer reviews and read what customers say about your bolder products. Find little snippets where they talk about doubt or hesitation before buying and what they felt like afterwards. And then sneak that into your copy. Half the time, your customers have already written your best copy for you. (Or at least, they've already done the v.1 draft.)