Fussy’s super clever TOV shifts

Product descriptions are one of those bits of copy that doesn't get enough love. But Fussy absolutely nail them in literally like 30 words or so.

Straight in the swipe file.

PS. Excuse our super shoddy graphic design skills putting these together. We're copywriters, not graphic designers, alright?

Now, there's a very obvious takeaway here: try to use your product descriptions to leave your customers with something more than just "I have the information I need to buy".

Leave them with a smile or a laugh or just a feeling they didn't have before.

And just doing that can transform a meh product description into a good one.

But there's something else Fussy do here that we're big fans of: they shift their tone of voice ever so slightly to speak to the kinds of customers that might buy each deodorant.

Look closely at the register across those four descriptions. Parma Violets is playful and nostalgic. Wilderness is dry and outdoorsy and less playful. Bare All is quieter, more considered and empowering. Sun Drunk is warm and self-deprecating and fun.

All of them feel like Fussy. They just feel like slightly different versions of Fussy.

This is super clever, because Communication Accommodation Theory tells us that we naturally adjust the way we talk to match the person we're talking to, and that when someone does this well, we feel closer to them.

Think of how you talk to your partner, your kids, your boss, your grandma, your best friend... you're still you. But it's a slightly different version of you, right? Your slang, whether you swear, the references you make... they all change depending on who you're talking to.

It's the same with copy. And Fussy are doing this across their range really subtly. Each description is tuned slightly for the person most likely to be buying that scent.

And it also works because of something else we know about why people buy things. We tend to choose brands that reflect who we are or who we want to be. The Parma Violets customer and the Wilderness customer are both buying deodorant, but they're buying slightly different versions of themselves.

And Fussy's copy feels really tuned in to that.

Love it.

Next time you're writing product descriptions, ask yourself: who is most likely to be buying this version of our product and why? What does choosing this product say about them? Now read your product descriptions back. Does the voice reflect that person?

But remember, you're not writing with a hundred different brand voices. You're writing one brand voice. So keep your core point of view and tone the same, but dial things up. Some products call for a bit of fun, others call for a bit more aspiration, others call for keeping things real.

Flex your brand voice, don't throw it out of the window. That's the real trick.