[Research] Headlines and Typography

People do not buy “things.” They buy satisfaction of their wants and needs. For this reason, it is vital for the copywriter to look beyond the product itself to the motives of the people who buy it. The following passage illustrates the importance of analyzing consumer interests and attitudes, as well as product characteristics.

Complete each of the following sentences, indicating which needs and wants are associated with the products and services referred to.

Headline Formula

A = Attention

The readers whose attention you want are the ones in the market for the merchandise you have to sell. In the case of a single-item ad, this means that there are relatively few prospects who are in the market for your product.

Realistically, these are the only people you can sell anything to, and the objective is to get the attention of as many of them as possible. This can be accomplished in various ways.

1. Call the prospect by name. If you’re selling a golf and tennis tour, start your headline with “Golf and Tennis Buffs,” or something similar. For a diet book, you might use a one-word question, such as Fat? Headlines like these single out the prospect from the crowd and tell the prospect, “This is a message for you.”
2. Talk the prospect’s language. An ad headlined “Now… save on that new GE kitchen you’ve been saving for” talks the language of the person who’s been planning a new kitchen. For the person who’s just decided to get back into shape, the one word “Exercise!” is a great attention getter.
3. Use news in the headline. If something is new, say so. A headline like “New for men… the Arrow shirt that ‘breathes’ to keep you cool” is going to reach its target readers. So is “New in Smithville… the first great American small car.”
4. Always remember you’ve got an illustration working for you. Show the product in use. If you show a man wearing a sports coat, you don’t have to use the word “Men” in the headline to pick out your audience. Showing the product in use allows readers to picture themselves using it.

B = Benefits

Once you have the attention of the right prospects, your headline should offer benefits.A benefit is what the product will do for the user. The headline “New… the Arrow shirt that ‘breathes’ ” is good as far as it goes, but it tells the reader only what the merchandise does. Much more effective would be this headline: “New… the Arrow shirt that ‘breathes’— to keep you cool in 90 degree weather.”

The fact that the shirt “breathes” is a selling point. The fact that it keeps you cool is a benefit. To figure out which benefits are most important to the prospect, the copywriter must look at the merchandise from the customer’s point of view.

Here are a few effective headlines built around benefits.
For men’s suits: “The single outfit from Palm Beach you wear five ways.”
For a condominium: “Bayview Place townhouses have as much usable space as our big old house.”
For a kitchen range: “This 30-inch gas range cleans itself continuously.”
For a weight-loss center: “I lost it.”
For office furniture: “Need office furniture fast? Is Thursday fast enough?”
For drapery: “Call shop-at-home now, and we’ll bring out drapery and upholstery sale to you.”
For kitchen redecorating: “A kitchen so beautiful your friends won’t like it.”
For a rug cleaner: ”Steam clean method by Steven makes carpets and furniture look new.”

C = Creativity

Creativity is the extra something that can turn a good headline into a great one. One of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time was headlined “Which Twin Has the Toni?” In one year, it produced a 600 percent sales increase for Toni home permanents.

Why did this creative approach work so well for Toni? First, the ads used a large,dominant illustration aimed at getting the attention of the target audience: women interested in permanent waves. Second, the benefit—a permanent wave at home for a fraction of the cost at a beauty parlor—is presented intriguingly through the use of twins instead of two models who merely look somewhat alike. From that point on, the headline just about wrote itself.

Types of Headlines

Headlines come in all shapes and sizes. Most fall into one of the following categories:

• Presents news. People are always interested in what is “new”— particularly if the news is about a problem that concerns them. In this type of headline, the product, its feature, or its benefit should be new. “Now, dull gray concrete is a thing of the past” instantly explains the benefit of a new line of concrete paint. Other words to use in a “news” headline include “introducing,” “here,” “at last,” “finally,” “today,” “presenting,” and “new.”
• Makes a claim. “A deck this durable doesn’t grow on trees” is a strong, emphatic statement that is, when supported by body copy and illustration, believable. Superlatives should always be used sparingly and cautiously.
• Offers advice. “Every day we help people in your position retire a little easier.” “Can cats’ nutritional needs begin to change around age seven? Yes.” Both these headlines set the advertiser up as an expert or authority. Together, headline and body copy tell “how to” or “why.”
• Inspires curiosity. “Take today off. Call in well.” This kind of headline conveys, little or no product information. Instead, it makes the reader want to know what’s going on or how things will turn out. Often called “blind” or “gimmick.”
• Gives a command. “Hit the mouse and get 500 free miles” is a strong statement telling the reader to do something. In this case, hitting the mouse yields two benefits—convenient, on-line banking and frequent flyer miles. This type of headline suggests a commonly desired result.
• Offers a challenge. “Racism is our disease. Don’t infect the kids, okay?” The challenge headline also suggests that the reader take an action. In strength of appeal, it lies somewhere between advice (mild) and command (strong).
• Identifies the product. A “label” headline can include a word, phrase, sentence, or slogan. Appropriate for well-known products, it is sometimes the weakest and least interesting of all the headline types—but it doesn’t have to be. Shake ‘n’ Bake cleverly identifies its product and benefit in “Shake. Bake. There. You just made dinner.”

Because many readers read the headline but not the body copy, the headline should say something about the product or service. Avoid writing glib, whimsical, or clever headlines that fail to mention product benefits and to which illustration adds no meaning. Do offer simple, intelligent, and witty messages that hook customers and make them see things in a new way.

The Slogan

Never underestimate the power of an effective, memorable slogan. “Mm good” fueled sales of Campbell’s Soups for decades. “We Try Harder” catapulted Avis to prominence. More recently, Nike has built one of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time around three words: ”Just Do It.”

A good slogan creates an image or a personality for a product or company and can be used repeatedly over a long period of time. Unlike a single print ad or broadcast commercial, a slogan or tagline can have tremendous staying power. It will be seen over and over again for as long as the advertiser uses it.

A good slogan is brief, concise, and succinct. It says one thing. It makes one point, and it makes it well.

How do you create an effective slogan?

• Personalize the message. To do this, an advertiser must clearly define his marketing objectives. Ideally, the product has been chosen to relate to a sales promotion and the copy line will relate to both the product and its promotional objective.
• Be brief. It is better to say too little than too much. Try to avoid a cluttered look. To achieve impact and memorability, say it quickly and crisply.
• Don’t offend. Don’t use words that automatically apply to only a portion of your market. Sexual innuendoes or slang words may offend part of your audience.
• Stress consumer benefits. Self-serving puffery doesn’t work. Instead, advertise a feature, service, or benefit.
• When in doubt, sell. A really clever slogan might be talked about, but the best advertising copy doesn’t call attention to itself; it calls attention to the product or the company.
• Use the U.S.P. If you have a Unique Selling Proposition, don’t hide it. Use it. If the product has a truly unique, really different benefit or service, it can be a great advantage. Experiment with ways of saying it best, and if you come up with an effective combination of words, the result should be an appropriate and memorable slogan.

Copyediting

• When your copy looks perfect, use “reveal codes” to take a look at the format decisions you have made. Copy created in a word processing program can be manipulated more easily in a page-layout program if you follow these rules:
• Don’t add two character spaces after every sentence. If you do and the designer needs more space, he or she will have to remove each extra space.
• Don’t use the “caps lock” feature even if your layout looks as if it will use all caps. “Caps lock” cannot be changed to lower-case text in most page-layout programs and type will have to be input all over again if the designer changes his or her mind about the type styling.
• Add hard returns only at the end of a paragraph. Hard returns at the end of each line confuse the designer when the text is pulled into a layout that is not the same page or size as the page you wrote in.

Typography

Computer page-layout programs offer an astonishing variety of downloadable type fonts. With so many choices, selecting a typeface for an ad may seem difficult. Adhering to these basic principles will ensure that the typeface you select will complement your copy and layout.

General

1. Limit the number of typefaces throughout. Just because it’s easy to incorporate a variety of typefaces into a layout doesn’t mean you should. Using one or two typefaces will make the ad more unified and aesthetically pleasing. It will also be less cluttered and less busy.
2. Use serif and sans serif type appropriately. Serif type is easier to read, but it takes up more line space. Designers like to use sans serif because it uses less space, but it can be harder to read, particularly in long body copy. (Exhibit 11-1 shows serif and sans serif type.)
3. Use captions under pictures. Always try to use captions and cutlines with pictures. They are read much more often than body copy.
4. Use normal punctuation. The purpose of typography is to help communicate a message. This can’t be accomplished effectively with unfamiliar and confusing punctuation (such as leaders, multiple exclamation points, etc.)
5. Use italics emphasis. Don’t use them so often that their benefit is lost!
6. Choose typefaces that reflect the mood or quality of the product without sacrificing readability. Typefaces can set mood and atmosphere, and help attract a certain kind of customer. But they must also communicate. Evaluate typefaces in terms of readability and legibility. If you have any doubts about these two areas, select a different face.

Headlines

1. Think twice before setting headlines in all capital letters. You can create impact by using initial caps small caps instead. Type set in all capital letters can be hard to read.

Body Copy

1. Set body copy in 10-point minimum. Anything smaller is too hard to read. Remember many readers wear glasses. Help them.
2. Break up long copy. Use frequent paragraphs, windows, subheads, or illustrations to break up long sections of copy.
3. Don’t set lines too wide. The eye will get lost in a paragraph if copy is set too wide. The smaller the point size of the body type, the narrower your copy column should be. Larger type can be set in wider columns.
4. Be careful when body copy is set in reverse. Text matter set in reverse was once a no-no—and still should be approached with caution. It is almost always very difficult to read. It is better to mortise a section out of the dark area and set it to be read black on white (or at least on a light background). If you insist on reversed copy, set it large and bold for easier reading.
5. Indent paragraphs. Indented paragraphs increase reading ease because they give the reader a continual starting place. They also work more white space into the type areas, increasing readability.
6. Use white space between lines. Rather than setting body copy ”tight,” work in some white space between lines by adding a point or two of leading.
7. Exercise caution when running text over tint blocks or illustrations. The most readable copy is black on white. Any other color background reduces readability—the darker it is, the less readable it is.
8. Set text flush left. For easier reading, copy blocks should be evenly aligned at the left to give the eye a common starting place. If copy is justified, keep paragraphs short. Justified copy is harder to follow in long sections.
9. Keep related copy areas together. When there are several related copy blocks, it is more convenient for the reader to keep them aligned and close together. Otherwise the reader will be frustrated by trying to find related copy, and may stop reading.
10. Avoid “widows” but don’t be upset by them. Widows are those very short (often one-word) lines that appear at the ends of paragraphs when copy blocks are set. Although one-word lines should be discouraged, they are permissible because they work white space into copy areas. However, never permit widows at the top of a column.