In my copywriting world, clients are often extremely picky about what a piece of marketing collateral looks like (i.e. the design) and a lot less concerned with how it sounds (i.e. the copywriting). They are much more willing to pay more for the former than the latter as a result, and they often end up with good-looking marketing that performs poorly.

This is a huge mistake. Not that design doesn’t influence buying decisions, it most certainly does. But so does the copywriting. To prove my point, consider the humble radio ad which markets which no design or visuals at all.

Today my husband told me about a soap is dumb radio commercial Nivea is running. I tried to find it online to listen to it with no luck, so this is just my summary of his version of it: Essentially Nivea is marketing a body wash to men using the message soap is dumb. As my husband described the commercial, the soap has a stupid sounding man’s voice and is talking to the intelligent sounding shampoo, which has a woman’s voice. Apparently Soap is too dense to remember what Shampoo is called, and he calls her hair soap. She reminds him that she is shampoo, and he turns it into soap poo.

Even without hearing it, I know this is a brilliant ad that uses the power of words without the listeners even realizing it. Nivea is taking a “feminine” product, body wash, and putting into a commercial with what we called bathroom talk when my kids were little: the word poo. Using the word poo wipes away any hint of girliness or femininity! (Pardon the pun.)

Plus by making Shampoo (woman) feel disdain for Soap (man), there’s the negative association men will have with soap, that using soap will make women feel disdain for them, or at least question their intelligence.

None of this is obvious, of course. It’s all implied. And effective: My husband rarely remembers what a commercial is selling, but in this case he did. He hasn’t purchased the body wash yet, as far as I know, but he’s aware of it, and awareness is the first step in selling.

People, looks aren’t everything. Whether you're a small business or big, your copywriter is just as important as your designer when it comes to your marketing. Just as important.