Catalogs

e-commerce listings

E-commerce product descriptions are rapidly taking the place of packaging for many shoppers. Without the aid of graphic support or the presence of a physical product, e-commerce listing copy must communicate brand and product features, anticipate and answer customer questions, and make an emotional connection with a shopper — all while also being optimized for both Amazon and Google search. Print advertising and catalog copy are frequently a consumer's or retailer's first contact with a brand, and are therefore critical not just in convincing consumers to engage, but in getting retailers on board. All three asset types are powerful means of communicating with people globally.

advertising

Ads in the modern era are rarely just ads. They may be someone’s first encounter with a brand, or they might be the ten thousandth, but either way every ad carries the weight of the entire brand with it. Advertisements must communicate a brand’s values, its emotional relevance to the audience, and tell the right part of the story at the right time to grab attention and motivate action.

Gen Xers (and maybe some older Millennials) will forever remember the joy of dog-earing pages in the Sears and Toys ‘R Us catalogs early every December, and then passing them hopefully off to our parents to let Santa know what we wanted. That tradition is probably gone forever - at least for kids - but some consumer goods companies still provide it to the buyers from Amazon, Walmart, Target, and others. At Hasbro, my team took over writing the copy for the annual buyer catalogs as part of the effort to infuse every element of our marketing with the voice of the brand. Here are a few of the entries I wrote.