Case Studies

Case Study 1: The Power of Myth

The Problem

Resistol, a leading men's Western apparel line, specializes in cowboy hats. This means that their brand presentation must right true to cowboy culture. Prior creatives have struggled with capturing the nuances of this culture, often sinking into cliches (e.g. "when you mosey on up to the old saloon) or sticking to a limited, undramatized register (e.g. very brief technical descriptions).

Additionally, many of these hats, when viewed superficially, closely resemble each other. This reinforces the need for distinctive product copy - and compounds the risk of sinking into unacceptable cliches.

The Solution

The solution was two-fold: focus on mythic storytelling while capturing aesthetic detail.

Cowboy hats have a very rich, relatively constrained cultural identity associated with them. By leveraging mythic content such as movies, country music lyrics, American literature, Old West history, rural voices, North American geography, and the like, I was able to build up a robust, differentiated, on-brand set of product descriptions.

Furthermore, I paid careful attention to aesthetic detail, weaving features such as a feather, a vent pattern, a hatband into the storytelling.

The Outcome

I have written between 150-300 successfully differentiated, effectively dramatized men's and boys' cowboy hat descriptions, with product price points ranging from $40 to $1,000 USD.

I have also done work on four celebrity lines worth approximately $600M USD in overall combined market value. This celebrity portfolio includes legends and rising stars in country music—Lainey Wilson, Jason Aldean, Cody Johnson, and George Strait.

Case Study 2: The Heart of the Matter

The Problem

ADI, a low-voltage electronics distributor, had a suboptimal data architecture where products would get imported onto the e-commerce live site with abbreviated, idiosyncratic, and frequently incorrect names. At times, the live site could have around 100,000 products listed, which could make it extremely difficult for customers to find the products they were looking for, much less do comparative shopping or make non-focused purchases.

Furthermore, the Company had a strategic plan to boost digital sales. Easier said than done when customers and brick-and-mortar location employees hate using the website.

The Solution

The solution, to at least one part of the problem, was to create a meaningful set of naming conventions that can be applied to entire families of products.

Starting with Hanwha, a Korean surveillance equipment manufacturer, I systematically worked through camera and DVR models, isolating the product specs that would mean the most to the customer. For example, I discovered that lens length was a key differentiator between camera models (an observation that could not necessarily be discerned from the vendor name. Lens length therefore became a key part of the title design.

By the time I was done, I had a working video surveillance style guide that could be applied to any camera in ADI's inventory.

The Outcome

My naming conventions resulted in an estimated $150 USD per product boost. The work was well received, and I created subsequent style guide for categories like fire safety, structured wiring and others.

Additionally, the work got me promoted out of a copywriter role and into a Global UX Strategy Leader position, a director-level title.

Case Study 3: New and Improved

The Problem

Sam's Club had recently begun investing additional resources in its private label line, Member's Mark. The goal was to shift the Member's Mark brand away from its reputation as the cheapest and worst product on the shelf and reposition it as a curated selection of exclusive and exceptional goods.

The problem was that, culturally and creatively, the organization had not sufficiently defined itself as an "exclusive and exceptional curator" yet. It was still a Walmart enterprise, for better or worse.

The Solution

Here the solution was to simply start elevating products—without waiting for guidance or permission.

As someone with a passion for literature, I had a good sense of how to elevate the Member's Mark line product description by product description, email by email. I simply shaped language in a way calculated to elevate product quality. Rather than sinking into friendly, folksy retail language, I would insert words like "exquisite" and "remarkable" when they applied. I would modify and use the imagery and sentence structures I has seen applied to boutique and specialty products. I would elevate the witticisms and refuse to pander to the audience.

Every line I wrote, no matter how humble or insignificant from an ROI standpoint, became part of a larger story—the Member's Mark story.

The Outcome

While I cannot take all the credit, Member's Mark showed 20-30% growth across key categories. I was entrusted with other projects like digital signage and product packaging, and was considered the de facto voice of the brand. Not bad for someone with less than a year of copywriting experience.