Catalog Doctor: Rules to Live By
7. Everyone thinks they can write copy. People don't often second-guess design work because they know they're not artists and therefore can't jump in and show how to do it better. But everyone uses words, so practically everyone thinks they're an expert on copy. A true bad example: one manager wanted to call a tea that the catalog offered "self-drinking." Huh? (She believed that was a good phrase because the tea tasted so good that you didn't need to add milk or sugar.) Copywriters get really frustrated with the constant rewriting efforts of nonwriters. Some comments do clarify or solve problems the copywriter couldn't have known about, but most need to be quietly trashed. A good copywriter is an artist; let him/her do their job.
Susan J. McIntyre is Founder and Chief Strategist of McIntyre Direct, a catalog agency and consultancy in Portland, Oregon offering complete creative, strategic, circulation and production services since 1991. Susan's broad experience with cataloging in multi-channel environments, plus her common-sense, bottom-line approach, have won clients from Vermont Country Store to Nautilus to C.C. Filson. A three-time ECHO award winner, McIntyre has addressed marketers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, has written and been quoted in publications worldwide, and is a regular columnist for Retail Online Integration magazine and ACMA. She can be reached at 503-286-1400 or susan@mcintyredirect.com.
