What exactly is the “resonant copywriting” that leaders mention?

"Xiao Wang, your creative writing needs to resonate with people!"

So what exactly is “resonance”? Why do some copywriting trigger so-called resonance while others do not?

This article will tell you the scientific method of creating "resonant copywriting".

How to create “resonant copywriting” in batches?

We know that the goal of copywriting is to implant your key information into the user's brain , if you are given the task, to sell a series of online training courses.

First, you find the information you want to implant , such as:

“A series of workplace training courses, only 40 yuan.”

This message is simple and direct, but “poorly understandable”, so you can add “ visualization ” to make the copy easier to understand:

“For the price of a movie, you can learn the first three years of work experience.”

This copy adds a "visual" element to make it easier to understand, but it always lacks "resonance". So you add the element of " resonance ":

"A bad movie with confusing logic will charge you 40 yuan. Or, you can spend 40 yuan to learn the experience of the first three years of work."

(In this way, the user's memory context is added, making the price information, which originally lacks emotional meaning, have emotional meaning)

These are the three most common levels in the copywriting process:

• Abstract: Direct descriptions and descriptions (only 40 yuan)
• Visualization: turning the abstract and incomprehensible into something concrete and perceptible (the price of a movie)
• Resonance: Turning concrete things into emotions that users can feel (even bad movies charge you so much money)

So, how is resonance created? Why is it that some movies, copywriting and advertisements are easy for people to resonate with and make them feel "understood" and "supported", while others are not?

In fact, the so-called "sense of resonance" is: the positive emotional feeling you have when something the protagonist does connects with the situation in your memory.

For example, there is a story like this: there is a disabled person who lost both legs. He is trying hard to change his life, but is often bullied and insulted by various normal people.

Most people who read this story will think "this person is so pitiful" and "I feel very sympathetic towards him", and some people will even shed tears, but these feelings are all "empathy" and not resonance.

Because you have not established a connection with the situation in your memory - most people have not experienced losing their legs, so it is difficult for them to associate this copy with their own situational memory. The generation of a sense of resonance must rely on the connection between the audience and their own situational memory.

(At this point, for those who have actually lost their legs, what is evoked is resonance.)

If the story is changed to: A disabled person who lost both legs was bullied and insulted by more senior disabled people on the first day of joining the disabled labor camp. Even the biscuits that his parents specially brought for him were snatched away by them.

With this change, it will be easier for most people to resonate with it. Because "being bullied by senior people" is not directly caused by the niche characteristic of "disability", many people have experienced "being bullied by senior people as a newcomer", which makes it easy to create a memory connection and thus feel resonance.

Many texts, movies, novels, etc. that make people feel a strong sense of resonance all use "similar situations" to evoke situational schemas in the target audience's memory, and then provide them with support, encouragement or speak on their behalf, thereby creating a positive emotional experience.

For example, in the movie that resonated with me the most, "3 Idiots", there were a lot of situations similar to my past - rebelling against the teacher because of the firm belief in a fact, believing that scientific theories can be applied in practice, being ridiculed for studying only to improve ability without caring about grades and awards, etc. Then the protagonist continued to believe in himself and struggled in the process, which brought me positive experiences and thus produced a strong sense of "resonance".

However, if this "connection with similar situations" is not established, and the user lacks similar situations in his or her past life, no matter how touching or sentimental your story is, it may not resonate with the user.

For example, during the Olympics, many advertisements praised athletes who won glory for the country and showed their feeling of reaching the top with glory. Many of them were touching, but they did not resonate with people.

This is because most ordinary audiences lack similar situations in their memories (many people have never experienced the glorious summit in their entire lives).

Some copywriting (such as some of Nike's copywriting) focuses on describing some similarities between these athletes and ordinary people, thereby triggering resonance:

For example, when I saw the advertisement above, I immediately recalled a similar situation - in the business analysis competition in school, I clearly thought that my analysis report was better than other competitors and I spent countless efforts, but the judges still gave me a low score.

So how do we create this sense of resonance in advertising? How can we cleverly utilize the user’s situational schema to create this sense of resonance?

One of the most common approaches is to find some kind of obstacle in the user's memory context and then provide some kind of help in the process.

Step 1

What obstacles do our users face in past memory situations? (Anything that prevents a person from being happier is an obstacle)

For example, in the famous Apple Think Different advertisement, there are “obstacles” for “different people”:

“We are not understood by those around us because we are different.”

Step 2

How can I help you in this blocking process?

For example, the Think Different advertisement helped these geniuses rationalize their behavior - "Our madness is to change the world."

result:

"It said what I wanted to say! Resonance!"

So, to create resonance, you need to look for obstacles in the user's memory context (not in your own memory context) and then provide some kind of emotional help in the process.

Among them, the most commonly provided emotional help, depending on the obstacle, is:

Support, criticize, counterattack and encourage.

1. Support

For example, a previous advertising article by Merrill Lynch, "For those who are serious about money," resonated with many people who are actively pursuing their careers.

Why?

Step 1

In the user’s past memory situations, what are the scenarios that were denied, doubted, and opposed?

Many users are career-conscious people who are often viewed as too utilitarian.

Step 2

How can we support their behavior and make it more reasonable?

I wrote this article specifically to pay tribute to those "people who take money seriously" so that more people will believe that it is an honor to work hard and make money.

For example, Taiwan's 7-11 found that some of their users often face suspicion and opposition: as soon as they return home, they are easily asked why they are still single and why they haven't found a partner yet.

As a way of supporting our users, we advertised: Being single is a human right and you have no obligation to explain it to anyone.

Adidas’ “This is Me” series of advertisements found that many young consumers were often accused of being “too slow,” “too flamboyant,” “too childish,” etc., so it directly supported them and advertised: “What a coincidence, this is me” (helping these people rationalize their behavior).

All people constantly face blame, suspicion and denial, and if you evoke this feeling in them through advertising, and then stand on their side and find ways to rationalize their behavior, it’s easy to generate a strong sense of resonance.

In fact, face-to-face salespeople often do this.

A couple is arguing. If the salesman meets the wife and talks about the matter, he may stand on her side and say:

"I think your husband is definitely to blame. He came home so late yesterday. If it were me, I would be worried and angry too! Once, I was also..."

This resonated with his wife: Yes, yes, yes!

If you meet your husband, you might say the opposite:

"This is obviously your wife's fault. We men earn money to support the family every day, how can we have time to care about so many things? After a hard day's work, I finally come home and get scolded. Once, I also..."

Then, it resonated with her husband: Yes, yes, yes!

Why is this effective?

Because when anyone faces some negative emotions (that is, obstacles), they will create a closer psychological distance with the party closer to themselves and feel that they are their own people.

For example, an experiment found that when a horror movie was playing, if a mineral water brand was placed next to the audience, when the movie was over, almost everyone felt closer to and more favorable towards the mineral water brand.

After all, when faced with any negative threat, we naturally feel attached to and supported by people who stand by us (even if it’s just physical distance).

Therefore, if you want to evoke resonance, you must constantly ask yourself: What obstacles such as doubts and denials might my main users face in situations related to me? How can I support them in this process, stand by them, and help them rationalize their behavior?

2. Criticism

For example, a well-known advertisement for Lao Luo English Training used people's emotions about inflation to resonate with them.

Step 1

What unreasonable phenomena do my users often face? What do you often want to criticize as unreasonable?

Online English training only costs 1 yuan (price), so on the topic of price, many users think that what is obviously unreasonable is China's long-term inflation.

Step 2

How can I help users expose and criticize this irrationality?

"What can you buy with one yuan now? Or, you can come to Lao Luo English Training and take eight classes."

Users often encounter various unreasonable phenomena (which are also obstacles). If you can point these phenomena out and help users criticize and punish these unreasonable phenomena, they will also feel a sense of resonance.

This is called "third-party punishment" in psychology - even though the situation has nothing to do with you, you still choose to expose the injustice and unreasonableness.

A large amount of research has shown that third-party punishment can increase a person's sense of trust in a group and arouse resonance among members.

For example, in a money-sharing game designed by psychologists, someone deliberately cheated, and those who took the initiative to criticize the cheater received more support and trust in the subsequent game.

(This is also why there are many trolls on the Internet. When they see a male star cheating, even if it has nothing to do with you, they will go to Weibo to curse him. This is actually a form of third-party punishment. You subconsciously believe that this can make you gain trust and support.)

When actually applied to advertising, even if you do not make a strong criticism, but simply point out an unreasonable phenomenon itself, you may still gain resonance and support.

For example, in the pre-release copy of a youth film, there is such a sentence:

"We agreed to fail the course together, but you secretly passed." (Simply by pointing out some unreasonable behavior in everyone's shared memories)

For example, the video for the launch of Niu electric vehicles pointed out the various unreasonable aspects of squeezing into subways, taking buses, and taking taxis, which aroused a lot of resonance. (For example, the smell in a taxi is like a quilt that hasn’t been washed for years)

3. Fight back on their behalf

For example, Xiaoma Song previously wrote the following copy for Cheetah Cleaning Master:

Should we block people who sell low-quality facial masks in the circle of friends?

No, I have to call him an idiot first.

The reason why this copy can resonate is that when users encounter some obstacles, you provide key help: helping them do what they want to do but dare not do.

Obstacles encountered by users: The displeasure of seeing facial masks being sold in the circle of friends. What they want to do but don’t dare to do: just scold (you help them do it).

For example, there is a very popular video about feminism abroad, which satirizes the phenomenon of "objectification of women". The women in the video took the initiative to stand up and criticize and satirize these phenomena.

(For example, someone responded to a vodka ad that objectified women by saying: Well, your ad says I'm willing to sacrifice my dignity for a drop of alcohol?)

This is something that many women want to do but are not convenient to do or dare not do when they are objectified. But this video helps them do it.

Users often encounter various obstacles: friends who borrow money but don’t pay it back, roommates who are too salaried, drivers who are rude, bosses who are too demanding…

When there are these obstacles, in addition to providing "support" (you are right) and "criticism" (they are indeed wrong) as mentioned above, you can also directly help users do things that they want to do but dare not do or are not convenient to do (such as directly fighting back).

Not only copywriting, but many popular articles on public accounts also take advantage of this psychology.

For example, Mimi Meng ’s article “To Bitch, Why Should I Help You” scolds those people who ask for help all day long and then still are not satisfied (thinking that it is the obligation of others to help them and it is wrong not to help).

Readers were able to resonate so strongly with the story because: (1) this is a common situation for most people (this obstacle occurs frequently); and (2) it helped them do something they had always wanted to do but were afraid, too lazy, or inconvenient to do—just curse.

This works because our brains are not designed to differentiate between fantasy and actual experience.

The pleasure we feel in the nerve centers of our brain when we imagine ourselves doing something is similar to the pleasure we feel when we actually do it. (This is also why the porn industry is so popular)

4. Provide encouragement

Step 1

What obstacles on the part of users prevent them from getting better?

For example, users often don’t exercise or stick to their dreams because of various procrastination problems.

Step 2

How can I boost their confidence and encourage them to overcome their own barriers?

For example, Nike’s copywriting: Yesterday you said tomorrow, just do it.

For example, in the Pantene advertisement “Transformation into a Butterfly”, it tells the story of a girl who is sad because she is different. At this time, the main obstacle is actually herself (she does not believe in herself).

The role of advertising is to encourage her to overcome her inner obstacles.

Since we want to “let users overcome their inner obstacles”, we often need to make them realize that they are wrong.

For example, during the Spring Festival in the past few years, major brands have been running a series of touching advertisements about going home for the Spring Festival (such as "The Spring Festival is only 7 days away"). At the beginning, it is very important to make users feel that they are wrong, so they often create such scenes:

"Mom and Dad look forward to these seven days all year long. They start thinking about what dishes to prepare a few weeks before I go home. But I may not be able to come home because of overtime work..."

At this time, the user's inner obstacle is the busyness of overtime work, and the advertisement suggests that the user should take the initiative to overcome this inner obstacle.

(Of course, if readers observe carefully, they will find that a large number of success speeches also rely on this to create a sense of resonance)

Conclusion

Many people want to create a sense of resonance, and the key to creating a sense of resonance is to connect the situation of the protagonist in the advertisement with the user's existing situation.

Without this connection, no matter how moving the idea is, the ultimate effect may be merely sympathy rather than resonance.

For example, if your company has recently encountered various negative events, simply saying:

"We were wrong, but we have really improved our products and now there is no problem! In fact, many of our peers have gone even further than us. Moreover, we are not primarily responsible for this incident, but we are considered the main culprit. It is really unfair."

Saying this will at most make some people sympathize ("Oh, this company is so miserable"), but it will not resonate with the audience, because users cannot associate it with a certain situation in their memory - after all, most people have no experience of "improving products" or "being publicly hacked."

But if we evoke existing situations in people's memories, and let them remember that when they were in school, they also skipped classes to surf the Internet or even fought with classmates because of a momentary impulse, but they eventually turned over a new leaf, studied hard and were admitted to university (equivalent to improving the product), people's sympathy will turn into resonance (Alas, I also thought I could be forgiven back then).

So how do we establish this connection?

A very important method is to discover certain obstacles that users have encountered in the past (such as being misunderstood, being treated unfairly, social irrationality, etc.), and then provide help in this process (such as support, criticism, counterattack, encouragement, etc.).

illustrate:

1. "Resonance" is not a necessary condition for copywriting or marketing , but it is just a creative technique that can strengthen positioning. Therefore, it can only be used under the premise of coordinating the overall brand positioning.

2. The essence of resonance is to "establish situational connections." The above only discusses how to establish such connections based on conflicts in user memories. Due to space limitations, I have not discussed how to trigger resonance based on positive emotions (that is, create a feeling of "Fit").

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