Learning copywriting is learning branding.

Last year there was a very controversial car advertisement for Cadillac CT6, which said “Without rear-wheel drive, it is not luxurious.”

From what I have observed, there are three areas of controversy among viewers:

First: The presentation method of large characters filling the entire screen is too rough, not refined enough, and lacks a sense of luxury.

Second, the expressions of “No scarf, not an auntie”, “No routine, not a boss”, “No selfie, not a fitness”, “No abbreviation, not a post-00s”, etc., have nothing to do with cars or rear-wheel drive, and the creativity is too nonsensical;

“Without homophones, it’s not copywriting”, “Without brainwashing, it’s not advertising”, “Without exaggeration, it’s not the client” are just self-congratulations of advertisers.

Third: What is the relationship between rear-wheel drive and luxury?

For example, “I don’t feel anything about this ad. All cars of that price range have rear-wheel drive.” “Many luxury car brands have rear-wheel drive. I don’t understand why this ad emphasizes an advantage that is not unique to Cadillac.”

Regarding the first point of controversy, it actually depends on personal opinion. This layout is quite refreshing, and the luxury car market is actually very young now.

Regarding the second point of controversy, the creativity is actually based on the sentence pattern "Without XX, it is not XX". Through this sentence pattern, everyone will remember "Without rear-wheel drive, it is not luxury". Playing with sentence patterns is nothing new in the advertising industry.

And under this sentence structure, it doesn’t matter if there is one more or one less creative idea. The brand's most desired communication effect is for the audience to create a lot of "Without XX, it doesn't count" after watching the advertisement.

The biggest controversy comes from the third point, which many people also complain about.

Anyone who knows a little about cars should know that rear-wheel drive cars are actually not uncommon at all, and there are a lot of them on the road. Does rear-wheel drive mean luxury? Wuling Hongguang is rear-wheel drive.

Why does Cadillac advertise all rear-wheel drive cars? Rear-wheel drive is not the CT6's unique value proposition.

So let me talk about this in detail.

In fact, the controversy about "rear-wheel drive" is no longer about creative performance and copywriting, but about Cadillac's brand strategy.

If you want to discuss whether the "rear-wheel drive" strategy is right or not and whether its appeal is accurate, you first need to understand the luxury car market and mid-to-large luxury car segment to which the CT6 belongs, as well as the target population and competitors in this market.

When evaluating copywriting and creative performance, you can base your evaluation on your own subjective preferences. However, when evaluating the accuracy of strategies and brand appeals, you must base your evaluation on market realities and not speak without thinking.

So, let's take a look at the situation in the luxury car market.

First, let’s look at a set of data on the overall sales of domestic luxury brands.

In the luxury car market, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi (BBA for short) belong to the first echelon. These three brands account for more than 70% of the market share in China's luxury car market.

Audi was originally the leader of the first echelon and has occupied the top spot in the Chinese luxury car market for many years. However, as the luxury car market has shifted from public and business consumption to private consumption in recent years and the target population has become younger, Audi's market size has gradually been overtaken by BMW and Mercedes-Benz due to its stable and conservative brand image and heavy official car imprint. The ranking of the luxury car market has changed from ABB to BBA.

In addition to BBA, Cadillac, Lexus and Volvo belong to the second tier, and Cadillac is considered the leader of this second tier.

In addition to these six major brands, Lincoln, Infiniti, Jaguar Land Rover, Acura, as well as some other emerging brands and high-end models of ordinary joint venture brands belong to the third tier.

This is the overall brand structure and competitive situation in the domestic luxury car market. Next, let’s look at two more market segments.

The first is the luxury mid-size car market, sales ranking from January to November 2019.

As of November 2019, data shows:

Mercedes-Benz C-Class sold 152,026 units, Audi A4L sold 152,024 units, and BMW 3 Series sold 98,794 units (first tier);

Lexus ES 83,238 units (note: the performance is very strong, Lexus ES is considered to have entered the first echelon);

Cadillac XTS 48,040 units, Cadillac ATS-L 33,634 units (XTS and ATS have always been Cadillac's most popular models and sedan sales);

BMW 3 Series GT 18,545 units, Audi A5 14,095 units, Volvo S60L 12,446 units, Infiniti Q50L 11,341 units, Lincoln MKZ 11,294 units, Jaguar XEL 11,003 units.

The second is the luxury mid-to-large market, sales ranking from January to November 2019.

As of November 2019, data shows:

Mercedes-Benz E-Class sold 142,247 units, BMW 5 Series sold 124,006 units, and Audi A6L sold 114,634 units (first tier);

Volvo S90 38,124 units, BMW 5 Series New Energy 25,303 units, Cadillac CT6 19,890 units (second tier);

Volkswagen Phideon 12,826 units, Hongqi H7 11,569 units, Toyota Crown 9,948 units, Ford Taurus 5,397 units (third echelon, high-end models of ordinary joint venture brands and domestic luxury brands).

From the sales performance in this market segment, we can also see that BBA's market position is almost unshakable, and Cadillac's main competitors are Volvo and Lexus.

The ranking of mid-sized and large cars on the famous automobile vertical website, Autohome, can also prove this point.

BMW 5 Series No.1

Lexus ES No. 2

Audi A6L No. 3

Mercedes-Benz E-Class No. 4

Toyota Crown No. 5

Volvo S90 No. 6

Cadillac CT6 No. 7

After looking at the market, let’s look at Cadillac’s product strategy.

Cadillac's own ATS and XTS are very popular and are responsible for the sales of Cadillac sedans. But the problem is that both models are about to be delisted and discontinued. So the question is, what type of car will fill the market space left by ATS and XTS?

According to Cadillac's market plan, its market will be taken over by CT5, CT6, and the CT4 which will be launched this year. However, since the CT5 was only launched in November last year, its sales have not yet picked up, and the CT4 has not yet appeared.

As the flagship product of Cadillac sedans, CT6 must shoulder the responsibility of increasing sales and responding to challenges from competitors. It must defend its position as the fourth luxury car brand and the leader of the second tier of luxury cars.

In fact, I have taken the trouble to list the sales figures and ranking data here just to tell you who the competitors of Cadillac CT6 are?

They are Volvo S90 and Lexus ES, which are the core competitors; especially the strong momentum of Lexus ES, which poses a serious challenge to Cadillac.

Then some more marginal competitors include the Volkswagen Phideon and Toyota Crown. Of course, the luxury perception of Volkswagen and Toyota's parent brands is a little weaker.

Among BBA, Cadillac may be able to take advantage of Audi's decline to grab the market share of A6L. Besides, the pricing of Cadillac CT6 is slightly lower than that of BBA, and it is a strategy of exchanging price for volume.

So among the market segment and competitors of Cadillac CT6, who are rear-wheel drive and who are not?

Front-engine, rear-wheel drive: BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class (front-engine, four-wheel drive), Toyota Crown;

Front engine, front wheel drive: Audi A6L, Volvo S90, Lexus ES, Volkswagen Phideon.

(Who said that luxury cars are all rear-wheel drive?)

You know, Cadillac CT6 did not say "If it has rear-wheel drive, it is luxurious", but said "Without rear-wheel drive, it is not luxurious". Anyone who has received nine years of compulsory education should know that the meanings of these two sentences are different, right?

Who is this statement “Without rear-wheel drive, it’s not luxurious” meant for? It's Volvo and Lexus, it's Audi and Volkswagen. This Cadillac advertisement is clearly a highly aggressive competitive advertisement, and it has a clear target audience.

This advertisement also shows Cadillac's ambition, which is to put itself on par with BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and change the luxury car market from BBA to BBC (Cadillac's English name is Cadillac). Audi, Volvo, and Lexus can just go and have fun.

Through the sentence "Without rear-wheel drive, it is not luxury", you can see Cadillac's brand competition strategy, competing with Volvo, Lexus and Audi.

After talking about products and markets, let’s add a little bit about the target population.

The biggest change in China's luxury car market is the shift from public and business consumption to private consumption, and the rise of personalized demands. Otherwise, why are BMW and Mercedes-Benz rising strongly while Audi is declining?

Precisely because the target audience of luxury cars is becoming younger and more personalized, brands like Lexus, which focus on design, and Cadillac, which emphasizes sportiness and personality, are rising rapidly in the luxury car market.

(Lexus is the car brand with the most innovative design in my mind)

Take a look at Cadillac’s brand appeal: new American luxury; all greatness comes from a brave beginning.

Look at the Volvo S90 advertisement, which invited Eddie Peng to be the spokesperson, and then Eddie Peng said: It’s not my cup of tea, but I love it.

So, if Cadillac’s brand value and genes were not sporty and neo-American, if the luxury car market was not becoming increasingly younger and more personalized, how could Cadillac come up with such innovative and exaggerated advertising ideas?

So "without rear-wheel drive, it's not luxury" is just a line of copywriting? No, this sentence reflects many stories and strategic thinking behind the Cadillac brand.

From a copywriting perspective, "Without rear-wheel drive, it's not luxury" is not a very sophisticated rhetoric or writing technique, and "Without XX, it's not XX" is not a very creative new style of writing.

But from a strategic and branding perspective, this copy accurately hits the competitor's weaknesses and the consumer psychology of the target group of luxury cars.

Therefore, if you lack understanding of the entire luxury car market and insight into Cadillac's competitors and target users, you cannot write copy like "Without rear-wheel drive, it is not luxury."

In fact, you don’t understand the luxury car market, so you can’t even understand what this sentence is saying. You can only make random comments like the appeal is inaccurate, luxury cars all have rear-wheel drive, and so on.

From this case, we can see that in order to write good copy, what is needed is not just the ability to choose words and sentences, but a deep insight into brand strategy.

If you just treat copywriting as a word game, you will never enter the door of advertising and brand marketing.

Pantene has an extremely touching classic advertisement in Thailand. A deaf-mute little girl has loved the violin since she was young. She always watched an old man performing the violin on the street.

But in the process of learning piano, she suffered discrimination and bullying from her classmates. Just when she was about to give up, the uncle told her: Music is something that can be seen, you can find it by closing your eyes.

So the little girl started practicing hard again, and finally at a classical music competition, she shocked the audience with the song "Canon in D".

Finally, the advertisement tells us: You can shine.

Shine is Pantene’s consistent core brand concept. Take a look at Pantene’s series of advertising slogans in China:

Strong inside, soft outside

Healthy and radiant

So healthy, so radiant

Every moment, emit your unique brilliance

6 weeks of repairing hair color and perm damage to restore your radiant skin

Shiny Hair

Shining New Light

…

Why does Pantene keep talking about words with similar meanings like shine, radiance, brilliance, and gloss?

Because Pantene has always claimed to be a hair care expert, it can repair damaged hair and restore its luster; when the hair is shiny, people will be confident and will naturally radiate brilliance and shine.

Based on the brand concept of Shine, let’s take a look at Pantene’s latest campaign – Makeover.

It tells girls that after a breakup, they can change their hairstyle and make a fresh start.

It tells girls who have just entered college that they can change their hairstyle and make a fresh start in the new environment.

Based on the brand concept of Shine, we can see that Pantene’s VI revolves around the bling bling gold color, and even the newly launched products are called platinum double tube and diamond double tube.

So, from a copywriting perspective, are words like makeover and shiny hair difficult to think of? Is it difficult for copywriters? But from a brand perspective, it is a good copy that is in line with Pantene's brand values ​​and brand tone.

To write good copy, the first thing you need to understand is the brand. What is the brand’s core value proposition? What is the tone of communication between brands and consumers? What attitudes, personalities, and lifestyles does the brand’s target demographic have? What kind of market is the brand in and what kind of competitors is it competing with?

If you can't figure out these questions, and when you see the brief and the copywriting to be written, you can't wait to open "100 Tips for Writing Good Titles", "3 Techniques for Writing Perfect Copywriting", "7 Ways to Make People Read Your Copywriting", "8 Treasures to Make Users Forward and Place Orders Crazily", "21 Copywriting Templates You Can Use After Learning"... then you will never be able to write good copywriting in your life.

When learning copywriting, the first thing to do is to learn the brand. Techniques and routines are just details. I have seen many copywriters who have been in the industry for several years, but when it comes to writing copy, they can only use homophonic puns, word-changing puns, 4-to-4 format, 3-to-3 format, and only work hard on writing skills and make fuss about word choice and sentence structure. So after working for many years I am still a copywriter, unable to get promoted or get a salary increase.

Why?

Because you don’t understand brands and strategies, and don’t have insights and conceptual refinements, you are just a word carrier.

Author: Empty Hand

Source: Empty-handed (firesteal13)