Businesses need less passion.
Now that’s a statement you don’t see very often. Practically every company claims to produce its goods with ‘passion’. They all seem to think that jamming the word in their company slogans adds that extra marketing magic. No, it doesn’t. Do you really want ‘cheese made with passion’?
The oddest claim I’ve seen was painted on the side of a delivery van. The van was the plainest, most boring grey imaginable and belonged to Innserve. It promised ‘dispense solutions passionately delivered’.
As a copywriting junkie I was thrilled. Not only did it make very little sense, it managed to combine ‘passion’ with ‘solutions’. In the days before ‘passion’ became so popular, businesses loved to say they offered ‘solutions’. I was a big fan of the Solutions column in Private Eye listing particularly nonsensical slogans. So it was a real treat to see my old fave ‘solutions’ linked with ‘passion’.
However, I suspect my reaction was not quite the one that Innserve envisaged. As ‘the largest national independent drinks dispense service company in the UK’ they seem a really good outfit. But is ‘passion’ really one of their top brand attributes? If I ran a bar, I might be keener on reliability, speed of service, knowledge and price. Why not promise me something relevant?
Similar thoughts apply to other brands cluttering up their packaging with random sprinklings of ‘passion’. Dorset biscuit maker Fudges decorate their packs with the pledge ‘made with passion, the Fudges way’. Thankfully, their fellow local biscuit makers, Moores, haven’t succumbed to passionate temptation and don’t run a similar slogan on their packs of Dorset Knobs.
When it comes to copywriting, you need to know what you are selling. Be clear, be persuasive and be yourself.
Sara Hudston
Tin of Moores' Dorset Knobs
