On Walking a Mile in Your Reader’s Shoes

In retail, the right voice can change everything. Lately we’ve been working with a company named Schuler Shoes—and loving the challenge of coming up with fresh, humanized copy for their campaigns. For Creative Director Kari, our collaboration is all about channeling an active spirit of adventure and staking out a recognizable point of view, while delivering on the timeless promise that the right footwear can take you anywhere. 

Cultivating that brand perspective—and consistently executing with every word—is at the heart of our mission here at MarketSmiths. Thirteen years ago, when founder and CEO Jean Tang started down this path, she declared “a war on the bland” — on the stale, jargon-packed, SEO-cluttered content that typified corporate writing. 

For instance, if you were shopping for shoes in 2010, you might’ve stumbled across something like this:

“Are you looking for affordable shoes online? Look no further! Our affordable shoes online store offers the best cheap shoes for sale. If you want to buy discount shoes, you’re in the right place. We have a wide range of discount shoes in various styles, sizes, and colors. Our discount shoes for sale are perfect for any occasion – whether it’s casual wear, formal events, or athletic activities. Don’t miss out on our amazing back-to-school shoe deals and discounts on cheap shoes!”

A hooked carp, you’d haplessly land on this page only to find a shallow, keyword-stuffed ecosystem devoid of context and meaning. As a shopper, your superficial need may be shoes, but it’s the visceral needs—empathy, connection, reassurance—that clinch the sale. Thankfully, the web has evolved beyond over-optimized, incoherent strings of senseless search gobbledygook. 

But in 2023, now there’s AI.

In an AI-powered landscape, our tagline, “Copywriting for Humans”® means something even more profound. Beyond a “war on bland,” it’s a call-to-arms against the generic generalisms, cringey cliches, frivolous filler, and tired tropes that characterize large language model generative text.

For instance, if you asked ChatGPT to write a landing page for shoes (I did), it might come up with something like this (it did): 

“Introducing our revolutionary new sneaker! With a sleek design and cutting-edge features, our sneaker is the perfect blend of style and functionality. Buy now to experience the future of running.”

Welcome to the Golden Age of Cliches, where words and phrases—like “empowering,” “exceptional,” “future innovators,” “charting a course,” “pioneering excellence,” “unlock your potential,” and “navigating the journey”—will be applied to almost anything you enter into the query box.  

And therein lies our problem: “often bland and vague” AI language is “missing a humanist core.” Its text neither springs from pain, anxiety, or longing, nor passion, imagination, or insight. As ChatGPT once painstakingly explained, “As an AI language model, I can’t have personal experiences, but I can certainly simulate writing from a first-person perspective for you.” I couldn’t help but feel sorry for it. At best, AI can only simulate banal, mass-produced experiences. 

As society speeds like a bullet train without brakes—toward smarter and faster machines—your human readers will always be searching for messages that move, astonish, and transform. 

In essence, that’s what Copywriting for Humans® is all about. It’s about finding language that mirrors back the complexities of the human condition and echoes the stirrings of the soul. It quietly says, “I see you—living your life, day to day—perspiring, aspiring, yearning for something.” And then… it delivers that something.

Maybe it’s something like this:

“Happiness starts in the sole. Your feet take you everywhere. But they’re easy to take for granted. That is, until you experience discomfort from shoes that don’t fit properly, newfound foot disorders, or the pressure of everyday activities. Foot problems are a pain. But they don’t have to slow you down. At Schuler, we’ll help you find your perfect fit — and build confidence from the ground up.”

Want to get in step with your audience? Get in touch.

Keen to learn more about Copywriting for Humans®? Download Galvanize now.