Valley PR Blog

CD Baby and the power of voice

By Dan Wool on June 25th, 2008 In Marketing, Writing

When writing copy, who says you have to follow the rules? Sometimes you can create a brand personality all your own with strong writing and in the process, generate huge word-of-mouth.

It all starts with nailing your brand’s voice. Below is an order confirmation from CD Baby, an online independent music retailer. In a world where they compete with Apple/iTunes, Wal*Mart and Amazon — i.e. big box online retailers — they are definitely at the far end of the “long tail.”

How do they stand out? They know their audience — thoughtful shoppers seeking out cool, new, independent music — and they delight them with a voice that’s not only fits the intellect but is delightfully unexpected.

—–Original Message—–
From: CD Baby loves XXXX <orders@cdbaby.com>
To: emailaddress
Sent: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:01:30 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: XXXX - Your CD Baby Order! (#4077506)

XXXX -

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

#### ORDER # 40XXXX6 ######

WHERE YOU HEARD OF:
band’s web site

Physical Items in this order:

=== Shipped Items ===
** Shipped on 2008-06-17: **
1 of XXXXXX: XXXXX ($9.99 each)
***************

=========================

SHIPPING: $2.25
GRAND TOTAL : $12.24 - US Dollars

SHIPPING ADDRESS:

XXXX
XXXX
Phoenix AZ 850XX
UNITED STATES

BILLING ADDRESS:

XXXX
XXXX
Phoenix AZ 85020
UNITED STATES

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized
contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it
was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the
crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can
buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our
private CD Baby jet on this day, Tuesday, June 17th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all
exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh…

–
Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little store with the best new independent music <a
href=”http://cdbaby.com“>http://cdbaby.com</a> cdbaby@cdbaby.com
(503)595-3000

Comments

That’s great copy. I wish more companies had marketing materials like that!

(It also goes to show that even a confirmation e-mail can be a branding tool.)

Derek Sivers at CDBaby is the best - I’ve been using the service to sell my music CDs for years and everything about their service, emails, shipping and more has been top-notch.

Two other companies that take the time to, first…understand their audience and, second…write sizzling reader-delighting promotional copy are: 1) Harry and David (gourmet fruit baskets), 2) Despair (the ultimate anti-marketing icon in my pantheon–I simply sit at their feet and await their seemingly randomly timed promotional jeremiads.

Anyone on here get the Desert Living SCOOP e-newsletters? They are some of the most entertaining, well-written promotions I have ever seen. I’m like Jim…I get giddy as soon as I see them pop up in my mailbox.
Here is an example of their most recent one:

MADE IN ARIZONA

Buying a 12-pack of Bounty from a big-name superstore might save you some cash, but believe it or not, those six bucks are sucking out a little piece of the local economy’s soul. Don’t be a soul-sucker. Now, SCOOP doesn’t presume to have a solution to the gas/environmental/oil issue, but a good start to improving the economy is taking the pledge to shop locally. Translation? Say bye-bye to those Safeway runs and Gap sprees. Local First Arizona, an organization that promotes local businesses and educates citizens about the importance of shopping locally, will host Independents Week ’08. From June 30 to July 6, vow to only patronize local boutiques, farmers markets, restaurants, galleries, etc. That way you know your hard-earned dough is keeping Arizona’s cities thriving. And you’ll feel even more rewarded when you download the special “Golden Ticket” on their Web site. It won’t exactly win you a tour of the chocolate factory and an Oompa-Loompa, but you’ll get a sweet 20 percent off at 40 participating businesses. For a list of local businesses and more info, check out localfirstaz.com.

Great post Dan. And I agree with some of the others who responded - fantastic copy. They way that they were able to convey the brand essence in even the smallest places (order confirmation) is the most impressive! I’m sold.

no need to get snooty!

I agree that is fantastic copy, but is it appropriate for the consumer? I have nothing but fantastic things to say about CD Baby, and truthfully, I wish all business embraced the concept of having fun with what you write and convey yourself with individually or as an organization, but some companies steer clear of this kind of thing because it’s deemed too loose.

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