Joe Sugarman

Joe Sugarman's copywriting trick: name a spec everyone has but nobody knows about

Copywriter Joe Sugarman sold a cheap watch by touting 'space age metal' and 'quartz movement', specs that are standard across watches but sound impressive because customers don't know that. This is the 'knowledge complex': remembering that the simple stuff you know isn't obvious to your buyer.

“So there's this guy named Joe Sugarman. He's a great copywriter. He's real famous. He's probably in the '70s now. And he wrote a really great ad for, was it Casio? I forget what it was for a watch company and like not an expensive watch, like a $59 watch. And. I think he was one of the first people to use the phrasing space age metal is in this watch and then something like quartz movement.”

Steal thisFind a true-but-standard spec of your product and name it loudly; customers reward the spec they didn't know everyone shares.

Imperfect Produce: 200,000 subscribers at ~$200/month

Sam, a subscriber himself, notes Imperfect Produce (now Imperfect Foods) has 200,000 subscribers and that he was paying roughly $200 a month — a big number that validates the 'ugly produce' delivery market.

“I just googled it, Imperfect Produce, they have 200,000 subscribers. What do you pay per month roughly? It's a weekly bill. I think I was paying $200 a month.”

Joe Sugarman sold watches on 'quartz movement' nobody mentioned

Sam tells the copywriting tale of Joe Sugarman, who learned a watch had quartz movement and 'space-age aluminum' and built the entire pitch around it, even though every watch had quartz movement, because nobody else was saying it.

“So it's got like a space-age aluminum with quartz movement. And he's like— and they're like, yeah, but every watch has that. They're like, yeah, but like, no one's saying it. No one says that. So let's like position it this way. And he did, and it worked wonderfully.”

Steal thisName a true-but-unmentioned attribute of your product in your copy before competitors do.