The Client
Vitrazza is a luxury brand that sells glass mats for office chairs. Founded in Boulder, CO in 2005, they have been creating durable office chair glass mats made of tempered glass panels that replace cheap vinyl floor mats. Its products protect flooring from damage and lend a luxurious aesthetic to offices.
The Business Need
“One of my biggest challenges is finding the right balance between luxury and performance messaging.” ~ Aaron Ziemann, Vitrazza Director of eComm and Digital Strategy
Direct response copy for a luxury brand is some of the most difficult to write. It needs to convey a timeless, almost aloof tone while persuading the visitor to take immediate action. Vitrazza had been leaning too far into utilitarian, direct response copy. They highlighted features like no denting, maximum weight limit, and level of glass clarity. Luxury copy needs to be aspirational to convince visitors to take action.
Luxury purchases are made for emotional reasons–the feelings they will inspire, the prestige, the emotional boost. The less we lean into the logical, utilitarian aspects, the more likely we are to evoke that emotional pull and create a response. The further we lean into utilitarian reasons the more we are engaging the wrong sort of decision-making processes.
Vitrazza's original headline/subheadline was "Glass Office Chair Mats by Vitrazza/Never Dent. Ultra Stylish. Smooth. Backed by a Lifetime Warranty." This blended the utilitarian and aspirational, but listing the aspirational (ultra stylish) in a list of features didn’t impart the luxury tone needed to evoke an emotional response.
Solution
The Conversion Team created two headline variations that used an aspirational tone. Variation 1 leaned into the aesthetics only. Variation 2 talked about aesthetics and craftsmanship.
Variation 1: "Modern.Sophisticated. Stylish./Glass Office Chair Mats by Vitrazza"
Variation 2: "Sophisticated Style. Unrivaled Quality./Glass Chair Mats by Vitrazza"
Both versions were tested and both variations outperformed the control. Variation 1 won overall with a significant lift. (see results below)
The client’s feedback was to incorporate the concept of craftsmanship that V2 expressed while improving on the lift that V1 has shown. The Conversion Team ran a second test to update the subheadline. The variations selected for the test were:
V1 - "Glass Chair Mats Made to Last"
V2 - "Ultra Resilient Glass Chair Mats"
Results
Conversion Rate Increase
In the first test, Variation 1 won with a 9.3% lift with 84% confidence. Variation 2 produced a 5.5% lift in transactions. Vitrazza decided to move forward with Variation 1.
Variation 1: "Modern.Sophisticated. Stylish./Glass Office Chair Mats by Vitrazza"
Incorporating the client’s feedback, the headlines entered the second round of testing. Subheader variation 1 produced a 13.6% lift in conversion rate with 88% confidence. The second variation produced a 13.4% lift in conversion rate. Vitrazza decided to use variation 1.
Variation 1: "Glass Chair Mats Made to Last"
Conclusion
Through iterative message testing, Vitrazza was able to make informed decisions about the kind of copy they used in the headline and subheadline. They took these learnings and began to apply it to the copy across their website as well as to design decisions such as investing in high-end photography.
"The results let us know we were zeroing in on the middle ground that is masstige branding, and emboldened us to lean into luxury even more without fear of compromising performance."
~ Aaron Ziemann, Vitrazza Director of eComm and Digital Strategy
