If the Psycho shower curtain didn’t satisfy your lust for horror movie settings, add the Blood Bath shower gel to your bathroom. In lieu of a typical intro, I’m presenting a screenshot of the product page. I’ll tell you why later on in the critique.
The introduction: 4 pings
The first sentence doesn’t give much information about this product per se, but it does grab my attention. It also naturally invites shoppers to check out other Blood Bath products without saying, “Hey, check out the rest of our Blood Bath family of products!” I approve of this tactic, if there must be tactics. And in retail, there must.
Informative copy: 2 pings
Zombies and werewolves, vampires and horror movies–this is the stuff of best-selling young adult novels. After the initial impact, though, this product description doesn’t have much going for it. What I know about this shower gel in practical terms is it’s cherry scented. That’s it. How much is in the bag? What size is the bag? Can I get a blood bath refill? And while an army of the undead is all well and good, it’s painfully easy to veer into the territory of a third-rate mass market paperback about all that is supernatural, as happened here:
So after a tough day battling against werewolves and the armies of undead zombies, what better way to freshen up before nipping out for a bite to eat down your local morgue…
Effective images: 3 pings
The first product image, seen in the screenshot above, is great. The second image is disappointing, as much because it’s a tease of what blood bath shower gel could look like as because it’s a pretty blatant misrepresentation of the product. That thick, bright red goo you see to your right is definitely not what you’ll get when you squirt this stuff out of the bag. If this was a serious rather than frivolous product, I’d dock it another ping. But hey, there’s a short horror video. That’s probably worth something to someone.
What I’m buying: 1 ping
To reiterate, this is a frivolous product. But it’s also functional (right?). I might be in the minority of consumers for this, but I want to know much more about the product before I’d purchase it. For instance, is something included for hanging? I see a string in one picture…
Design: 4 pings
My favorite thing about this page is that the description, images, and buy button are all above the fold without seeming crammed. In the pre-digital time of newspapers, above the fold was the prime real estate. In the Computer Age, it refers to whatever is visible without scrolling down the page. Some say it’s not important to choose with great care the content of the first few hundred pixels of a web page, but I say they’re wrong (more importantly, so does Nielsen). I’m not suggesting that this is a superior or even always preferable page layout, but Blood Bath shower gel does not warrant a scroll-happy product page.
Final score: 3 pings
I have one question: Is an “undead zombie” actually dead, kinda like a double negative sometimes makes a positive? More importantly, when did zombies and werewolves start teaming up for supernatural battles? I’m waaaay behind on my YA reading.
See the full page here
