Deconstruction is how the marketer ensures the highest possible conversion rates. Deconstruction is a systematic process of tagging every element on the product page — it’s similar to police work at a crime scene or what an archeologist may do at a dig site. In this article, we’ll show you the deconstruction process being applied to one of YETI.com’s (not one of our clients) best-selling products, the Rambler® Tumbler.

Example of what a deconstructed product page looks like.

Three Reasons Why Deconstruction Matters

To recap the video, the three reasons why Deconstruction matters are:

1: To slow the brain down so we don’t skip anything.
2: To learn from what’s there so we can build on top of it.
3: To get client buy-in.

Deconstruction Process

Take a screenshot of the page and, starting from the top, number every element.

Now study every annotation from top to bottom.

For, now I just want to force your brain to slow down and focus on understanding the nature of the product that’s being sold and the hopes of the buyer looking to buy it. Imagine being at a retail store and seeing a shopper studying this item. Empathize with them but also feel the excitement of how this product will make that consumer’s life better.

What Next?

As I’m working on deconstruction, I’m also formulating a long list of questions for the client. If you’re a business owner or work in-house, then instead you need to be formulating and answering these questions yourself.

These questions are designed to help me understand the “why we exist?” story of the business and product, in this case, YETI and their tumbler. Shoppers (and people in general) are drawn to stories. It’s my job as a marketer and CRO specialist to effectively tell a story. The answers to these questions give me the information and inspiration I need to do that.

So What Sort of Questions Am I Asking?

These are the sorts of questions I ask, some of which I ask every client (these have been personalized for YETI and their tumbler, but I think you’ll see how most of these can be applied to your business and product as well):

– You meet a buyer in person who is trying to enjoy their drinks on the go and keep them cool/hot. You tell them about your solution. They seem interested but in their head, they are thinking: “I want to solve this, but I don’t think I need to buy this tumbler.” What would you say to this person to prevent them from being shortsighted?

– If a buyer is trying to enjoy their drinks on the go and keep them cool/hot, visits this product page but decides not to buy, what alternative solutions could they use to solve this problem?

– When YETI was founded, who were the big names in the industry that you had to compete against? In what ways were they under-serving consumers? How did you address this with your products? I ask because I want to bring this story to light and show shoppers how much effort went into providing them with the very best coolers, tumblers, etc.

– There are so many “me-too” products out there — so many other tumblers on the market. What are the downsides of these other tumblers?

– What are some of the products the Rambler^® Tumbler is competing with?

– How do you stay ahead of the competition?

– Running a business is hard. You had to make many hard product development decisions. We know shoppers are drawn to stories that include a struggle. This principle is called Labor Illusion. They are also drawn to competent people who admit mistakes. This phenomenon was first discovered by social psychologist Elliot Aronson and named the Pratfall effect.

To describe the difficulties with product development we like using a structure that follows this general path: “We started in this direction, thought it would be easy, encountered a problem, nearly gave up, and then, in the end, solved it.”

What comes to mind when you reflect on your journey with the Rambler^® Tumbler?

– How do you ensure the quality of your product? Quality is a detail shoppers really care about, especially healthy skeptics. We don’t want to use any clichéd statement around quality. Our goal is to use a statement that truly demonstrates our unique and earnest take on quality.

– If a shopper compared our Rambler^® Tumbler with competing options like Hydro Flask and Klean Kanteen, what about our product might be seen as a missing feature? Once you tell me what that missing feature is I’ll craft a story to address that.

– If a shopper compared us with competing products like Hydro Flask and Klean Kanteen, what about our product might be seen as an inferior feature? Once you tell me what that inferior feature is I’ll craft a story to address that.

– You either have a patent or have received specs like this when you originally manufactured the product. Could you share that with us? We’d like to use it for the concept we’re working on.

– We like using analogies in our copy. Analogies are a great conversion tool because they explain the unknown in terms of the known. To explain the benefits of dual-wall vacuum insulation in your tumbler, what analogy would you use? What analogies would you use for the other key features?

– Which types of cup holders aren’t large enough to fit this tumbler (are there specific places that users frequently mention that are unable to fit your tumbler)? I want to avoid mentioning these as potential use cases for this tumbler.

– Can all three sizes fit under the Keurig machine dispensers (or other coffee pod machines)? One issue I’ve had with tumblers in the past is that some of them can’t fit under the dispenser of my Keurig.

– If your tumbler is BPA-free, what are you substituting BPA with? We know that some companies substitute BPA with other similar and harmful chemicals. If you don’t, we’d like to make this point clear to shoppers.

– Have you had any independent testing done to confirm how long the tumbler is able to keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold? If so, we’d like to make shoppers aware of this as it will build credibility.

– Can this be put in a freezer?

– Is your Magslider lid shatter-proof?

– How many prototypes did you go through before reaching the final version, and how long did it take? Shoppers correlate quality with difficulty. We want to fully communicate how difficult it was to create this tumbler.

– What makes this limited edition? We want to provide shoppers with more info on this to amplify their desire for the tumbler.

– What testing did you do to determine how durable this tumbler is? We want shoppers to understand the quality they’ll be receiving.

– What are the benefits of the Magslider™ lid? What makes this better than the lids used by competitors? What was the lightbulb moment that led you to create this lid? We want shoppers to understand the full value of the lid.

– Can someone use a straw with the Magslider™ lid? If so, we want shoppers to be aware of this.

– Is there anything unique about your double-wall vacuum insulation technology that makes it the best? We see that Hydro Flask uses the same language on their tumbler product pages, so we want shoppers to know the differences (if there are any) in the technology.

– Did you conduct any time tests with this tumbler, i.e. did you test ice water over a 24-hour period and confirm that the ice remained frozen, did you test hot coffee over a 24-hour period and confirm that coffee was still hot, etc? If so, we’d like to use this data to support the claim that this tumbler keeps cold drinks cold and hot drinks hot.

– Does the Magslider™ lid fit all your tumblers? 

– What experiments have you done with this tumbler? We’re interested in any data, studies, research, etc. you have that can help us demonstrate expertise and show shoppers that you’ve considered absolutely everything in the making of the Rambler^®.

– Is this made in the USA? If not, where and why? If the answer is yes, we’d like to bring more attention to this.

– Do you have any video content showcasing this tumbler? A product demo? If so, we’d like to incorporate this into our sales pitch to make it more visual and engaging.

– For the same reason above, do you have any lifestyle images showcasing this tumbler?

– Does the exterior build up condensation?

– Can this be put in a freezer?

– What are the top 5 ways in which people use their tumbler (e.g., for coffee, tea, smoothies, cocktails, etc.)? Which of these uses surprises you the most?

Next Steps: What Do I Do With These Answers?

If you’re working with a client, then you want to make sure you’re getting detailed, honest, unfiltered answers — their stream of consciousness on paper (i.e., answers that don’t sound polished for a shopper on their product page). You’ll work on editing the copy yourself, so you can remove anything that seems unnecessary or not very compelling.

If you’re working on your own site, then the same is true. Don’t answer these questions as if you’re speaking with a customer. Just get everything on paper, then work on doing your copy magic afterwards.

Some answers may not feel compelling. That’s a cue to ask the question again, maybe in a different way. Don’t accept the first answer the first time if it’s not good enough!

Once you’ve done deconstruction and know the answers to these questions, you’ll discover the core Selling Angles you need to focus on. From there, you’ll be able to start making improvements to your page. First, you need to learn more about what Selling Angles are here.