The problem
A hook that opened a product for two months stops working. The creator tries three new openings. All of them do worse than the old one did at its peak. Nothing about the product changed. Something about the audience did.
In 1966 a copywriter named Eugene Schwartz published a book called Breakthrough Advertising. Most of it is about magazine ads. But one chapter, “Your Prospect’s State of Awareness,” is the single most useful idea for anyone deciding what a TikTok Shop video should say first.
Before you write a word, ask: how much does the person already know? Do they know they have a problem? Do they know a fix exists? Do they know this product? Do they already want it? Schwartz laid it out as five stages, from the easiest sell to the hardest.
1. Most aware
They know the product, know what it does, and want it. They just haven’t bought yet. All you need is the name and a deal. Price is the headline.
TikTok Shop: “It’s back at 40% off.” Product in frame at second one. Pure BOFU.
2. Product-aware
They know the product exists but aren’t sold. Maybe they aren’t sure it works, or don’t know what it does for them. Show the name, then spend the rest proving it is better: new proof, a new feature, a new reason.
TikTok Shop: reviews, results, “here’s what changed in week three,” comparisons against the thing they’re using now. Late MOFU into BOFU.
3. Solution-aware
They know what result they want. They know products like this exist. They don’t know yours. Three steps: name the result they want, prove it can be done, show that your product is how.
TikTok Shop: “If you want this result, here’s the one thing that actually does it.” Mechanism videos. “Why most versions don’t work.” Core MOFU.
4. Problem-aware
They know they have a problem. They don’t know a fix exists, or they’ve stopped believing one does. Lead with the problem, then bring the solution in so it feels like news.
TikTok Shop: symptom hooks. “Your skin looks fine in the morning and tired by 3 p.m. Here’s why.” The product comes in after the problem is named. Late TOFU into MOFU.
5. Unaware
They don’t know they have the problem, or won’t admit it. Schwartz calls this the hardest sell. The viewer is a long way from your product in their own mind, and your job is to close that distance. You can’t open on the product. You can’t even open on the problem. You open on them: a story, a belief, a moment they recognise, and walk them to the problem before you ever get to a fix.
TikTok Shop: story hooks, “I thought this was normal,” identity hooks, curiosity. Pure TOFU.
The wall between stages
Each stage is separated from the next by a wall. A message aimed at one stage does not work on another. A price headline bounces off someone who doesn’t know they have a problem. A long story about the problem bores someone who already has the product in their cart.
That is the thing TOFU, MOFU and BOFU are really encoding.
| Video type | Talks to | Opens on |
|---|---|---|
| TOFU | Stages 4 and 5 | Them, or the problem |
| MOFU | Stages 2 and 3 | The result, and the proof |
| BOFU | Stage 1 | The product and the price |
The three video types exist because you can’t talk to all five stages in one clip.
The example
A video leaks at Payoff. Ask: what stage did the hook speak to, and what stage did the next line speak to? Very often the hook is written for stage 5, “I thought this was normal,” and line two jumps to stage 1, “so here’s what I bought.” The viewer hit the wall. That is a scent break (Lesson 19), and Schwartz explains why it happens.
Now the creator from the top of this lesson. Her old hook was a stage 4 symptom hook. After two months of it, the people who see her videos mostly know the product. They moved up to stage 2. A symptom hook now tells them something they already know, so they scroll. The next version does not need a better problem. It needs proof.
Schwartz warns that products don’t stay at one stage. As a product gets known, the market moves up the scale, and the hook that opened it stops working. Then, if the product gets old or tired, the market can slide back down and you have to sell it like it’s new again. If you’ve watched a winning hook die on a product after two months, that is what you saw. Lesson 23 shows how to tell that apart from the script wearing out.
Do this in Verdict
- 1Open the video in the Leak Finder. If it is tagged MOFU or BOFU, read the awareness note. It says whether the product’s other videos show an audience that already knows it.
- 2If the note says the audience is not there yet, the video skipped stages. The next version opens one stage earlier.
- 3If the leak is at Payoff, read the hook and the second line side by side. Name the stage each one speaks to. If they differ, that is the fix.
Source: Eugene Schwartz, Breakthrough Advertising (1966; Boardroom Classics ed. 1984), Chapter 2, “Your Prospect’s State of Awareness.”