How to Write a Product Description That Is Not a Brochure

Anyone shipping a page, a listing, or a launch note can write a product description that is not a brochure in one sitting: one user, one job, three facts, one honest limit. Run it in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, then cut every line you would not say across a counter.

A brochure lists virtues. A description helps one person choose. You need a shape that forbids hype, plus a stop so the model cannot "elevate the language." If you still paste "write a compelling product description," read what a skill prompt actually is and save the card.

Write a product description that is not a brochure

Ban the brochure words first. Name the user second. Draft last. If you reverse that order, every draft arrives pre-glossed.

1. Ban the brochure before you draft

Paste this list and make it non-negotiable:

seamless, elevate, unlock, crafted, premium, delight, revolutionary, perfect for everyone, designed to inspire.

Add your category crimes. Instruct Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini: "If a draft uses a banned word, rewrite the whole description. Do not swap in a synonym."

Synonym swaps are how "premium" becomes "elevated." The same ban-first habit that keeps captions from sounding like ads applies here.

2. Name one user and one job

Your input is not the spec sheet. It is a person and a job.

• Who is buying, named by situation, not persona poetry.
• What they are trying to finish today.
• Three facts that would survive a skeptic: material, measure, constraint, result.
• One limit you will not hide: weight, battery, fit, who it is not for.

Example: "Weekday lunch. Jar that does not leak. 400 ml, gasket lid, 180 g. Limit: not oven safe." If you lack three facts, stop. Keep moments in the Promptcrates library of reusable prompts.

3. Force the four-part shape

Every description, every channel, same bones:

• Situation — the user in a scene. No verdict.
• Job — the thing they need done, in their words.
• Three facts — numbers, materials, constraints. Product name at most once.
• Limit — one honest not-for, so the wrong buyer leaves.

Tell the model: "90 to 160 words. Situation cannot contain a superlative. Facts may contain the product name once. Limit cannot be spun as a feature."

4. Generate three, pick one, do not blend

Ask for three variants that share the facts and the limit, but change only the situation. Different Tuesday, same jar. Pick one. Do not frankenstein a fourth. Blended copy has a moodboard, not a voice. ChatGPT will offer a "punchier mix." Refuse it.

5. One human pass at speaking speed

Read the description at the pace you talk. If you would not say it to one buyer, it is still a brochure.

Kill:

• The fake we. You are one shop.
• The fake everyone. If the user is a weekday parent, do not add hikers.
• The fake intimacy. "You deserve this" is a billboard in a hoodie.

Then stop. Do not add a paragraph that explains why it matters. Save the ban list with the Promptcrates tools for reusable writing skills.

Reusable skill card

Trigger: You are about to publish a listing and the draft already sounds like a catalog page.

Input: One user in a situation, one job, three skeptic-proof facts, one honest limit, plus your banned-word list.

Output: Three descriptions, 90–160 words, situation / job / facts / limit, product named once, zero banned words.

Stop: After you pick one and read it at speaking speed. No blending. No extra CTA.

Takeaways

• Ban brochure words before you generate. Synonym swaps still sell nothing.
• One user, one job, three facts, one limit. The product name appears once.
• Generate three situations. Pick one. Never blend.