Marketing Benefits vs. Features: Will it make me late for dinner?
Marketing Benefits vs. Features: Will it make me late for dinner?
What are you marketing - Benefits or Features? Wake up and talk about what's important to your customer. Your engineers care about features like horsepower. Don't worry about hurting the feelings of your engineers. They are not your customers.
Should you promote benefits or features? The question sounds simple. The answer is also simple. Yet so many marketers make this mistake. You probably know the difference between benefits and features and you might wonder why so much marketing focus on the wrong aspect.
If you are marketing a car the features might be that it is available in candy apple red, sky blue, moss green or charcoal gray. The benefits might be that you will look sexy in red, cool in blue, inviting in green or mysterious in gray.
This lesson about the difference between features and benefits was hammered home for me a few decades ago in my first career when I worked in marketing for International Harvester. I was representing IH at the International Plowing Match. I was excited about being on the tractor display. My job was to explain all the features of the new tractors to the farmers.
I had memorized the details of all the tractor models - horsepower, PTO power, tire options, etc. I could name the factory where each model was manufactured. I even prepared cue cards with this information in case I forgot. I felt ready to wow the farmers with my technical knowledge about the tractors. Yep I was well armed with the features.
But I was jolted into realty when a farmer with crooked teeth stared at me after my dissertation about horsepower and said, “Can she pull a three-furrow plow in sandy clay?” A benefit question.
The question shocked me. I didn't know the answer. I didn't have a clue. And I realized that that was the important question. I didn't know the answer that was important to the customer. The company had not prepared me for it. They had given me facts - not relevance. There was nothing in the marketing brochure about benefits just features.
If you don't know what is important to your customers, you will be talking about horsepower - when they are worried about getting stuck in the clay.
What is the clay that your customers are worried about? Learn the nature of that clay. Talk to your customers about the clay and their concerns. Other than the engineer that designed the tractor, no one else cares about horsepower. Customers care about the clay because that is what costs them fuel and that is what makes them late for dinner.
Smart marketing is about knowing, understanding and conversing with your customers about how your product offers them benefits to improve their life.
Marketing Benefits vs Features Will it make me late for dinner - To learn more about this author, visit George Torok's Website.
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Stop telling your customers about horsepower (feature) when they are concerned about missing dinner (benefit). One of the biggest marketing mistakes is to talk about features like horsepower when your customers only care about benefits like getting home for dinner.
What are you marketing - Benefits or Features? Wake up and talk about what's important to your customer. Your engineers care about features like horsepower. Don't worry about hurting the feelings of your engineers. They are not your customers.
Should you promote benefits or features? The question sounds simple. The answer is also simple. Yet so many marketers make this mistake. You probably know the difference between benefits and features and you might wonder why so much marketing focus on the wrong aspect.
If you are marketing a car the features might be that it is available in candy apple red, sky blue, moss green or charcoal gray. The benefits might be that you will look sexy in red, cool in blue, inviting in green or mysterious in gray.
This lesson about the difference between features and benefits was hammered home for me a few decades ago in my first career when I worked in marketing for International Harvester. I was representing IH at the International Plowing Match. I was excited about being on the tractor display. My job was to explain all the features of the new tractors to the farmers.
I had memorized the details of all the tractor models - horsepower, PTO power, tire options, etc. I could name the factory where each model was manufactured. I even prepared cue cards with this information in case I forgot. I felt ready to wow the farmers with my technical knowledge about the tractors. Yep I was well armed with the features.
But I was jolted into realty when a farmer with crooked teeth stared at me after my dissertation about horsepower and said, “Can she pull a three-furrow plow in sandy clay?” A benefit question.
The question shocked me. I didn't know the answer. I didn't have a clue. And I realized that that was the important question. I didn't know the answer that was important to the customer. The company had not prepared me for it. They had given me facts - not relevance. There was nothing in the marketing brochure about benefits just features.
If you don't know what is important to your customers, you will be talking about horsepower - when they are worried about getting stuck in the clay.
What is the clay that your customers are worried about? Learn the nature of that clay. Talk to your customers about the clay and their concerns. Other than the engineer that designed the tractor, no one else cares about horsepower. Customers care about the clay because that is what costs them fuel and that is what makes them late for dinner.
Smart marketing is about knowing, understanding and conversing with your customers about how your product offers them benefits to improve their life.
Marketing Benefits vs Features Will it make me late for dinner - To learn more about this author, visit George Torok's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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