How many times has someone talked about his or her products and it sounded like, “blah blah blah?” …I have no idea what you’re talking about or how this information pertains to me, but I’ll nod and pretend that I do.
One day I was at the market and saw a tea product called Celestial Seasonings. I loved how they labeled their tea products. Rather than just calling them Floral Egyptian Chamomile Tea as what its ingredients suggest, they branded it as “Sleepytime”.
“Sleepytime” automatically lets me know that it’s a soothing tea that I can drink before slumber to relax my body. Doesn’t that sound better than “Floral Egyptian Chamomile,” “Cool Spearmint from the Pacific Northwest”, and “Lively Guatemalan Lemongrass?”
Benefits are what customers will gain or experience by using the product. The real question is, “how does this help me?”
Features are characteristics that the product has; not what it can do for the customer.
Benefits vs. features – have a good understanding of it!
Apple Iphone 4 Marketing
Can you identify which are benefits versus features?
Answer: their bold titles are the features and light gray text are their respective benefits. They clearly know what they’re doing :)
How To Apply This Into Your Business
- Know who your customer is
- Think in their perspective
- Focus more on results (benefits) that they can relate to
Here are some examples. I also made one up for event planners – it can be inaccurate because I’m not one, so just play along.
Wedding Photographer – my advice is to avoid talking about what cameras / lenses you have, bragging about how many megapixels it has or how fast it can shoot.
Instead, focus on how you won’t miss a moment because it can go “click click click” really fast and how the camera shoots in such high quality that they can blow the image up to wall-sized prints.
Wedding Planner – (I apologize ahead of time if I’m butchering this up) – avoid talking about features like spreadsheets or cool programs that you will be using.
Instead, focus on how the program will send your clients updates with diagrams and timelines, so that everyone will be on the same page leading up to the wedding day.
(Although I relate best with wedding photography, I understand that my readership is pretty diverse, thus the wedding planning example).
Notice how benefits make more sense to consumers? It’s like saying Rolex uses kinetic mechanics – say what? Kinetic engineering allows the watch to never rely on batteries. You just need to keep moving for it to function.
What I want you to do now…
- Share this with your friends via Retweet or Facebook buttons below if you thought this post was pretty cool.
- Comment whether you think the title of this post is a benefit or feature. Why?
- Write about other worldly examples that use this model (except for Celestial and iPhone). It’s good exercise to recognize and ultimately apply.
Your neighborhood Spiderman marketing strategist,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. If I could be any super hero, I’d be Magneto (no need for any tingling spider senses). Oh how fun that would be…
P.P.S. I want to test a new lab. Can anyone share their experience with WHCC except that they have a wickedly cool booth at WPPI? Don’t snicker.
Every year at WPPI, I’m working diligently at my tiny booth sharing business strategies; I sort of look like a tarot card reader except that I’m free. Okay, maybe not completely free – you do need to wait for a considerable time in line and give me high fives and hugs after a consultation. In the end, I never get to explore the trade show. Thanks in advance!
P.P.P.S. Good news! For 2011 WPPI, I’m a Master Class speaker! My topic is “Marketing is a lot like Dating”. So if you’re interested, mark your calendars. And yes, I know that it is 6 months away, but do it anyway.
Let me get the party started with two worldly brands –
Starbucks Tazo Teas – one is called “Calm” and another is called “Passion”.
Jamba Juice – they have free boosts called “Energy” and etc.
I don’t even need to know the ingredients of the aforementioned teas or boosts. If I am looking for something to calm me or boost my energy, order me one of those bad boys!!
Nothing but good experiences with WHCC. Quality, speed and good customer service… need I say more?! I ordered a mounted 16×20 once and it was on my doorstep 2 days later. Inside was a note telling me that after completing the order they noticed a flaw in the matte board and had to redo it – they had to do it twice and I STILL had it in 2 days!
Sometimes for me it’s the cover of a magazine that sells me – 25 tips to finally organize your life and I’m sold!! WHCC has rocked my world. are you ever coming back to Boston?? Pretty please!
when applied to the wedding photography world, I have seen this utilized correctly and incorrectly. At one point I saw the words, “Ross and Rachel” Marge and Homer” applied to different wedding packages. I personally would not want my photography package referred to as Homer (although I am a fan of the show). Lesson to take from this – if you are going to label and name your packages, choose wisely.
I also consider myself a geek when it comes to equipment however, my own eyes start to glaze over when I hear someone talk about what they use for weddings – I can only imagine a potential clients.
How you paint a picture in a potential clients eyes is very important for first impressions – both on your website and when meeting in person. Most do not want to hear the words megapixels or RAW. Most want to hear the words intimacy, passion, that first glance moment at the church, etc. They want to hear that you anticipate what will happen and have your camera at the ready to capture a specific moment – then follow it up with those “moments” in your portfolio.
PS. If I could have any power, it would be Alice Cullen from Twilight- so I can see what will happen ahead of time and make sure I capture it all!
Love WHCC, not to mention they are pretty much in my back yard so I get everything next day. Oh yeah and they include a Tootsie pop, yhat alone won me over. Now if I can only find a free or dirt cheat way to proof with them and have them fulfill my orders I would be set.
WHCC is my favorite lab and I’ve used quite a lot of them including Millers and Bay Photo and Pounds and Richmond. They have great customer service that includes (of course not limited to) caller identification so when I call from my cell they know who I am and my most recent orders! So easy to talk to them while I’m driving without needing to be in front of my computer. They are a Kodak lab so they won’t be using the new super cool Fuji matte paper. :( But their canvases are actually better than Simply Canvas and a little cheaper. Free 2 day shipping on nearly everything and super fast turnaround on books. Their press products and paper options are top notch! Their ROES software is UBER easy- way easier than Bay ROES which gets complicated. Ummm…I’m sure I could think of a thousand other comments to post but that’s all for now.
Thanks for the article Lawrence. It’s always fun to read the stuff you write. I’ve been using WHCC for a few years and love them. Great quality and speedy service! They have made a couple of mistakes over the years, but were very nice and quick to fix them. When things don’t go right, that’s your customer service test, and they did not disappoint. I just wish they sent me 2 lollipops in the box, so my kids didn’t start screaming for who gets it every time the lollipop truck (aka UPS truck) comes :)
WHCC – excellent service. Quick without sacrificing quality and for some reason, they’re cheaper than everyone else for most things! Haven’t tried their books though. I’m very happy with who I use but other than that…
I love WHCC, but it’s also the only company I’ve used. Their customer service rocks and products come super fast. And you get a tootsie roll sucker with every shipment! ;)
WHCC provides excellent customer service. Everything I’ve ordered arrives in 2 days with a note from naming the packager and a Tootsie Pop. Even emails are returned within a couple of hours. They are always having a sale which is super nice!
If you want to try a new lab… give Bay Photo a try. You’ll be amazed with great quality, excellent service, fast turnaround and wonderful products. Usually they are able to get products shipped out same day! Also, they’re a certified green business.
L, you will love the customer service at WHCC, and they are always on target with the delivery and you can bet your bottom dollar the quality rocks.
+1 for WHCC. I love them.
Lawrence, great post. I liked it very much. And very useful ideas.
Love all the posts…LOVE WHCC..everything that everyone else said…and for some reason the way they have ROES set up is a little seamless in comparison to other labs ROES. I recently just checked out CPQ…super fast and a few more products offered. And for albums…I love Finao .
Have a good one!
WHCC rocks! Best customer service ever. Accurate color. Speedy turn around. Need I say more? Now where’s the new Tofurious 2 column blog template? :p
It’s right here buddy – http://tofurious.com/2010/06/tofurious-blog-theme-3-and-why-it-rocks/
oops! My bad! Sorry, I meant the 1 column theme. When is that bad boy coming out? Love the column, but I’m a 1 column kinda girl! :-)
Okay, it’s unanimous that WHCC rocks. I will give them a try today :)
Now, let’s focus on business! Where are other places where you’ve seen this model? Additionally, how can this be applied to your business?
Let’s all put our thinking caps on!
The Celestial Tea example isn’t really about sales, it’s about positioning. This is all covered in the Ries and Trout book “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind”. The tea is positioning itself as the thing to drink when you want to get sleepy and go to bed.
Like NyQuil, positioning itself as “The Nighttime, Sniffling, Sneezing, Coughing, Aching…” or FedEx’s “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”. In both cases, there existed other companies that delivered next day packages and syrupy cold medicines, but these companies painted a certain picture about themselves – and that’s what makes us remember them for that.
But when I walk into a store, I may just pick up the generic brand cold relief or go to whatever delivery service is closer to home or less expensive than FedEx. IOW, it doesn’t make the sale necessarily. Sales is needed to make it happen.
Sales is more about the process of uncovering wants and needs that the prospect seeks and then guiding the consumer to your solution. Sales is about the why people buy. Not about facts or tag line positioning.
So talking about how one’s camera can make for great enlargements or how you won’t miss any moments isn’t really sales UNLESS those benefits are hot buttons to the particular prospect you’re saying it to. Then they have to be motivated to make the purchase. I may really like the “BMW Experience”, sincerely need a car, walk into a dealership, but they still need a salesperson to make the sale happen.
Am I correct?
Totally! You’re spot on in regards to mind and category. I even wrote about it here – http://tofurious.com/2010/06/jamba-juice-coffee-poor-marketing/ but we’re not talking about mind or category.
We’re talking about benefits and features. If it’s not part of marketing, then how could you possibly list what said product or service do? Would anyone upgrade their iPhone not knowing anything about the new one? This post is about presentation of information.
Application can be a whole slew of ways. That’s for readers to figure out –
http://tofurious.com/2010/07/questions-me-too/
That’s my point,T. The sales process is about making that connection from “features and benefits” to the specific reasons any individual would be motivated enough to overcome their inertia and make the purchase. That’s sales. Positioning is about marketing, segmenting the business’s identity into a blurb to remember them for, but it’s not sales.
To use your iphone example, a ‘feature’ would be the video on it. The ‘benefit’? Well, they list you can see your family and friends. But that doesn’t make a sale, that’s just a general, blanket statement. It may not even apply to me.
What makes the sale to any individual are the emotional underlying reasons we individually benefit from that the features would make possible for us to do and therefore resolve that strong underlying purpose: The prospect who misses her daughter greatly because she’s 2,000 miles away at school and wants to see her face. The guy who feels he’ll be revered as super cool if he was the first in his circle to get this latest, greatest and he likes the ego stroke this would give him; the career person who considers this may be a handy tool to profit financially with in long distance sales situations; the person who would love, love, love to give his folks back home a thrill by wowing them with live video from wherever he is traveling in the world that they would probably never get to themselves.
They can’t possibly list all these things. Nor can they have people read them all, ingest them, ponder on what it means for them.
People may not make those realizations just from a list of features and benefits. They may not even think of those very reasons pertinent to them, though they exist. But in the sales process, those motivational reasons are uncovered and addressed. Now, that’s sales. Not marketing.
Now, this I get and agree. To be honest, I couldn’t think of a better title. I should have tied it into the emotional responses from viewers. I wasn’t really sure of your argument earlier, so forgive me.
***For others reading:
Marketing – the process to reach and persuade target audience
Sale – the process at which the product makes sense to the consumer, thus the sale
i’ve used a couple of different labs and so far WHCC is my favorite. Fast turn around time and great customer service. I find their ROES so much easier to use than ProDPI as well.
WHCC rocks. Seriously. Like, rock star status rocks. I switched to them about 2 years ago, and have been so happy. Their CS is top-notch, the quality and color is perfect and turnaround time is lightening fast. You can’t go wrong. Good luck!
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