F*#k the features! Your brand can die now if you don't highlight the benefits!
Think right and get it straight
Welcome to the 6th Issue of The Funnel Chemistry!
It’s been quite a week for me. A couple of new client sign ups had kept me busy through the week. But then how could I not come up with a plan to do what I absolutely love to do. I should say, I missed you and as I am writing this piece, I am more connected and happier!
So, here we are! The headline is a bit bold. That is so for a reason! I would like to propose something really bold today. I thought, why should my headline not reflect it! And so, let’s hit it!
Background
I was having a conversation with a prospective client. I asked them to pitch their product to me. As usual, the sales guy began explaining the various features of the product! Most of them were technical and I couldn’t relate to the product at all! So, almost in exasperation, I had to ask “What do your users get out of using your product and features?” The answers were vague. I asked them to work on that and come back to me!
This is a problem! If a user cannot relate to the product, the product will never sell. Fortunately, we have a technique called Feature Benefit Laddering that solves the problem!
This mail is about that technique! It contains 1100+ words and would take 4.5 Minutes to finish reading.
Feature Benefit Laddering
When a company builds a product/service, they begin by identifying a customer need. This is then translated it into product features. So, our phones have 2.3Ghz processors and 64MB Ram and 128GB Storage. Our washing machines have front loading and 20 liter capacity. Our TVs have 1080p resolution, Full HD Surround Sound and so on. How come these features are there? They are there because we said so!
Well, you might argue that I don’t even know what they mean! So how could I have said so! But you said you wanted a super fast phone, that you wanted to save water when washing clothes, and you wanted a tv with crystal clear pictures! Didn’t you?
The company heard you, thought about how they could give you the benefit and came up with these features! A 2.3GHz processor may make your phone super fast and help it to work without hanging. A 20 liter capacity in a washing machine means more clothes can be washed at one go and save water. A 1080p resolution might mean crystal clear pictures with vibrant colors.
Many companies assume that their consumers can connect a product feature to a benefit. Obviously, what can a 2.3GHz processor mean other than super fast? Isn’t it? This is bad strategy. Simply because the consumers can not equate the 2.3GHz processor into the words super fast!
As a digital marketer you are expected to design marketing communications. You often hear clients explaining the product features to you too! If you are a performance and results driven digital marketer, your messaging must be right! To get the messaging right, you must be focused on the Benefits and not the Features. So, f#@k the features and get to benefits. Here is my sketch note explaining the same!
Download a PDF version here!
How to use this knowledge?
The process is simple. Whenever you are working with a client, use the following steps!
Step-1: Build a template
Make a three column table. Name the first column as “Features” the second as “Functional Benefit” and the third one as “Emotional Benefit”.
Step - 2: List the features
List out all the product features. This should be easy as your client may well give all the specs to you. Many companies are proud of the products they create. So, they would be glad to give you more than you can chew!
Step -3: Discover Benefits
For each feature ask
What will the user get if this feature is present? The answer for this will go into the functional benefit column.
How will this make the user feel? The answer for this will go into the emotional benefit column.
If you get stuck here don’t worry. Scroll down and click on the last link in the Expanding your knowledge base section. You will find a practical work around!
Step - 4: Develop USP
You can rank order the features and even select one best feature which may become the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of the product/service. Centering the messaging of your ads and social media communications around this USP can create the right positioning for the product/service.
Expanding your understanding
Here are a list of articles that I found absolutely interesting with lots of explanations, use cases and further applications.
Understanding the Consumer Benefit Ladder
This article explores the concept of Brand Laddering (same as feature benefit laddering) at a deeper level. It also provides several use cases like FarmFoods and OnePlus6T. These use cases are quite insightful.
Value Selling: The Difference Between Features, Benefits, and Value
This article takes the concept of laddering and applies to develop value proposition statements. These statements can be used in sales pitches to communicate the value of a product and upsell or increase the size of the deal! Wonderful examples are there throughout to simply and give you specific use cases.
A Simple Technique to Identify Your Brand's Emotional Benefit
Sometimes it can get a little tricky to really get the emotional benefit for a feature. This article employs the famous “5 Whys” technique which is used to do Root Cause Analysis. Borrowed from the Lean Six Sigma toolkit and applied to this context, should I say it works brilliant?
So, that’s about the knowledge piece today! Here are some Next Steps
Next Steps
Do take some time to prepare the template I mentioned in Step-1 above. Use the same to document the ladder. You can use the same to document your own services as a digital marketer and come out with your own USP! Wouldn’t that be cool?
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Book of the week
I have been practicing sketch noting. I love it. While making the last issue I made a conscious decision to use as many sketch notes as I can in my newsletter. It is not only visually appealing but you will have something personal from me to remember me by!
So, I picked up a book on Sketch Noting. It’s title is The Sketchnote Handbook: The Illustrated Guide to Visual Note Taking written by Mike Rohde.
The experience was fantastic. First off, the entire book is also a sketch note. Which means it’s not just line after line of boring theory. It’s visually very appealing and makes for a superb read.
It also has illustrations from several other contributors. These are artists, designers and practitioners who have been sketchnoting for several years. So, you can expect a visual treat. I am sure you’d keep turning pages back and forth to simply enjoy the visuality of the work.
It’s a must read for all beginners of sketch noting! Loved reading it.
You can order the book from amazon here!
So, those are the words for today’s email. Thanks for reading the whole of it. I hope you found the issue beneficial! I loved making this Issue and I feel grateful that God has given me this opportunity to reach out to you and share with you a valuable piece of my knowledge.
See you next Thursday!