About Jermaine

Since starting my companies with $70 in my grandma's one bedroom apartment in 2000, things have come a long way! I would have never thought taking a year-long voyage around the world with my family. But this speaks to the power of the internet, a simple idea, and marketing automation. Read this report to learn how to make your business work for you, instead of being prisoner to it.

What A Bag Of Chips Taught Me About Features & Benefits

When it comes to selling products and services, many marketers make the mistake of harping on features and not conveying the advantages and benefits of their offering.

And if you think about it, it makes total sense why so many get caught up in features. We've been trained to believe "more" is better. This belief may translate into the need to explain, for example, how many pages your information product is or how many hours or dvds are included in your home study course. Or if you're a coach or consultant, you may feel the need to focus on how many hours or sessions are included. Or worse, you price according to "quantity."

The marketer escapes me but I once heard of a single cassette tape program selling for $450.00. One cassette.

Most marketers couldn't fathom charging $450.00 for a single one-hour cassette. That's because they are "feature-minded." They connect value to the specific components of what is being offered, aesthetics, and packaging. But when you become "benefits-minded," you see the end result of your "60 minute cassette program." If what you're teaching has the power to transform someone's life and you truly believe it, you'll realize how cheap $450.00 is!

Now to the every day experience that prompted this post...

As I was enjoying some chips the other day, I noticed this feature-benefit statement on the bag:

“Reclosable For Freshness”

As I was munching on the chips, I couldn’t help but to think that these three words are a great example of how to convey both the feature and benefit.

Feature: Reclosable “zip lock” packaging
Benefit: Freshness, better tasting “yummy in my tummy” (as my kids would say) chips

And if you think all brands make the connection between features and benefits, think again. Plenty of packaging includes “quantity-based,” feature-only statements. Describing in plain terms how the feature benefits the end user is key.

Feature: What your product does
Benefit: What your product does for your prospect

Short and sweet today.

Until next time.

Chris says:

Great article…….taking it to the extreme….is a pure benefit driven message too much of a good thing? Must it also include some features to balance?

Jonathan says:

Once you know this the next item is to determine how to best convey this to the prospect/client

Matthew says:

Jermaine loving your Automation Clinic Newsletter…I went through my inbox wondering if I have been missing the issues of the newsletter…I am assuming you’re super busy killing it with Private Clients or on a nice vacation…

Looking forward to your next issue!