|
Product Basics
Products may be described in terms of their features and benefits. Features
are product characteristics; benefits are customer needs served by those
features. Some examples of features are size, color, horsepower, functionality,
design, hours of business, and fabric content. Benefits are less tangible
but always answer the customer’s question: What’s in it for me?
While product features are usually easy to define, product benefits
can be trickier because they exist in the customer's mind. The most
compelling product benefits are those that provide emotional or financial
rewards. It’s not the brighter smile that the toothpaste offers that
is its benefit; it’s what the smile might bring you (a good-looking
mate, a better job, etc.).
Emotional rewards run the gamut of human emotions, but basically allow
the buyer to feel better in some way. For example, sending flowers to
a friend or family member allows the buyer to feel supportive or loving.
Buying products made from recycled materials offers the buyer the chance
to feel environmentally responsible.
Products that deliver financial rewards allow the buyer to save money
(e.g., a discount long-distance phone plan) or make money (e.g., computer
software for managing a home-based business).
Discovering Your Product's Benefits
To identify your product’s benefits, you must consider your customers'
needs. Imagine yourself in your customers’ shoes, talk to them directly,
or conduct surveys asking about their needs and perceptions.
If possible, hire an independent firm to conduct a focus group with
a sample group of customers to test your product for usability and desirability.
Examine customers who have purchased your product in the past. What
do their customer profiles tell you about your product’s benefits?
Once you have a basic sense of your product's benefits, you can set
up systems to develop and track their evolution:
Ask customers for suggestions for improvement.
Pay careful attention to customer complaints and prospect inquiries.
Train and reward employees for questioning customers and prospects to
learn what they like and don’t like about your product.
Watch your competitors. Do the changes in their product offerings suggest
product benefits you hadn't yet considered?
Why is it important to understand my product’s features and benefits?
Understanding product features and benefits allows you to:
Describe your products in terms relevant to your customers.
Differentiate - explain how your product is different than the competition’s,
with different benefits.
Effectively choose pricing and positioning strategies. Refer to strategy
ideas below in "Strategies that are based on features."
Differentiation
Products may be highly unique (specialty products), virtually indistinguishable
from competitors’ products (commodity products), or in between these
extremes. No level of uniqueness is necessarily better than any other,
but they do require different marketing strategies. A potentially important
strategy for specialty products is differentiation, which sets them
apart from the competitors’ products in the minds of customers. A thorough
understanding of how your product’s benefits compare to your competitors’
allows you to compete effectively with them through differentiation.
Commodity Products Few, if any, perceived differences among competing
products
Specialty Products Highly unique features compared to other products
competing for buyers dollars
Strategies that are based upon features
Introducing - Identifying yourself as the first to offer a new product
feature is a proven competitive strategy. For example, specifying a
product as the first organic body lotion containing Vitamin E will position
your company as a leader, at least for a while.
Improving/Modifying - Instead of being at the head of the pack with
a totally new feature, you might modify or improve your product’s features,
which creates the impression that your company cares about satisfying
its customers. Modifying product features is a strategy many businesses
use when a competitor has lowered prices. For example, if the maker
of one organic body lotion lowers its price, the maker of another may
add Vitamin E as a "new and improved" feature but keep its
price the same. It is important to remember that modifying features
usually leads to changes in benefits. Stay aware of the evolution of
perceived benefits your product offers so you can use them in your marketing.
Grouping - Often, features are grouped into different product models
— and prices — escalating from a basic model to a "fully loaded"
model. Automobiles, electronic devices, and vacation packages each offer
features that may be added to a basic product model. Services can also
be grouped in this fashion. For example, an accountant might offer a
certain fee for preparing annual tax returns, another fee to also process
payroll, and another to manage all of a client's financial affairs.
|
Business Solutions |
