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Which of the following options are more effective? 'ModelThinkers is a growing collection of the big ideas from the big disciplines ... Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. De ingenio eius in his disputationibus, non de moribus quaeritur. Respondent extrema primis, media utrisque, omnia omnibus. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Utilitatis causa amicitia est quaesita. Hoc est non modo cor non habere, sed ne palatum quidem. Idemne potest esse dies saepius, qui semel fuit? At certe gravius. Sed haec quidem liberius ab eo dicuntur et saepius. Re mihi non aeque satisfacit, et quidem locis pluribus. Ita fit cum gravior, tum etiam splendidior oratio. Suam denique cuique naturam esse ad vivendum ducem. Negabat igitur ullam esse artem, quae ipsa a se proficisceretur; An dubium est, quin virtus ita maximam partem optineat in rebus humanis, ut reliquas obruat? Murenam te accusante defenderem. Equidem etiam Epicurum, in physicis quidem, Democriteum puto. Istam voluptatem, inquit, Epicurus ignorat? Ergo illi intellegunt quid Epicurus dicat, ego non intellego? Sed in rebus apertissimis nimium longi sumus. Roges enim Aristonem, bonane ei videantur haec: vacuitas doloris, divitiae, valitudo; Fortasse id optimum, sed ubi illud: Plus semper voluptatis?
- Understand how you currently describe your offer
Do you currently list features or benefits in your mark ...
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There are many variables to take into consideration when choosing between features and benefits to market your product: product type, market saturation, competition, the focus on customer relationship or on solving a customer’s problem, and so on. While leading with benefits is normally the correct play, there are exceptions, particularly for a highly informed consumer or highly competitive and consistent market.
Another limitation of this approach is the inherent risk of targeting benefits. A feature can potentially be interpreted by different audience segments with different needs — so several groups might find relevance and appeal in a feature.
By contrast, a benefit tends to be a targeted message that can exclude as many people as it targets. This relates to the key takeaway of market research and understanding your audience.
Slack - killing meetings.
Slack is now being challenged by Teams and other competitors but for a time was one of the fastest-growing platform solutions in the world. Rather than focusing on features, their marketing messages highlighted specific data on how companies who adopted their solution reduced emails and meetings — two huge pain points in the corporate world.
iPod - 1,000s of songs.
When iPods launched they famously avoided ads which emphasised their (at the time) impressive storage capacity. Instead, they focused on the opportunity to have ‘thousands of songs in your pocket’.
Unboxing videos
By contrast to the examples above, the growing popularity of unboxing videos on Youtube reflects an appetite for feature-focused discussions for some products.
Features vs benefits is a fundamental mental model in the field of marketing and communication. It can be used more broadly to influence and explain value in any context.
Use the following examples of connected and complementary models to weave features vs benefits into your broader latticework of mental models. Alternatively, discover your own connections by exploring the category list above.
Connected models:
- Cost-benefit analysis: in establishing the actual value for a customer or target group.
- Opportunity cost: in establishing the next best value.
- Value proposition: providing clear benefits to customers.
- Personas: to fully understand your customers.
Complementary models:
- Inversion: consider how to deliver pain or make a problem worse to test out the real value of a benefit.
- The golden circle: identify the ‘why’ behind the features to solve underlying value-driven problems.
- Red queen effect: competing on features alone is considered to be a ‘race to the bottom’, as it focuses on value and features. Benefits can provide a broader, sometimes emotional connection with new market opportunities.
- Lock-in effect: how to reduce attrition by delivering on benefits.
- Diversification: testing whether a specific product feature can fulfil multiple benefits from diverse audience segments.
- The BCG growth-share matrix: when considering marketing and market share.
- The 4Ps of marketing: when developing a marketing strategy.
- A/B testing: to test hypotheses about possible benefits and marketing language.
The Features vs Benefits mental model has been a cornerstone of marketing conversations for decades. There are many useful articles in this space, we particularly enjoyed this one from Vappingo which outlines over 100 examples of features vs benefits.
My Notes
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1560 days ago arun , CoFounder ModelThinkers & keynote speakerThis is an undervalued model outside of sales. I use it in business pitches, conversations and presentations. Even in parenting frankly.
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