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The 3 Concepts that Distinguish Your Business and Products as Good, Great, and Unique
I challenge you to ask people about the difference between the three concepts. Interesting discussions generated: Feature, Benefit, and Value.
Some work on their sales pitch day and night and talk about their brand's "uniqueness" very hard, trying to make it click in their audiences' heads.
However, oftentimes, someone across the table may realize that they are actually going through a list of features and benefits of the product or service, which are perhaps just the same list of things they've already heard from the other person an hour ago, who happened to also claim themselves as unique.
There's nothing wrong in doing so. It is definitely sensible to be crystal clear about what you are offering to your customers.
However, features and benefits mostly don’t trigger actions or emotions; values do, value propositions if you will.
Business owners and entrepreneurs often find themselves lost in the sea of numerous features and benefits, without even realizing it. They feel good about the facts and figures that they are able to present to the market, thinking that building a bank of statistics is the way to gain trust.
Not necessarily.
No matter how many facts we have behind an offering, sometimes it just won't click in the customer's head. It is a commodity, not a brand.
An effective brand starts with one clear value proposition. Yes, just one. That's all it takes to be unique.
No matter what role you play in a business, as long as you are in a position to make an offer of any kind - a salesperson making a deal, a marketer pitching for a collaboration, a copywriter selling through their ads, a designer presenting their solutions, or even HR offering a job, not to mention the business owner running the entire machine - your success starts from getting these three concepts lined up and essentially landing on THE value proposition for your brand.
Value Proposition - Why Does It Matter?
It dictates how much your next deal is going to be.
It informs what other brands you should be collaborating with.
It frames how you write you next ad copy.
It guides which creative approach you should adopt.
It affects the role and specialty you need to fill in for the growth of the company.
And it goes on and on.
The strongest value proposition out of the many you might have discovered, oftentimes, becomes your brand positioning - the Northstar of where your business is going.
What is it exactly, though?
Stay with us.
The Building Blocks.
Going back to Feature, Benefit, Value for a second.
They are three linear, sequential concepts. Feature leads to benefit and benefit eventually leads to value. To figure the formulate fro your business. It’s easiest to work backwards. First determine what you'd like your value to be and then build the features that will ultimately deliver that value.
For marketers, it matters because feature and benefit have no emotional relevance but the value does create an emotional response. It's the reason why case studies and success stories are such a powerful marketing tool. They give real life examples of the value that a product or service provides and they are always specific to that particular client.
For sales people, it matters because value is what brings people to a buying decision. Feature and benefit are great but those can be displayed on your website. The only way to find the value is through communication with the client/prospect and finding out exactly what pain your product is solving. When you focus on highlighting the value of your product to that client, you will become more successful.
To simplify things in our own thinking, we've drawn up distinct definitions between the three, making sure we focus our energies on the right game.
Here we go.
Feature: The cold and hard facts
The objective facts and specifications about the products and services you are offering.
There will be no subjectivity and interpretation becuase these are hard facts. Features are things that you can easily find on any factsheet of a company or specifications in a user menu of a product.
If highlighting features were the only key to closing deals, we wouldn't need salespeople, and marketing would have been so much simpler. In fact, it was that simple, until perhaps the 80s or 90s.
Benefit: People come into play
Benefits are the direct result of a feature.
They are things that customers can accomplish because of the features of your product. In other words, what the users are enabled to do with your product.
Articulating the benefit of your offering is one step closer to being relevant to your customers. Because it gets a little bit more specific for them to understand and actually care about.
Value: THE USERS are in control
This is arguably the most important one. This is what drives people to make buying decisions.
The value of a product or service is unique to each consumer. It is why your product is important to them. It is determined by the significance of the problem your offering is solving. The only accurate way to know the value of your product is to get feedback from your customers.
In that sense, it is all subjective from an individual customer's point of view. And it is no longer about what you say it is.
Example 1: A Pen.
Features: Blue ink, click to display point, clip, plastic, green, smooth outside.
Benefits: You can write notes, sign contracts, draw a picture, all with a device small enough to fit in your pocket and the ink is permanent.
Value: Green is my lucky color so I sign all of my contracts with my green pen.
Example 2: A Tire.
Features: Rubber, round, black, thick grooves, manufacturer's logo, 30" diameter.
Benefits: Allows your vehicle to accelerate around curves without losing traction and stop on a dime.
Value: My tires allow me to drive my children to their soccer practice safely every Sunday.
Example 3: Medical Insurance
Features: Coverage for hospitalization, doctor visits, prescription medications, dental care, and vision care.
Benefits: Access to a network of healthcare providers, financial protection against unexpected medical expenses, peace of mind knowing that medical costs are covered.
Value: It allows me to prioritize health and well-being without fear of draining savings or causing financial hardship.
Example 4: Energy Drink
Features: Caffeine, taurine, B-vitamins, carbonated, 16 fl oz can.
Benefits: Provides a boost of energy, increases alertness and focus, enhances physical performance, and helps combat fatigue.
Value: It helps me meet deadlines, stay productive, and perform at my best, especially during long meetings or late-night work sessions.
Example 5: Camera
Features: 24 megapixel sensor, 4K video recording, interchangeable lenses, built-in image stabilization, touchscreen display, Wi-Fi connectivity.
Benefits: Capture high-resolution photos and videos, record professional-quality videos in ultra-high definition, adapt camera to different shooting scenarios with various lenses, minimize blurriness and ensure sharp images, easily navigate settings and preview shots with user-friendly touchscreen, transfer and share photos wirelessly.
Value: My camera allows me to express my creativity, capture precious moments, and tell stories through visually stunning images. It helps me preserve memories and showcase my unique perspective and artistic vision.
Now, You Are Competing with No One.
You might have noticed by now.
Articulating the value side of an offering is essentially storytelling. And a story has meaning, which triggers the emotional side of thinking.
Human beings love stories. We, for whatever reasons, like to impose meaning on things, and oftentimes, it doesn't even need to make sense to other people. It is all specific, personal, and subjective.
In this sense, story and value are two interconnected and interchangeable concepts.
As a business owner, marketer, sales director, copywriter, or an entrepreneur who does a bit of everything, the notion of building a story around the business you are working on is your very first step to build that irreplaceable brand and offset market competition.
Having a good product is not even good enough.
Getting a great product to sell is not even great achievement.
Being able to articulate a story around it for your ideal customers is the unique positioning that brings your sustainable development that no one else can steal from you easily. The meaning of your product has already been deeply seeded in people's heads. It is largely emotional buying at this point. No feature and benefit beat that.
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