Adverising(2)

Written by Jerry McAdams

Features and benefits in advertising

High-performance may be a benefit to a buyer of a sports car
A V12 engine is the feature that enables the benefit.

The buyer must translate the phrase V12 engine into a benefit (i.e. V12 = fast).

What is a feature?

A feature is some aspect or component of a product that delivers an outcome. For example, a V12 engine delivers speed.

Its certainly true that some features are so well understood by the buyer, they're instantly translated into benefits. Despite this, your ad should still describe the benefit.

This is because the buyer responds to the benefit on an emotional level. What's more, the buyer may not be interested in the specific features that deliver the desired benefit.

The buyer's subconscious will bring your ad to the attention of his/her conscious mind, as soon as it detects the particular benefit that motives him/her. If your target market are speed-freaks, you better make it very clear that your product delivers plenty of speed.

Lead with your #1 benefit

Your ad must lead with the product's #1 benefit. That is, the number one thing your target market most wants to get from a product like yours.

And by lead, I mean start talking about the benefit in the ad's headline.

Here are two examples that illustrate the point. Which of these would you put at the top of your ad?

Do this, and you'll earn $25 million

Do this, and you'll never have to work again

It's a tricky choice to make, isn't it? After all, $25 million is a lot of money. But that first headline isn't without its problems...

Such a large amount of money may be dismissed as fantasy
The reader has to translate the money into an actual benefit
The reader may not regard this amount as enough

The first headline asks the reader to think. It forces the prospect to use a technical part of his/her brain, and translate the amount into a clear benefit. The problem with doing that right at the start of an ad, is we don't want the reader thinking in technical terms. We want the reader to start fantasizing. We want him/her getting excited about the opportunity discussed in the ad.

We want the reader to respond on an emotional level.

If the reader is bogged down with facts and figures, he/she isn't getting excited. Despite the large sum of money being discussed, the ad starts out with the reader in the wrong frame of mind.

Benefits are exciting

The second headline puts the reader in a different frame of mind. Instead of dealing with facts and figures, it talks about the benefit directly. No thinking involved!

This greatly increases the chance that the reader will accept the statement at face value. And if that happens, the reader will start day-dreaming about the joys of not having to work. This will motivate the reader to find out what it is he or she has to do. It has the prospect start reading the ad.

Benefits are exciting. The benefit is the thing people who buy the product actually want. For example, a car-buyer doesn't really want a specific brand of car. The buyer wants whatever he or she thinks that brand signifies. It might be prestige, performance, environmental responsibility, fuel economy, size or safety.

Of course, your ad can't dwell exclusively in benefits. A product's features are important too, because they lend credibility to the benefit on offer.

An ad headline should get the prospect interested enough to read the ad. The introduction should build on this interest. Once you've secured it, the reader will want to know why your product is able to deliver the promised benefit. And this is the point where you should introduce the product's features.

Each feature ought to be explained with the benefit (or benefits) in mind. It must be made perfectly clear to the prospect exactly what benefit a particular feature delivers.

Features belong in the middle part of the ad. They're there to help the reader understand how the product delivers on the claims (benefits) made for it. The ad must then end by talking about benefits.