Features vs Benefits: A Practical Story

Today, as my 5 year old had been up coughing all night, I opened up our trusty nebulizer to give her some relief.

While she nebulized, the packaging caught my marketer’s eye.

Now, I’ve had this nebulizer since my oldest was born, so that’s about a decade.

And I clearly remember when I bought it — right after my daughter was hospitalised with a respiratory infection, and doctors said she had to be nebulized every 6 hours, and my husband and I figured it would just be easier to do it at home. We literally went out that same night and purchased this device.

Today, almost 10 years later, this device has helped both my daughters to breathe better and to sleep better during their bouts of flu and various respiratory infections. And in fact, Ali (husband) has also used the machine to keep his asthma in check.

But today, as I read the words on the packaging, I felt a disconnect.

Company-Advertised Features

The company proclaimed the following features:

• no membrane
• easy to use
• no cooling water
• regulable ultra fine aerosol

Now, apart from “easy to use”, the other features mean absolutely NOTHING to me as a lay person.

Real-World Benefits

When we were looking for a nebulizer to buy, here’s what we, as parents and direct end users were looking for:

• something that wasn’t noisy (the hospital nebuliser was super noisy and we hated it!) and because we often used it on the baby when she was asleep (no resistance), we needed something extra quiet
• an adjustable mask for adults and kids so anyone in the family could use it to fit on their face
• easy to clean (as a mom, this is on my wishlist for any product!)
• easy to use, no messing around with a million buttons (they got this one right)
• extra pipes and masks (for when the kids lose one or it gets dirty and the next kid has to use it)
• affordable (as far as I remember, it cost Rs.4000/- a decade ago, which is about $36 now)
• long wires please, so we can place it anywhere and the patient can use it while in bed
• portable (we even used it in the hospital over the regular hospital nebulizer)
• long-lasting (if your kids suffer from a chronic repeatable illness, you definitely want something that lasts!)

This is just a list off the top of my head. Now, here’s the interesting part: this machine has ALL of these amazing benefits, but NONE of them are mentioned on the packaging!!!!

Here’s the kicker: Would I have gone out and purchased this machine had I been looking for something kid-friendly? Probably not. We were in a rush, our 1-year old daughter was in the hospital, so we bought what the store-keeper recommended in 5 mins flat!

Imagine if instead of technical features, the product packaging actually listed benefits to the end users. How many more parents and end-users like us would be persuaded that this was the right device. The company’s tagline even says “Health at Home” so they know they’re selling it to ordinary folks, and not technical or medical personnel, so why the medico-geek on the packaging?

I’m pretty sure more people (and parents specifically) would choose this device based on such a list of real-world benefits. I mean you can almost imagine a parent giving separate masks to each kid to prevent germs from spreading!

Take a Critical Look at your Marketing Copy

When you think about your own business, is your marketing talking about the features or the real-world benefits?

Are you hiding the actual uses of your product under technical terms and jargons?

Are you clearly communicating practical benefits over features?

The easiest way to make sure you talk about the benefits is to talk to actual customers. Ask them what they like or dislike about your products and services and then use THEIR language to guide your marketing copy.

Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!