TED Magazine - November 2015

selling

Those charged with creating a brand have a unique challenge that starts with a product, service, or business that’s based on an identified need in the marketplace—because even the best branding and marketing can’t sell or revive something nobody wants. The first step of creating a successful brand, then, is identifying what makes the product or service special or unique in consumers’ minds. This requires examining the brand’s functional features along with its practical, emotional, self-expressive, and social/psychological benefits.

1. Functional features are the core qualities or attributes of the brand. A functional feature of a pain reliever may be ibuprofen or acetaminophen. It may also have other attributes like an enteric (safety) coating, childproof packaging, and even a sleep aid.

A service such as a bank account may offer functional features such as online bill payment, interest on the balance, and overdraft protection.

Start by listing all of the functional features of the brand, noting those that will have the greatest impact on customers and can differentiate it from the competition. This may be difficult because functional features are often easy to copy and may not offer a competitive advantage. For example, all bottled waters quench thirst, but some have added vitamins, flavoring, and potassium.

2. Practical benefits are what the product does for the user, and they are less tangible than the product’s functional benefits. One pain reliever may have a fast-acting chemical agent ( functional feature) that delivers relief to muscles more rapidly than its competition (practical benefit) or a sleep aid (functional feature) that delivers a restful night’s sleep (practical benefit).

Practical benefits are based on functional features. A functional feature of Advil is that it contains ibuprofen. Associated practical benefits are that it relieves pain and reduces fever quickly and lasts for four to six hours. Aleve contains naproxen (functional feature). The practical benefit is that naproxen lasts longer than ibuprofen.

For services like Dollar Shave Club, which ships its customers new razors every month (functional feature), the practical benefits are saving money, never forgetting to buy razors, and no nicks and cuts from dull razors.

Ask yourself: Do any of the practical benefits of the brand distinguish it from the competition or offer customers something the competition doesn’t?