SeeMartin

To me Toyota Corolla symbolizes the total lack of personality. I’m not even worried that I’d offend people who drive it because they are probably so pragmatic that being offended seems like a waste of emotions to them. Year after year Toyota manages to “design” the non-descript, unnoticeable sedan perfect for a surveillance vehicle that you can park in front of buildings for days without anybody noticing the car. The 2011 model is no exception – the design finally caught up with what Hyundai Elantra looked …in 2000.

A few years ago I worked for Startec Global Communications and as a member of the marketing team I participated in brainstorming sessions focused on the creative of the campaigns. During one of these meetings the VP made a comment about the order of the bullet points on a direct mail piece. He requested that the benefits of the product are listed before the features of the product. That was a keeper for me as I love all sorts of operational tips, best practices, rules of a thumb etc. At the time I was not interested in the theory behind benefits-before-features mantra, I just accepted it. Later on I came across the same rule in marketing classes, this time backed-up by scientific explanation. A few days ago I came across a good blog post that touches on the subject by Dr. Sharon Livingston on Branding Strategy Insider—one of the best blogs on branding. The post is somewhat hard to digest as it mixes psychology, ZMET, semantics, and philosophy but is very good nevertheless.  I particularly liked the excellent examples of benefits and features at the opening.  To illustrate the practical implications for designers of wisdoms such as “benefits before features” I’ll recycle one of the examples she gives:

Time-release (feature) products are purchased because they are long acting (benefit).

Let say that you have to design a magazine ad for the product above and you want to use a bulleted list to demonstrate the awesomeness of the product but you only have an inch of space left and have to pick 3 of the statements below:

• Time-released
• Long acting
• Enteric-coated
• Will not irritate the stomach
• Easy to carry
• Flat bottle

Apply the “benefits before features” rule and you get:

• Time-released (feature)
• Long acting (benefit)
• Enteric-coated (feature)
• Will not irritate the stomach (benefit)
• Easy to carry (benefit)
• Flat bottle (feature)

So the list will end up being:

• Long acting (benefit)
• Will not irritate the stomach (benefit)
• Easy to carry (benefit)