Best of Marketing Genius: The Five Benefits

The Five Benefits
[first published here, July 2005]

In marketing we are constantly advising our clients to promote the benefits of their product or service, instead of features or functions.

"This new device has 65 Terabytes of bandwidth and a 125 gigahertz processor."

So what!

You have to tell me what that will mean to me.

Anyone attempting to promote or sell anything must drill down with his thinking until he discerns the real benefits.

What's the benefit, then? In this case I can think of two: make more money and have more time to spend with family. The device works faster so you will get work done more quickly, enabling you to shave time off your work day to devote to family. Or, you can do more work in a given time period and (ostensibly) make more money.

A PR consultant from New York City taught me that there are really only five benefits that anyone can mention. According to him, it does not matter what the product is or what industry one inhabits, we have to present our case so effectively that we tell our audience within the first ten seconds which of the five possible benefits we are offering.

There are five, period. F-I-V-E.

Are you ready for them?

Here goes:
1. Make me wealthy
2. Improve my appearance
3. Help me to be more well-liked by my family or friends
4. Make me live longer
5. Get me laid more often

Money, looks, popularity, health and sex. That's it.