Anne Giles Clelland recently had this to say about the features of her blog Handshake 2.0:
"I love my product’s features. Clients, my fellow Concept Camp attendees made very clear to me, will love the benefits." She added, "I admit that the benefits of my product have huge business value. But I love the art and craft of its features."
Anne is not alone. Most creators seem to be romantically involved with their creations. Given the time, energy, and "soul" required to create, that should not be not surprising, I suppose. But when it comes to turning those creations into cold, hard cash, benefits have to trump features; and feelings trump benefits.
What? Jim has to be kidding, right? No, I'm not.
Common wisdom is common because, when tested, it generally turns out to be true. The common wisdom on features, benefits, and feelings goes something like this:
Both large opportunities and big problems create feelings of discomfort. Most people prefer comfort to discomfort. To regain the comfort feeling, people tend to respond well to some set of product/service benefits that will permit them to feel that they have found a way to take advantage of the large opportunity or to solve the big problem. The features merely deliver the benefits that enable the preferred feelings.
If you don't believe me, just search on "features and benefits" and see what pops up - common wisdom.
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