Benefits are the Key to a Brand

Developing Your Brand

People do not buy products; they buy benefits or, more specifically, they buy emotions. So they’ll only buy from you if they believe that doing so is going to benefit them in some way. After all, there are oftentimes dozens, even hundreds of alternative products a customer could buy which do basically the same thing as your company does. In order to convince customers to buy your product, you must convince them that your product can fulfill their needs better than any other which requires you to connect with them on an emotional level.

It’s important to keep in mind when developing a brand that who you are or your company’s accomplishments are only of secondary importance and the only evidence that you can use to prove you actually provide customers the benefits you claim. If you provide real benefits, customers have and will forgive just about anything. Consider Wal-Mart’s case, for example. Even as millions of people claim to despise their business practices, they still became the largest retailer, indeed the largest business in the world, based on their brand of saving money and helping people “live better.” Again, your actions and the benefits your company provides people are based not on what the majority of people want; it’s based on what your customers want.


Overarching Benefits

The most successful companies provide customers with a powerful, easy-to-understand benefit which may not directly come out of their product but which the company is able to connect to it. Think about Coke, for example. Coke claims to provide its customers with happiness with its slogan “Open Happiness” and its promotional efforts. In this way, Coke has positioned itself as more than just another soda. It’s positioned itself as something that makes people happy. Its message is easy to communicate and resonates powerfully with nearly everyone in a memorable way.

Like Coke’s benefit, successful benefits work on a very basic, emotional idea which can be stated quickly and easily in just a few words. Further, these emotional benefits have a powerful impact on people so that, just as with any of their needs and desires, the product becomes a part of their lives. While there are many possible benefits your brand can provide, three emotional benefits which have proven hugely successful are: providing happiness, making life better for people, and empowering people. Because of the success of these emotional benefits in selling products for a number of companies, I would recommend starting the process of determining which emotional benefits your company offers to fulfill by trying a combination of the above three emotional benefits to determine how they would work with your company and product as well as how your customers would be likely to react to them.

As you work through the possible list of overarching benefits, it’s important to be creative. Remember, no matter what you’re selling, you can always come up with an emotional reason for people to buy it. Take tires, for example. At first glance, few products seem like they would be more basic, more generic, and boring. Michelin, however, has repeatedly shown how emotionally important tires are by having ads with images of babies riding through stormy weather on them; pointing out that everything you love is dependent on your tires not blowing out or slipping in the rain and snow.

Even if you have no real, natural benefit over your competitors, you can create one through proper branding. There is nothing inherent in the mixture of corn syrup and carbonated water that makes people happier when they drink Coke that their marketing and message didn’t create. Mountain Dew, a different, caffeinated beverage, positions itself as a leader in empowering people while Jones Soda positions itself as the fun soda. All these successful brands are not that different from each other in their ingredients, yet they develop loyal customers based in a large part on the brand and the relationship they build with their customers. Choosing the right overarching benefit is about choosing what you can achieve and what will set you apart from and above your competitors, not about the functional benefit your product may or may not actually provide.