Advertising technique: Promise A Benefit

About Benefits

A benefit is something of value to the target audience. Ask, "what can this product or service do for me?" And the answer is a benefit.

The persuasive energy in a benefit ad comes from two characteristics. First is the importance of the benefit to the reader. Second is the specificity of the benefit.

A good example, the headline, "Introducing a washer so gentle it can actually help your clothes last longer."

Ambiguous or abstract words such as "professional" or "beautiful" or "unique" are not specific enough to mean much, if anything, to the reader. Avoid them and their relatives.

A benefit may or may not be a competitive advantage. It could be, for example, that many brands of car batteries come with a lifetime guarantee. But if no one else is making the claim, go ahead and stake out the territory.

Clients will sometimes say, "Our competitors could say the same thing." But that may not matter to the consumer. Especially if you are the first to advertise the benefit, the consumer response could be, "That sounds good, I'll give it a try."

Even if consumers may be aware that several products that offer the same benefit, the ad that brings that benefit to mind can trigger a sale.

Features or benefits.

A feature is a characteristic of the product. "This computer has a 500 gigabyte hard drive." The benefit, what it can do for the reader is, "This hard drive stores a lot of data, like my family videos."

But sometimes, as in the above example, a benefit can be inherent in the feature. Most people know immediately the benefit of a 500 gig hard drive. So if the vast majority of readers understand the benefit inherent in the feature, there is no need to explain the benefit. Just say the feature.

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