I recently bought a pack of tide pods from Walmart, and on the packaging it advertised the following change:
“New Look!”
Believe it or not, this was not the reason I grabbed it off the shelf and added it to my cart. It was because, without them, my clothes would stink in a few days.
This illustrates a very prevalent problem in sales today: the issue of selling features.
The Problem
Many companies today believe in a short life-cycle. People are always looking for the latest and greatest without really thinking about why, and the companies try to fulfill that. In this effort to provide the latest and greatest, companies come out with these “new features”, that they try to make the reason to buy the product. But these new features often don’t address the core problems the customers face, and as a result, the customers are not convinced.
“New Look” is not what I look for in a product. I am looking for something that truly addresses my needs (in this case, clean clothes). This is what companies need to keep in mind when creating new products: does this address a need of our customers? If it doesn’t, it shouldn’t be part of the advertising.
In short, features don’t sell.
BoweryJE22
So are you saying that when they advertise “new look” that it will repel the current customers of Tide Pods? Or is it that they shouldn’t advertise “new look” to their new target audience but more the benefits of the Pods to the customer? If Tide Pods’ current customers already buy the Pods, they will continue to buy the newer version right? Because the “new look” is just a product improvement…
Ugh, I hate it when I’m bombarded by a lengthy list of features. Believe me, if I’m interested in knowing, I’ll ask. No need to try and sell me on product aspects that I’m probably already aware of anyway.