Features or benefits?
Published: Mon, 05/12/14
I got into a perfectly amiable but slightly odd email
correspondence with and American who had joined my list recently.
There was an objection to the fourth message in the autoresponder
sequence in that it seemed so much like a personal message that it
seemed presumptuous in the way it was worded. That is meant to be
the idea of email marketing, it feels like a personal message just
for you, even though you know it isn't because it is coming
through an autoresponder system (in this case provided by Aweber).
So if you are under the impression that I am writing these emails
just to you then sorry to ruin your day.
Anyway, in the discussion that followed it was revealed that in
signing up this person had hoped to find out more about what made
Stav specifically Nordic. However the automated sequence of
messages outlines the six essential qualities which I attempt to
cultivate through training in Stav. Okay, fair cop gov'ner I
wasn't banging on about runes, orlog, mott and megin, wyrd and
Trel through Konge to say nothing of axes, saxs and teins.
This comes down to the fundamental marketing dilemma, which is your
potential market more interested in; features or benefits? One
school of thought is that your potential customers couldn't
give a (insert your preferred rude word here) for the features of
your product or service all they care about it what it can do for
them. The classic example of this would be the car salesman who
tries to sell a harassed mother a new car by telling her how many
cylinders the engine has and how the multi link suspension has been
developed from lessons learned in formula one racing. At that
point she will walk out in disgust and go to the dealer across the
road. There the salesman quickly closes the sale of a suitable car
by showing how easy it is to install a baby seat and explaining
that all upholstery can be easily wiped clean of vomit and melted
ice cream. On the other hand if you are selling a high performance
car to a dedicated petrol head then enthusing about the the engine
and praising the suspension is essential to the sales process.
These features are benefits if only in the sense that the owner can
boast about them to his petrol head friends when they discuss the
latest episode of Top Gear.
So whether an aspect of your product is seen as a feature or a
benefit comes down to who you are talking to and what their
sensibilities are. This is always hard to guess in advance, plenty
of women are disciples of Jeremy Clarkson and many men know nothing
about cars except how to drive them (some not even that). So one
has to develop a finely tuned awareness of what a potential
customer is responding to in a conversation. And yes, I am well
aware that I was using stereotypes to make my point above.
So describing the unique features of Stav, basically runic wisdom
is manifested in martial arts training, requires use of terminology
which most people in the UK simply are not familiar with. On the
other hand taken individually it is hard to show how the benefits
of Stav training can't be gained more easily from other
sources. Self defence, all you really need to know is in Peacock
Kung Fu, fitness, get a kettle bell and or a bike, enlightenment?
Good question, Zen?
My experience is that those who are meant to find Stav will do so.
Yes, you have to let people know you are there but beyond that
there is not much more you can do than share your knowledge and
enthusiasm with whoever finds their way to you.
If you haven't seen Peacock Kung Fu you can see more at
http://iceandfire.org.uk/elit.html you can have it as an ebook or
kindle.
regards
Graham
PS We had a good day training on Saturday, looking at the cudgel
and how training with the cudgel relates to the principles in the
five original Staff exercises. Next day course is on 7th of June
in Crewkerne. Of course if you want to learn Stav directly from
the master Ivar Hafskjold then come to the Summer Camp in Somerset
on the 23rd to 25th of August http://www.stavcamp.org