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If you want to improve your marketing efforts, you need to sell the benefits of your product or service.  Sounds simple, but most companies make the mistake of highlighting their features instead. A subtle but huge difference.  Consumers buy benefits.

How do you tell the difference between a feature and a benefit?  Simple:

A FEATURE is a true fact or characteristic of a service or product. Examples of features include:

• Open 24 hours

• Steel-belted radials

• Wireless keyboard

• High-Definition TV

• 500 gigabyte hard drive

A BENEFIT describes how these features help the consumer, how they meet a need; the “What’s in it for me?”

The easiest way to get from feature to benefit is to make a statement about your product or service, then ask “SO WHAT?”  Pretend that you are answering a very skeptical consumer.  Here are examples using the above features:

Product = Restaurant

Feature = Open 24 hours

So What? =

• You can get pancakes anytime

• You can eat on your own schedule

• It gives you freedom

Product = Tires

Feature = Steel-belted Radials

So What? =

• It is safer than other types of tires

• It protects your family

Product = Computer

Feature = 500 gigabyte hard drive

So What? =

• Hold huge amounts of data

• Will not go obsolete as quickly as smaller hard drives

• Smart investment

If you ask a So What and you can still ask So What…keep going, you may not be at a benefit yet. Challenge yourself and don’t stop at 2 or 3 So Whats per feature. Keep going until you are worn out.

The best of these So Whats will form the basis of your marketing program, so take time to create a lengthy list to choose from.  So What?  Improve your marketing, clarify your business position, make more money…

What are some of YOUR features?  I’m good at asking “So What?”!

Every business has a logo…but not many have a GREAT logo.  A great logo is one that is truly representative of your business.  If your company is dynamic, your logo should be dynamic.  If your products are friendly, your logo should be friendly. If your service is fast, your logo should convey fast.

Take the time to have a professional designer create not just a logo, but a great logo.  After all…isn’t your business great?

Here are 16 reasons your business needs a great logo design:

1.     A great logo creates a great first impression. Conversely, a bad logo creates a bad first impression. Does this icky donut logo make you hungry?

2.     Look more professional. The worst thing you can convey to potential customers is that you are unprofessional.  A great logo tells your customers that your business is well-planned, professional, and here to stay.

3.     Your business will look like it’s arrived. A great logo can make you appear to be as accomplished and as solid as a Fortune 500 company. This can be especially important if you have a new business; a great new logo can make it look like you’ve been in business for years.

4.     Customer trust. A great logo conveys a sense of trust (the number one reason people buy from companies). Customer retention is also easier when they feel confident that the company they are doing business with is trustworthy.

5.     It can help brand your product or service. The objective of branding is create the perception that your product or service is unlike no other, unique in the marketplace, and worth spending more money for. A great logo, along with a well-planned marketing campaign, can help in the process.

6.     Your logo can be a profit center. If you have a valuable brand, your logo can be a huge cash cow via merchandising and licensing-clothing, mugs, games, etc.

7.    It makes your business memorable. A great logo is more easily remembered by customers, especially if you are consistent in advertising that logo. People do business with familiar faces…and your logo is your company’s “face.”

8.    It’s cool. Sometimes a logo can create the “wow” factor.  Sports franchises have found that their merchandise sells much better if their team logo looks cool, even if the team stinks.  Have you noticed how many teams have redesigned their logos recently? Team image soared after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers redesigned their logo from swishy to mean.

9.    Easier marketing. A picture is worth a thousand words. A great logo says volumes about your company-so you don’t have to spend as much time and money writing or telling people about it.

10.    Save time explaining your position. People want to know what your position in the marketplace is (what makes you different from your competitors).  A great logo can help explain that at a glance. Classy, funny, hi-tech, old-fashioned, funky, expensive…no matter what your company is (or aspires to be), a great logo lets your customers (and employees) know right up front.

11.    Gain confidence. This is probably the comment I hear most often from clients starting a new business—that their great logo gave them the confidence to compete with businesses that had been there for dozens of years.

12.    Charge more for your product or service. One of our clients sold a generic lemonade product.  When we designed their logo, we created a memorable brand that clicked with kids, and sales went through the roof; plus, they were able to charge more for a “premium” product.

13.    Create goodwill. Goodwill is “prestige that a business has acquired beyond the mere value of what it sells.” The famous Nike “swoosh” logo design cost $35 in 1971—it’s value now is immeasurable.

14.     Employee pride. We designed a logo for a pipe company; soon, their rough-and-tumble blue-collar employees started clamoring for logoed hats and t-shirts to wear. They were proud of their company and wanted to show it to the world.

15.    Lends credibility to your business. People choose to do business with credible companies. A great logo gives you a much better head-start to being credible than a poorly designed logo does.

16.    Make more money. A great logo adds to your bottom line by accomplishing all of the above.  Having a great logo does not guarantee business success…but having a lousy logo just does not make good business sense.

Can you think of more reasons?  Leave a comment below!

I hear this question all the time. I know it’s tempting to create your own logo. You think, “I’ve got a computer program that has all these clip art pieces—how hard could it be?” Tempting, indeed.

Here are my honest opinions:

• If you have an art or graphic design degree, a thorough knowledge of color theory, layout, typography, symbolism, computer illustration programs, file formats, and commercial printing…YES, design your own logo.
• If you cut your own hair…YES, design your own logo.
• If you perform your own dental work…YES, design your own logo.
• If you have ever acted as your own attorney in court…
• If you have ever had a disease named after you…..
• If you can’t carry a tune in a bucket, yet you still have auditioned for American Idol…
• If you have ever built a microwave from scratch, in order to save a few hundred dollars…
• If you skydive from a kit plane with a homemade parachute…
• If you have ever separated yourself from your conjoined twin…
• If you desperately want your new business to fail within the first 6 months…HECK YES, design your own logo.

Well, you get the picture. Let the professionals do what they do best. Hiring a professional to design your company’s logo will cost you some money up front, but far less than what it costs you in time, energy, and results.

Of course, if you have already designed your own logo and don’t like the outcome, you might want to give me a call…on your homemade telephone.