Feature and Specification Marketing

Feature Marketing: Using features as a component of a marketing solution.

Specification Marketing: Using specifications as a component of a marketing solution.

Feature Marketing is traditionally seen in large lists of features of a product.  This can be done in an attempt to overwhelm a consumer with so many facts and figures that they simply assume that a product has whatever features they are looking for or to make them believe that one product is superior to another simply through a volume of features.

Feature Marketing can also be done more legitimately through the building-in of critical features for which consumers are actually searching.  A good example of this is the pivot table feature in Microsoft Excel and many competing spreadsheet applications.  Pivot tables are a key feature that many consumers want or need and will search for specifically when choosing a spreadsheet.

Feature Marketing could generally be used synonymously with “specification marketing” however the two should be recognized as being somewhat distinct.  A specification is an inherent property of a product while a feature is a non-inherent property.  For example, cupholders in cars are features.  A car can quite legitimately be manufactured without cupholders.  Cupholders are marketing features.

A good example of Specification Marketing is modern monitors and televisions providing native 1080p resolution.  This is a specification for which a large percentage of consumers are actively searching and a product of this type that neglects to include this specification is potentially crippling itself in the market or, at the very least, in the educated consumer market.  Resolution is a specification of a monitor or television and not a feature since no monitor can be made without a resolution.

References:

The Death of Feature and Function Marketing 

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