Ladder UP, ladder DOWN

You have to be careful on a benefits ladder.

Everyone knows what to do. Start at the bottom with product features, step up to functional benefits, up again to emotional benefits.

Some then say keep on climbing, in search of a higher-order benefit. For most brands, that’s into a fluffy cloud of nonsense.

But even if you stay at a sensible height, there are risks.

Let’s take things slowly.

Features are what your product does - its strengths, claims it can make, any differences, maybe a unique fact about it.

Functional benefits are what consumers get - the practical advantages of your product, its perceived utility.

Emotional benefits are how buying or using your product makes consumers feel - from gratification to self-expression.

So it is kind of three steps to heaven.

Rung 1 may be fascinating to you but of little interest to your target. Think about any conversation you’ve ever had with anyone from IT.

Rung 2 may be what they get but not what they really want. Your functional benefits may also be category benefits, shared by many.

Rung 3 then is generally the right goal. The emotional connection. I’ve built a business on that belief.

But beware up there. It’s all too easy to fall for a particular feeling, particularly if it’s of the moment, like Individuality. Suddenly you’ll notice that brands in all kinds of categories are conveying the same emotion and often in similar ways, like people dancing on their own.

So with brand positioning you have to be able to find your way back down.

First, make sure you’ve chosen the right emotional benefit. Is that space vacant on the Need Map? And does your brand have a right to be there in terms of its current associations?

Second, is there a link between this emotional benefit and the functional benefits your brand offers. If the functional benefits aren’t strong enough currently, could they be in the future?

And third, which features does this mean will be the most important to get across, the reasons to believe?

And there you are, back down to earth.

All reminds me of a recent incident. For years, I had this ladder you could use as a step ladder, extension ladder or even on a staircase. It was lightweight, so easy to lug around the house, and reasonably cheap.

Anyway, there were these leaves on top of the shed. I tried step-ladder-mode but that didn’t work. So I switched to extension-mode, which was better, except for a few leaves I couldn’t quite reach. So I climbed one rung higher to enable me to put one knee on the shed roof. At this point most of my weight came off the ladder and that, plus the fact it had been raining that morning, meant the ladder feet shot backwards until they hit the open bi-fold doors. The ladder promptly snapped at the join between the two sections. I dropped to the ground, scraping all the skin off my shin, before falling backwards and hitting my head against the doors.

Anyway, I survived. The ladder was history, so to replace it I got a Werner Leansafe X3, a multi-purpose ladder with anti-slip feet and treads, the yellow one you see tradespeople using.

It weighs a ton and cost a fortune. But at least I now feel safe. And look like I know what I’m doing.