From Harvard's Das Narayandas: Understand difference between features and benefits. If the benefit isn't meaningful to your customers, don't build the feature.
It's not just about benefits and value ... but your ability to communicate those benefits easily to the consumer.
It's also not about products that provide an economic benefit to the customer -- because if you can provide the benefit and communicate it easily to the customer ... so can your competition.
Andy Sernovitz
says:
Well, I'm not answering for Das here, so I hope he'll step in and add some detail. (And, to be honest, he had a lot more to share, but it's hard to blog a really interesting 2x2 chart -- just doesn't translate to text.)
My personal interpretation is that true business-consumer relationships go beyond price and product. Those are objective things that can be nailed by most businesses. These days we need to take it to a higher level ... a bond and respect between a company and its customers. We feel this with a company like Whole Foods, which faces competition in terms of the stuff on the shelves, but offers a unique feel and connection that can't easily be replicated.
What can you do to get beyond product and to personality?
Andy - thanks for the real-time notes from the conference. If...
"It's also not about products that provide an economic benefit to the customer -- because if you can provide the benefit and communicate it easily to the customer ... so can your competition."
... as you write above, then what's it about?