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.
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