What a product's core benefit is
The core benefit is what the customer really buys: the result, not the product. What it is, Kotler's five product levels with examples and how to show it in a photo or a video.
The core benefit is the underlying need a product solves: what the customer really buys, even if what they take home is something else. The core benefit of a mattress isn't the memory foam, it's sleeping well. A camera's isn't the megapixels, it's keeping a moment. An editing course's isn't the hours of video, it's being able to cut your own videos.
The idea is summed up in the line attributed to Harvard professor Theodore Levitt: "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole."
Where it comes from
In 1960 Levitt published "Marketing Myopia" in Harvard Business Review. His argument: many companies sink because they define themselves by what they make rather than by what their customers need. His most famous example is the US railroads, which believed they were in the railroad business when they were really in transportation, and didn't see cars, trucks and planes coming.
Years later, Philip Kotler turned that intuition into a model used daily in marketing: the product levels, with the core benefit at the centre.
Kotler's five product levels
Take a camera backpack as an example:
- Core benefit: carrying the gear protected and within reach. It's the reason to buy.
- Generic product: a padded bag with compartments. The minimum to do the job.
- Expected product: what any buyer takes for granted today: water-resistant fabric, adjustable dividers, a laptop sleeve. If it's missing, they don't buy; if it's there, it doesn't stand out.
- Augmented product: what sets it apart: side access to take the camera out without taking the bag off, a lifetime warranty, an included rain cover.
- Potential product: where it could go: swappable modules, a repair service, a drone version.
Each level answers a different question. The first, the most important: what problem do we solve? If the answer is fuzzy, the rest of the communication will be too.
Examples of core benefits
| Product | What is sold | Core benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Gym | Monthly fee and machines | Feeling good and fit |
| Sunscreen | SPF 50 lotion | Not getting burnt and caring for your skin |
| Music app | A catalogue of songs | Having the music you want at any moment |
| Stock photo library | Photo licences | Illustrating something without taking the photo |
| Video editor | Software with editing features | Telling something on video without depending on anyone |
Notice that the core benefit is rarely exclusive: several competitors solve the same thing. That's why differentiation is usually in the augmented product, but the message that connects starts with the core.
How to show it in a photo or a video
This is where the concept stops being theory. If the core benefit is the result, the piece has to show the result, not just the object:
- Show the product in use, not on a white background. The backpack on someone's shoulder taking the camera out in ten seconds, not the backpack alone with an arrow pointing at the pocket.
- Start with the "after". In the first seconds of a video, the result hooks more than the spec sheet: the finished dish, the tidy room, the unburnt skin at the end of the day.
- Leave the features for the end or for the text. Specs convince someone who is already interested; they aren't what grabs attention.
- Write benefit headlines. "Sleep through the night" works better than "25 cm high-density foam".
A quick test: cover the logo and read the text of your ad or post. If it isn't clear what problem it solves, you're selling attributes.
Frequently asked questions
What is a product's core benefit?
It's the fundamental need the product satisfies, what the customer really seeks when buying it. For example, a drill's core benefit is making a hole, and a hotel's is resting away from home. It's the first and deepest of Kotler's five product levels.
What are Kotler's product levels?
Core benefit (the need solved), generic product (the minimum version), expected product (what the customer takes for granted), augmented product (what differentiates the offer) and potential product (how it could evolve).
What's the difference between core benefit and augmented product?
The core benefit is what any product in the category solves, like sleeping well with any mattress. The augmented product is the extras that set one brand apart from another: a 100-night trial, free delivery or collection of the old mattress.
What is marketing myopia?
It's the mistake Theodore Levitt described in 1960: defining a business by what it makes instead of by the need it meets. A myopic company clings to its product and doesn't see that other ways of solving the same need are leaving it behind.