If You Want To Sell A Product, Tell People What it Does

It seems almost too simple right? It's amazing how telling potential customers what your product does to make their lives easier sells that product. In a tight economy, people are much more interested in utility than they have before. If your product doesn't help make a customer's life just a bit easier, it'll fall short.

Let's take a look at the TV ads between the iPhone and a Verizon Droid commercial. First, the Droid:

Now let's take a look at the iPhone ads:

What's the striking difference between the two ads? First, the Droid Razr has a cool ad with a lot of action and explosives, attempting to give the consumer the impression that a Razr is THAT valuable.

On the flip side, the iPhone 4s shows off what exactly the new iPhone can do. It shows how someone could use it in their day-to-day life to make things easier.

Which phone is the biggest seller? Pretty obvious answer. Sure, sales could also lead to Apple's pre-existing cult following and the fact that their product could just be that much better. However, the Razr add tells me nothing about what exactly that phone does. Why take a chance on a phone that still remains a mystery to me?

It's why Apple's marketing is so great. It's why Billy Mays was such a good seller of Oxy-Clean. Showing people how well your product functions is the first step in driving sales. Explosions don't drive phone sales...demonstrations do.

What do you think? Does a demonstration sell better than flash and pizzaz.