Who Cares About Your Secret Ingredient?

If you're selling a mouth-watering delicacy or high-tech software, you might be tempted to highlight some special ingredient that only your product has. You may even go so far to explain how rare, how expensive, or how confidential the ingredient is. Even though the special ingredient is your pride and joy, your prospective customer really doesn't care a whit.

Your customer isn't looking for a special ingredient, they're looking for a solution to their needs. Unless your special ingredient is that magical answer, the specialness is simply an "edge". Your "edge" may be perceived as a negative by the risk-adverse (what's the downside to your special ingredient?). Most businesses fall into the trap of highlighting their features, before they've ascertained if their customers care about them.

So, if you've got a special ingredient, don't lead with it in your marketing. Use the ingredient to propel your solution to the front of your customer's mind. For example, "Because we use Persinofex 10 in our cleaning solution, you'll be able to clean your windows in half the time and they'll stay clean twice as long". The benefit isn't the "Persinofex 10″ (whatever that is) - it's saving time with chores. (For other major benefits, see my previous article Marketing 101).

Keep striving to develop unique ingredients to your offerings, but make sure that you always anchor your uniqueness with something your prospective customers are willing to pay (extra) for. Otherwise, your secret will stay a secret forever.