Very often unintended benefits are revealed via customer reports. In the health and beauty industry, this is a frequent occurrence. Heart health supplements have a positive effect on nails and weight loss. Botox injections have helped not only appearance, but also to mitigate migraines.
Unexpected benefits work best within a pleasurable context. They bring better results when presented in a narrative based on feelings rather than reason.
Framing unexpected benefits to make the most of them
When your product has an unexpected benefit, should you frame it and describe it as something planned from the very beginning? Or merely as a nice surprise so as to encourage the interest of consumers? An article published on the website of the INSEAD business school tested exactly this in China and in the US. In the experiment, a retailer ran two variations of a sunscreen spray advertisement.
Both ads mentioned UV protection and brightening up the skin – a benefit which in one variation was described as unexpected. When the benefit of skin-brightening was framed as unexpected in China, it resulted in 21% higher sales than the other advertisement.
Not functional, but emotional framing
When the product was framed in a functional way, the unexpected benefits did not influence consumers' willingness to pay. So when the sunscreen spray was presented in the context of a business trip, no unexpected benefit accrued. However, in a more hedonistic setting (use on a family vacation), mention of the same benefit again increased the willingness to pay by 42% – this time amongst US-based consumers.
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