Febreze Didn’t “Kill Smell.” It Made Housework Feel Rewarding.
Febreze did something people liked in 1996. It eliminated odors. The spray was clear, odorless, and worked at the molecular level to remove toxins from the air in your home. It really solved a problem.
Procter & Gamble researched focus groups, tested the spray, confirmed the results, built the commercials, and shipped bottles to retailers nationwide.
No one bought it.
Months later, sales plummeting, P&G enlisted researchers to homes where buyers owned bottles of Febreze but never used it. They interviewed a woman with nine cats living in a studio apartment that smelled, quite frankly, disgusting. But to her, it smelled fine. Everywhere researchers went, the people with the most odor issues were anosmic, a fancy term meaning that they’re incapable of smelling the troubles plaguing their homes. Febreze solved a problem they never knew they had.
They almost killed the brand.
Instead, they realized something changed when they filmed people cleaning their houses. After scrubbing floors, wiping counters, vacuuming carpets, folks would finish by simply looking around their clean home and smiling. Pride. Satisfaction. A job well done.
What if Febreze was less about solving a problem and more about rewarding the completion of one? The team considered: what would happen if Febreze was used before the cleaning ritual even began? What if Febreze didn’t just eliminate odor, but *created* an aroma that praised the owner for a job done?
P&G added fragrance to the formula. They rewrote their commercials. Febreze became less about removing smells and more about embracing pride after a job well done. Sales doubled within two months of the 1998 relaunch. The brand went on to make over $1 billion annually. (Per Charles Duhigg’s 2012 reporting in The Power of Habit, which initially broke this story.)
The spray didn’t change. The feeling it tried to sell did.
We get why people think they buy stuff. But they’re not really sure why they buy stuff.
Think about the last thing you purchased. You’ll have an answer immediately. “I bought it because it was on sale.” “I liked the reviews.” “My roommate needed it.”
That’s what they’ll say. But it isn’t why they bought it.
Research by Gallup, published September 20, 22 and synthesized from studies dating back decades (including scans of customers’ brains), demonstrates that roughly 70 percent of our purchasing decisions are influenced by emotional drivers and only 30 percent by rational thought. (Gallup.com via gallup.com/workplace/398954.)
Another study by Harvard Business School’s Gerald Zaltman, author of How Customers Think, concisely drives this point home: emotions drive 95% of purchase decisions. Logic is reserved for post-purchase justification and explaining things to others.
It’s not that we feel these reasons are false. Your brain just doesn’t buy that way.
People don’t buy oranges because they taste good or fill them up with vitamin C. They buy them because those reasons lead to feelings they want to experience. Happiness. Healthiness. Intelligent. Wise. Whatever.
When you buy something, you’re really buying how it makes you feel. Logic and reason explain your purchase to yourself afterwards.
Here’s the problem with features and benefits: they only speak to the 30%.
Imagine you walked into a car dealership and got pitched on a brand new vehicle. “This car gets 26 miles to the gallon, has All Wheel Drive, and a Sun Roof.” You’re not buying that car.
You aren’t purchasing the Volkswagen Beetle because it has rubber bumpers. Families don’t buy minivans because they’re practical (though they are). Nobody wants helpful hints from Coca-Cola.
Users don’t care about what your product does. That’s literally the last thing they think about when justifying a purchase.
They buy how using your product will make them feel.
Humans. Buy. Feelings.
Brands that sell feelings dominate their markets. Every company we think of as ubiquitous today sold something intangible. iPhones give you courage. Nike empowers kids who are different. AirBnB helps you “Belong Anywhere.”
You don’t HAVE to sell feelings. But if you talk features before making an emotional connection with your audience, you sure as hell aren’t selling them.
Takeaways: How to Sell Feelings, not Products
Before you even think about posting that next Etsy product description or putting together a sales page, ask yourself:
1. What do your customers feel before they would buy your product?
Not what problem do they have. If they have a problem, they already know how to solve it. What emotion are they feeling that needs solving? Stressed? Overwhelmed? Lonely?
2. How do they feel when that problem is solved?
When was the last time you bought something and didn’t feel pretty good about it when you finished? After your customers finish using your product (or service), how do they feel? What’s the smile at the end of the cleaning ritual?
Febreze lost when it tried to sell odor elimination. It won when it sold pride for a job well done. Your product hasn’t changed.
Change how it makes your customers feel.
