With the economy officially in a recession and consumers cutting back on spending, marketers face a new challenge. Especially when one is trying to sell a commodity product such as laptops. How does a manufacturer not only keep its market share but demand higher prices in this environment?

Clearly articulating customer value proposition is key to the success of a marketing campaign. It should always be about the customer’s perceived benefits, not about the product’s features. When a product offers a unique value proposition, customers will vote with their open wallets. In chapter 10 of Marketer’s Toolkit: The 10 Strategies You Need To Succeed (Harvard Business Essentials), the author writes that “customers don’t buy features, they buy benefits”.

GE is selling a washer and dryer set for $3,500 by articulating low resource utilization (uses optimal amounts of water, soap and electricity) and that clothes last longer (stressing that the machines are gentle on clothes). Lexus is pitching their cars as having a “low cost of ownership”, alluding to its fuel economy, durability and resale value. See the article “How to Sell Luxury to Penny Pinchers” in the November 10, 2008 issue of Businessweek.

The same issue of Businessweek also has an article about Dell’s customizable “designer” laptops and how it is planning to charge a premium price for this benefit. In chapter 8 of the Marketer’s Toolkit, the author talks about a “stage-gate” process of continuously prototyping and testing ideas to eliminate weak ones. This is exemplified in Dell’s approach to designer laptops. Senior management was wary of Dell’s initial test in this space when a limited edition laptop designed by an obscure graffiti artist, Mike Ming, was released. Market reacted favorably and offered a stage-gate validation to extend this into customizable designer laptops with a number of choices available to customers.