Technical Specifications Alone Do Not Sell Products

We know technical specifications are becoming less and less important as far as how companies like Apple market their products. More so than ever, there is a massive focus on telling a story and connecting with customers on an emotional level. One only needs to look at Apple’s advertising to see great examples of how people actually use these devices.

At major product announcements, Apple still discusses technical specifications, however, they don’t do this for the sake of selling you on the latest whiz bang CPU or GPU included in their latest iOS device. Technical specifications are something that are discussed, but only to elaborate and explain just how these amazing technical advancements augment the user experience. A prime example of this with the new iPad is the amazing Retina display. It has a resolution of 2048 by 1536 which packs 3.1 million pixels within the same sized display as previous generations. Truly this is a breakthrough display and now has set the bar so high for mobile displays that competitors are going to have a hell of a time catching up

The interesting thing about the Retina display is how Apple advertises it. If you look at the new product page on Apple’s homepage, the ad copy talks little about the technical achievements of how they managed to design the display. In fact, they don’t discuss the in-depth technical details that you might find other competitors doing, such as making it clear they might be using an IPS LED LCD display. What you find instead of being barraged by meaningless technical specifications is a description on what the Retina display will do for you — in other words how it will make your life better.

So it’s 2012 and there are no shortage of alternatives to the iPad. Sadly, they all pale in comparison to the iPad in every respect. By now, you would think from a marketing perspective that even with an inferior tablet, companies like Samsung, Asus, Motorola — et al. would at the least make the effort to tell a story with their products. How many non tech savvy friends and family do you know that get super excited when they see an advertisement that only talks about nerdy technical specifications? This is my point exactly, it just doesn’t happen.