We don't buy megapixels📱, we buy beautiful sunsets 🌅

Hey there,

Imagine this...

You walk into an electronics store.

Because you’re looking for a new smartphone. 📱

Your old device is hopelessly outdated, so it’s time for a new model that will last you for years again.

These days, a new phone easily costs a few hundred euros.

So you want to be sure you’re choosing one that truly fits your needs—and gives you the best value for your money.

Suddenly, a salesperson shows up.

👓 Glasses 👕 Checkered shirt 🩳 Pants pulled up just a bit too high, held in place with suspenders

A true tech nerd. 🤓

"He’ll surely be able to help me," you think.

The salesperson immediately gets enthusiastic: "Ah, I have the perfect smartphone for you, right within your budget."

He grabs a box, opens it with a flourish, and starts his pitch.

"This Samsung Galaxy A56 256GB 5G is exactly what you’re looking for.It has the brand-new Exynos 1580 processor, 256GB storage, 8GB RAM memory, a 5000 mAh battery, and a 12-megapixel front camera."

You nod politely, but meanwhile you’re thinking:

What on earth is this guy talking about? 🤯

The problem?

We don’t understand what these features mean for us.

What we really want to know is what this smartphone will actually do for us.

We don’t buy 8GB of RAM 🐐 We buy the peace of mind of being able to do 10 things at once on our phone (send messages, open the banking app, take a picture, play music...).

We don’t buy megapixels 🌇 We buy beautiful holiday photos where the sunset looks just that little bit more radiant.

We don’t buy a 5000 mAh battery 🔌 We buy the convenience of not having to charge our phone during the day.

Features VS Benefits

Our brain is lazy by nature. 🧠

If we want people to buy, we need to make things as easy as possible for the brain.

Daniel Kahneman explained it well in Thinking, Fast and Slow:

System 1: Thinks fast, feels intuitive, and makes split-second decisions.

System 2: Thinks slowly, is critical, and terribly bad at making decisions.

We make most of our decisions with System 1. But when we don’t understand something, our brain switches on System 2.

That’s when it starts overanalyzing, trying to make sense of things. Which means we don’t take action—and we don’t buy.

Features force us to think, because they’re technical and the benefits are unclear. They trigger System 2.

But when you translate those features into clear benefits for your customer, they no longer need to do the hard thinking themselves. → System 1.

And that’s how you get to conversion faster. ✅

Every marketer who’s ever scrolled through LinkedIn has probably seen this example.

The famous Apple campaign for the iPod: “1,000 songs in your pocket.”

The example of a perfect translation from a feature into an emotional benefit.

So why do we still talk in features?

Because making that translation is difficult.

In most organizations, people only talk about features internally.

Employees know the products and services inside out. So of course, they want to proudly highlight every aspect in their copy.

The risk? You end up telling the internal story to your customers.

With the result:

• Customers who don’t understand that internal story 🤷‍♂️

• Their System 2 kicks in 🧠

• And in the end… they don’t decide ❌

This is how you translate features into benefits

Ask yourself this question 3 times: “What’s in it for me?”That’s how you uncover the real benefit for your customer.

Example:“Our software has an automated reporting feature.”

1) What’s in it for me? You no longer have to create reports manually.

2) What’s in it for me? You save time and avoid errors.

3) What’s in it for me? You free up more space to focus on what truly matters—like strategy, customers, or growth.

Emotional benefit: Free up time for what really counts. Our automated reporting feature delivers flawless reports—without the work.

Don't throw your features in the trash

Au contraire!

You definitely do need them—for the people who are actually looking for them.So make sure they can still be found.

Coolblue does this really well.

First, they highlight the benefits in a scannable way.

But right below, all the features and technical details are still clearly listed.

(And why they also include a drawback in their overview... that’s a story for another time. 😉)

This is our newsletter "Thee Psychology of Action" from april 2025. Would you like to receive these insights about behavioral science every month? Subscribe to our newsletter via: https://www.humaneyes.be/nieuwsbrief