How do I tell a real difference from a marketing difference?
Named technologies, invented units and feature counts exist to prevent comparison. Four tests that separate a difference that changes your experience from one that changes the label.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 15 min
- Read
- 3 min
Short answer
Ask whether the claim is measured in a standard unit, whether a competitor could make the same claim in different words, and whether it changes anything you would actually notice. A feature with a trademarked name and no unit attached is usually a description of something every product in the category does.
A market where products are genuinely comparable is a market that competes on price, so manufacturers work hard to make products incomparable. The main tools are proprietary names for ordinary functions, invented units that cannot be compared across brands, and feature lists long enough that nobody checks. None of this is fraud, and some of the features are real — the skill is telling which.
Step by step
- Look for a standard unit.Litres, watts, decibels, kilograms, hours, a published efficiency class, a British or European standard number. A claim expressed in a real unit can be compared across brands; one expressed in a brand's own scale cannot, and that is why it exists.
- Translate the name into a function.Strip the trademark and say what it does in plain words. Very often the result is something every product in the category has done for twenty years, which tells you the name is packaging rather than capability.
- Ask whether a rival could claim the same thing.If every product in the class could truthfully make the claim in its own words, it is not a differentiator. Check two competing products' pages for the same function under different names.
- Test it against your own criteria.Does this change something on your list? A feature that is genuinely clever but irrelevant to how you will use the thing is worth nothing to you, whatever it is worth in the abstract.
- Find out what it costs to keep.Some real differences are real costs — proprietary consumables, a filter only one company sells, an app that may not be supported in five years. A feature that locks you into a supplier is a difference, but not the kind being advertised.
- Look for independent testing in the same units.Consumer testing organisations, standards bodies and energy labels measure to a defined method. A magazine round-up that repeats manufacturer copy does not.
Tips
- Model numbers that differ by a digit between retailers are often genuinely different specifications built for that retailer. Compare the full model code, not the family name.
- Feature counts are not capability. Twelve programmes on an appliance where nobody uses more than four is a marketing number.
- Where a product cites a standard, the standard usually defines a minimum. Meeting it is not the same as excelling at it.
Common mistakes
- Comparing a brand's own scale across brands — Proprietary scales are defined by the manufacturer and are not comparable with anyone else's. Two products rated "level 5" by different companies are not equivalent.
- Paying for a headline capability you will never reach — Maximum ratings are usually tested under conditions unlike domestic use. What matters is performance in the mode you will actually run.
Questions people ask
Are proprietary features ever worth paying for?
Yes, when they genuinely change what you can do and you will use it. The test is not whether it is proprietary but whether it is on your criteria list and whether you can verify the claim in a real unit.
How do I compare two products with no shared numbers at all?
Find a third source that tested both to the same method, or reduce the comparison to the outcomes you care about and test those yourself in a shop. If neither is possible, treat them as equivalent and decide on cost and support.