In an ideal situation, marketing and product teams talk to each other. What gets built is something people want because marketing is built into the DNA of the product.

But in reality, marketers are put in a tight spot. Your CEO comes to you and says, “We have a product launch coming up. Here it is. We need you to market it and make people want this.”

You’re thinking, “I wish you had looped me in earlier… If it had this feature, or that feature, it would be a lot easier to market.”

But it doesn’t have those things. And at this stage, you can’t change the product.

So what do you do? Turn bugs into features.

What are bugs? How do you turn them into features?

In software development, a bug is an error, problem, or unintended flaw in the computer program. When you get an error message, or something won’t load like it should—those are bugs.

Bugs are negative. The running inside joke is engineers will claim a bug is actually a feature.

That’s not necessarily true with software… But luckily in marketing and positioning, we actually can turn bugs into features. The best marketers and brands do this regularly.

When you turn bugs into features, the things you thought you were errors, constraints, liabilities about your product, could actually become selling points.

It’s low cost and high benefit to turn bugs into features

Turning bugs into features is a frame shift.

The goal is to see your own product with fresh eyes. Features that you thought were initially bad might end up being what you emphasize. Those features might be perfect for a different kind of customer or in a specific scenario.

Instead of having a knee-jerk reaction and prematurely rushing to change your product, you can save hundreds of hours by working with what you already have.

You can show customers (and realize yourself) that X feature is actually exactly what certain customers needed all along. By doing this, you increase perceived value and become more prized in your customers’ mind.

Here are three examples:

Avis: Turning #2 into the winner

In the 1960s, Avis was the #2 car rental brand and Hertz, their competitor, was #1. Back then, it was blasphemy to market anything but being #1 in your category.

But Avis turned the fact that they were #2 from a bug into a feature. They messaged that #1 brands don’t try as hard. But because Avis was #2, they’d go the extra mile for you. This caught customers’ attention and built trust in Avis.

Ugly fruit: Turning defects into selling points

One-fifth of all fruit and vegetables are thrown out because of small imperfections. This causes a lot of waste. So a French supermarket turned a bug into a feature:

They marketed ugly fruit as quirky, irreverent, interesting. This gave customers a story to tell when their friends came over and saw this weird looking apple or funky looking banana.

They repositioned a bug as a feature. It turns out, the ugly fruit was such a hit that it sold out faster than normal fruit.

Simplehuman: Turning trash cans into status symbols

Lastly, trash cans. If you think your category is boring, think about marketing a product like trash cans. Except Simplehuman, the high-end trash can company, turned a category that was completely utilitarian, into a design-driven, luxury experience. Some of their trash cans sell for over $150—and they have a cult following.

Own the frame

Turning bugs into features is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to create a frame shift. Whatever you do, make it intentional.

If you're going to do something anyway, frame it as an intentional choice. Frame it as a selling point, a prize the customer gets to have, a thoughtful decision, a thing you're proud of that benefits your customer. There are tons of opportunities to turn bugs into features in your daily work and life.

Bug 🚫: "This sucks because there are major quality control issues..."

Feature 👍: "These ceramics are hand-made, so each piece is unique and will have minor differences."

Bug 🚫: "I don't want to do X. I don't enjoy it."

Feature 👍: "I could do X. At the same time, that's not highly-leveraged and you mentioned wanting me to focus on Y. With Y, I recommend doing..."

Bug 🚫: "This product is too basic. It doesn't offer enough features."

Feature 👍: "We do one thing and one thing only: Help you get X done. This lightweight solution for you if you don't want complicated bells and whistles getting in your way."

When you feel frustrated by the product you have to market, think about how you can turn a bug into a feature.

Is your product “too simple” compared to competitors? Maybe simplicity is exactly the value proposition that a specific type of customer is looking for.

Or vice versa. If your product is “too complicated” compared to your competitors, maybe there are customers who want a comprehensive, heavy duty product.

Ask yourself:

1. What’s the thing you think you have to hide about your product? Is it something you can emphasize instead?

2. When you have a constraint, don’t automatically think, “We need to gloss over this or we need to downplay it.”

3. Turn bugs into features: The things you feel are a setback, could be the very things that makes your product stand out.