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Unique selling point - vol. 1

Guest post by: Brandon O'Dell

Article Overview: A good business tries to find ONE THING that makes them different from their competition. One thing that gives people a reason to visit their business instead of a business of the same type down the road. This one thing is a unique selling point, key word being "unique". If you want your business to stand out from the others, then you have to offer something the others don't. Read this article to learn more about how that is done...

Unique selling point - vol. 1

Excerpt from a forum post to an Indian restaurant owner:

A unique selling point stays away from claims about “better food” and “better service”. Those are minimum expectations of your customers, not reasons to choose you over your competition. Sure, you may be able to get that very small market of people looking for Indian food by being the only Indian restaurant around, but you’ll starve to death if you’re depending on that market. Your market must be bigger and transcend your food. Good food and service don’t make restaurants profitable. They’re not even a necessary ingredient though they help. Having good management systems and marketing, then consistently meeting the expectations of your customers whether high or low is what makes restaurants profitable.

I’m not saying all of those points aren’t important to the success of your restaurant, I’m just saying none of them provide your target market with a reason to go to your restaurant over the one down the road.

People DO NOT buy products, they buy emotions. A USP expounds on whatever emotion you are offering to your customers. Talking about your food, and your chef will win over a small amount of people, but the majority of people are looking to get some sort of feeling by visiting your restaurant, or in anything they do for that matter. If you market correctly, whenever they are in the mood to feel the way your restaurant makes them feel, they will think only of you, because your USP is truly unique. Now, you have to decide what feeling you want your customers to associate with your restaurant. Something unique to start. Then you do ONE THING (or more) that none of your competition does and give them that feeling you are selling them. Then, they’ll remember you and you’ll have a competitive edge on your competition. Then, your target market grows past people that just want great Indian food, to people that want to feel the way your restaurant makes them feel.

Think more along the lines of some of these feelings other restaurants sell:

“I’m selling stature, not food.”
Roll out a red carpet. Use crystal glassware. Real silver. Have a valet. Call every guest by name. Make sure the name of the restaurant suggests “stature”. TELL your customers visiting your restaurant will impress their friends.

“I’m selling speed. Not food.”
Offer fast service. Put a time limit guarantee on getting your product to them. Arrange your restaurant to cut steps out getting food to the customer. Have your restaurant’s name suggest “speed”. TELL your customers you are the fastest place in town to eat.

“I’m selling sex. Not food.”
Hire attractive waitresses. Dress your waitresses in short shorts and tight tops. Teach them to flirt. Name your store a sexually suggestive name. TELL your customers it’s the place to go to be waited on by beautiful women.

“I’m selling nostalgia. Not food.”
Collect memorabilia from a certain era or genre. Display it in your restaurant with stories about the pieces. Decorate the store in the style of the era or genre. Give your restaurant a name that suggests “nostalgia” for that era or genre.

“I’m selling accomodation. Not food.”
Encourage your customers to customize your menu items. Allow substitutions and many choices. Adopt a moniker that says you’re accomodating and market the heck out of it. Use a name that implies “accomodation”.

“I’m selling fun. Not food.”
Build a playground in your restaurant. Use cartoon characters and marketing partnerships with kids movies in your menu selections and marketing. Use colors in your restaurant that appeal to kids. Use a name that implies “fun”.

Well established brands realized long ago that only a few people come to them because they like their food better than any other restaurant. They know that people have to be thinking about you when they’re hungry to keep you at the top of their mind when they’re thinking of places to eat. They know that feelings and emotions create stronger memories and associations than any of the 5 senses.

What are you selling? If it’s food and service, don’t expect too many people to get very excited about it. They can get that anywhere.

To read "Unique selling point - vol. 2"

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Re: private label rights - [quote="OmnivoreInk":1egdias1] Now that the internet has made it a world wide business...there's no stopping it. I doubt if any such service can be shut down - but perhaps the students can be given Fs on their papers if the teacher realizes that whatever was written was beyond that student's capabilities.[/quote:1egdias1] I'm sure that's what usually happens. I imagine it would deter some students from buying their paper a second time if they received an F on the first one. I would also imagine there are those that would be happy with an F rather than an incomplete. This can be applied to the PLR topic. Saturation of particular products or articles can take place, where people are seeing the same products and articles across the net. It would be like putting up a PLR product for sale, only to have hundreds of others selling the same thing. You wouldn't get much sales, if any. About the same result as an F on a paper. This is why David's key point is important. Unique, original content, or limited PLR content is always best. Alan
Money Back Guarantee - That's a good point Louis - if people don't offer a money back guarantee it shows that they don't believe in their product. Most people never ask for their money back anyway but you have to have confidence in what you're selling. If it delivers value you shouldn't have a problem with the guarantee and it reduces the barrier customers have to buy what you're selling.
Re: This is Marketing Warfare! - Hey GT, I guess this was from a while back, and it'll test your memory a bit but could you possibly elaborate on Unique Selling Proposition? Can you give us some examples of good USPs?
Marketing potential of virtual worlds - Hi, I would love to get some feedback regarding making a profit from virtual worlds like 'Second Life' From a personal point of view i tried buying, selling and renting virtual real estate within the game, which i did make several thousand pounds but not enough to justify man hours. Again within Second life i tried out selling Shoutcast music streaming which again made a profit. When i joined there where around 30,000 people worldwide and now its around 8 million users. The advertising potential is huge and im looking to find new ways to generate another income stream from virtual world micro economies.
Re: Which is the best for beginners? - Hi Apu, I think one good way for Internet beginners to start is to experiment with selling stuff on eBay. In my own case I began by making a website about Japanese mahjong and then tried selling some mahjong goods on it. It worked! Actually, I remember that before I tried selling mahjong goods I experimented with selling other kinds of thing such as Japanese comics on eBay and things like that. I only got into affiliate marketing later on, and used the money I was making selling goods to fund my experiments with affiliate and network marketing.


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