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How to Create A Unique Selling Point
| Guest post by: Alex Pirouz |
Article Overview: When promoting your product/service it is easy to miss a key trick, which is to make what you are selling unique against the competition, making your products clearly the best choice in your customers eyes. This is the key focus of the USP, also sometimes said to stand for 'Unique Selling Point'.
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Free Download - Do You Know Your Customers Personality Type By Alex Pirouz |
How to Create A Unique Selling Point
The USP was originally discussed in the 1940s and defined in print by advertising executive Rosser Reeves, who was concerned that advertising was losing track of its purpose.
Rosser Reeves stated:
"Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: 'Buy this product and you will get this specific benefit.
The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be unique-either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising.
The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions; i.e., pull over new customers to your product".
-- Reeves, 1961
A good current example of a clear USP is the well-known Brand:
Head & Shoulders: "You get rid of dandruff"
Other propositions that were pioneers when they were introduced are:
Domino's Pizza: "You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less - or its free"
FedEx: "When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight"
M&M's: "Melts in your mouth, not in your hand"
Wonder Bread: "Wonder Bread Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways"
Having a Unique Selling Proposition is not just nice to have, it's a must have. Without it, your business runs the risk of
• Getting lost in the crowd, as a me-too
• Not being able to attract the target clientele, who might be using another product and is given no incentive to switch
• Being caught in a price war, since that would be the only differentiator, given all other things are equal
That being said, your product or service must clearly deliver value to the user, or it will fail, USP or no USP!
Now that we have covered the background and importance of USP's; let's go ahead and cover the various aspects of creating one which is successful.
1) Market Research: First things first, you need to get into your customers heads. Ideally the main reason why you are in business is to help solve your client's challenges and meet their values within your service/product.
Do not just pick a factor about your product that seems strong to you. Do your research properly. Find out what criteria customers use to compare products against one another.
Clients have a list of desired features or problems that are resolved by the benefits that are conferred by buying your product.
2) Key variables: The USP says what is different about the product, particularly in comparison with major competitors and the market place. Thus you can take a range of variables and produce a table to find out where you are better or worse than competitors.
Variables such as speed, size, convenience, safety, style or ease of use are ones which should be considered in your design. Price is not a key ingredient.
3) Positioning: With the USP you need to position your product not just against the customer's needs but also against competing products. The USP thus explains what is unique about what you have to sell.
Words such as better, faster, Stronger (etc.) can also be used within your USP to create a more compelling angle.
4) Offer Proof: Consumers are very sceptical of claims companies make, especially with the surge of the information age. So alleviate their scepticism by being specific and offering proof when possible.
5) Clear and concise: Your USP needs to be clear and concise. The most powerful Unique Selling Points are perfectly written.
6) Deliver on your promise: Your USP should have promises and guarantees that capture your audience's attention, having said that it should be one which you can deliver that.
Having a strong USP can make your business a big success or a big failure if you don't deliver on it thereby ruining your reputation.
Using a powerful USP is the driving force that builds your business success. Build your USP and use it to optimize your marketing materials for maximum results.
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Article Tags: Business, General Sales Tips, Sales, Sales Advice, Selling, Unique Selling Point, USP
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About the Author: Alex Pirouz RSS for Alex's articles - Visit Alex's website His ability to increase revenue, surge sales, produce compelling sales teams, and create an environment where sales executives love being at work, have made him one of the go to guys in Australia when organisations look to increase sales within any sector or market. Key Achievements: -- Produced over $4.13 million in sales in just 9 months of Business and Sales Advisory. -- Increased sales by 700% in less than nine weeks for a personal development company -- Increased attendance rate of participants at events by 400% -- Created revenue of $1.63 million in his involvement as a General Manager for a direct sales company. His ability to produce results is due to his extensive experience in all aspects of the sales and recruitment department. Having worked as a Sales Executive, Sales Manager, General Manager of Redline Corporation (Direct Sales Company) and now the founder of RIDC Advisory Pty Ltd has provided him with the experience necessary to produce results for other organisations. Alex is also the sales adviser for Electricity Wizard Pty Ltd, The Entourage and Redline Corporation. Click here to visit Alex's website   Stop Assuming And Start Asking Hire On Attitude Not Skill The Single Most Important Trait Within Salespeople Do You Know Your Customers Personality Type How to Create A Unique Selling Point |
Related Forum Posts
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?
Re: How to Use Twitter to Market Products?
- Twitter is very useful for sales and marketing especially for the promotion of products and services. Do the following while active on Twitter:-
1. Follow the people having same interest
2. Post Unique and eye catching content
3. Post Images
4. Take your user name as your favorite product name or brand name.
5. Re tweet, replies and make favorite the posts
6. Create list of people interacting with you
7. Try to active at least 5 day a week.
Re: Twiiter an sales
- Twitter is very useful for sales and marketing specially for the promotion of products and services. Do the following while active on Twitter:-
1. Follow the people having same interest
2. Post Unique and eye catching content
3. Post Images
4. Take your user name as your favorite product name or brand name.
5. Re tweet, replies and make favorite the posts
6. Create list of people interacting with you
7. Try to active at least 5 day a week.
Re: Readers, Money or SEO? Which comes first?
- [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":35az7o03]Hi Chris,
Do you have any great PR strategies to share? [/quote:35az7o03]
Be different. Its hard to promote anything that doesn't have strong Unique Selling Points. Read 'Purple Cow' by Seth Godin for inspiration and why good PR and promotion starts with a great product.
As a publisher, our content is a significant part of our product lineup.
Following that you need to reach out and network with influencers.
I've managed to get mainstream press coverage a few times in the past, but I'm certainly not an expert on this though and I'm always learning.
Where's the Entrance?
- that's true I've been seeing a lot of construction going on to the City of Toronto's sidewalks and even Movie shoots sometimes block of access to stores for a week sometimes..
Guerrilla techniques should be at play here.
1. Get a Can of Paint and some Footstep Stencils and paint footsteps all the way from the accessible street right to your temporary entrance. (may be illegal but the store owner could plead innocent and say he has no idea who did that - maybe a "fan" of the restaurant)
2. I remember when there was the SARS outbreak in Toronto a lot of the Chinese restaurants were not doing so well except for Lee's Garden. I noticed they created a special Menu with prepackaged Menu Items for $20.
3. Create some buzz like with a Unique expereince - "Someone stole all my Plates! Now serving food on Banana Leaves - Guess What! The Food tastes better than ever! Blah Blah...
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