Step 4. Creating Your Unique Selling Proposition!

 

USP? We don’t need No Stinking Packages!!!

What’s a USP?

It stands for Unique Selling Proposition”. It really identifies why a Customer should spend their hard earned dough withyoiu instead of the next guy.

Determining your USP is the crucial backbone to your marketing and success in any business. USP: The term USP was coined by a marketer named Rosser Reeves. Rosser was a brilliant marketer in the 1960’s. It originated at Ted Bates and Company in the early 1940’s. The theory of the USP enabled this agency to increase it’s billings from $4,000,000 to $150,000,000 without losing a client while getting dramatic, and in some cases unprecedented sales for its Clients!

This is taken From Reeves Book “Reality in Advertising”. (Sadly it’s out of print. I just checked EBay and there is a used copy available for $350.00. If you want a more thorough understanding of the way Reeves thought, $350.00 is a phenomenal investment. It will repay you for years to come!)

The USP is divided into three parts:

1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the Customer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show window advertising. Each Advertisement must say to the reader: “Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.””

Now this in itself is kind of common sense, but it is so often violated. Think about the commercials you remember from TV. Do you remember watching a commercial or reading an ad in a magazine and really feeling “I need to get this product because I need its benefit?” I know I rarely see or feel this type of ad. Many advertisers think they are doing it, but they are missing the mark by a long shot. A lot of it is what I call The “Big Dumb Company” mentality. If it looks pretty and my wife likes it… it’s a good ad. More money than brains!

The next one is often broken too:

2. 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.”

Seems kinda simple. The operative here is “seems”. As Reeves tells us there are THOUSANDS of Unique Propositions that do not sell. He tells of an ad for toothpaste that said “It comes out like a ribbon and lays flat on your brush”. Which is a proposition, and it was unique. But no one cared about that feature. No one was moved to purchase more toothpaste by reading that proposition.  So we learn that offering something unique in and of itself is not the answer.

The third one most advertisers screw up miserably.

3. “The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions, i.e., pull over new customers to your product.

This one is simple – but not easy.  It’s easy to create a message that you think millions will want to hear and respond too. It’s a lot harder to create a message that the millions want to listen to and respond to.

Why? Well…it’s really simple. You have the curse of knowledge. You are in love with your ideas, product or business. You know too much. That’s one of the great benefits my Clients find in dealing with me. I ALWAYS bring them an educated, sales and marketing skewed set of eyeballs to their business. Truth told… I have people I use to help me grow my business… I have the same problem. I have the curse of knowledge

I hope you see the importance of taking the time… a lot of time… to develop your USP. Once you have your USP, a REAL USP that will make a proposition to your customer that your competitors don’t and will cause them to take action… you’re along way towards a huge business success!

Long Live The Conch Republic!

John

 

The Four Step Recovery Program For ”Me-Too-Itis!

 

Take a second, grab a sheet of paper and write out the answers to the following questions. Take some time with this… This exercise alone.. if action is taken on your findings, could add a couple of zeros to your bank balance.

Step 1 – When I started this business what was the passion that drove me? Why did I start this business?

Step 2  - Do I still have a passion for my business? Not just am I happy with it, but if my business was performing the way I hoped it would OR the way it used to… would I be happy and passionate about coming to work every day?

If you answer no, then get out. Sell your business. Give it away. Move on. Life is too long to be miserable.

Step 3 – I assume if you made it this far, you are passionate about your business. Good. If you are not enthusiastic about your business, your Customers certainly won’t be!  Here’s your question – What is my Unique Selling Proposition? This isn’t just marketing mumbo jumbo. It’s the key to your new plan for success. What makes my business unique? Why should someone walk into my retail establishment rather than the one next to me, down the street from me, etc. And don’t just say Quality, Selection and Service.  Those are expected. They have become a cliché.

You need to have a unique reason why people will patronize your business. Then you have a message to go to market with.

Who sells a “Me Too” product, but developed a real Unique Selling Proposition?  Starbucks®.

Any way you look at it they’re pretty much selling the same cup of mud you used to get at a diner or “old fashioned coffee” shop for 25 cents. Somehow they wrangle 4 bucks out of me for the Mocha Choca Ya Ya Latte or whatever it’s called. And it’s a tasty drink. It has to be -  ‘cause at 4 bucks they would be wearing them if they weren’t!

So how can they get away with it? They create an experience. You don’t get a large coffee; you get a Venti Tanzanian dark roast. Then they add flavors and steamed milk etc and charge ya 2 or 3 extra bucks for them.
They have a distinct music playing that they KNOW their market likes, the atmosphere, the chairs, tables and snacks they sell are targeted at their niche. Not just “coffee drinkers” Their coffee drinkers.
They aren’t selling to the guy who’s happy with a cup of coffee from 7-11. They want a coffee connoisseur! And it works.  Now they know who their “Target Customer” is, and they can market just to him!
The folks at The Coffee Plantation on Caroline St.  have done a great job of identifying their niche too. Both Starbucks and the Coffee Plantation have developed their USP.

Their unique proposition is to give you a great cup of coffee and a great, UNIQUE experience!

Sounds complicated but it’s really not.

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