In the modern market of goods and services you will not be surprised that you are the best. To compete with other firms, you need to be not just the best, but unique. Only then can we talk about an increase in the number of customers. A unique selling proposition is what marketers of many firms and companies puzzle over. Today we will consider this concept and learn how to create a USP on our own.
Most importantly
In every business, USP (or a unique selling proposition) is the most important thing. No UTP, no sales, no profit, no business. It may be a little exaggerated, but overall it is.
A unique selling proposition (also called an offer, USP and USP) is a distinctive characteristic of a business. It doesn’t matter what exactly a person trades in, a distinctive characteristic should be. This term refers to a difference that competitors do not have. The unique offer gives the client certain benefits and solves the problem. If USP does not solve the client’s problem, then this is just an extravagant name - it is remembered, it sounds beautiful, but it does not affect the conversion level much.
A unique selling proposition should be based on the two most important words - “benefits” and “different”. This proposal should be so radically different from the competition that no matter what the introductory client takes, he will choose exactly the company that has a decent USP.
USP and Russia
Before embarking on the main course, I would like to focus on domestic marketing. In Russia, the problem is immediately apparent - everyone wants to be the best, but no one wants to be unique in their own way. From here comes the main problem - companies refuse to create unique trading offers. When they try to outdo the competitor who created the USP, then they get something in between the intricate phrase and the characteristics of the product or service.
Take, for example, a unique selling proposition that is in the portfolio of some copywriters:
- The best author.
- Perfect lyrics.
- Master pen and word, etc.
This is not UTP at all, but rather an example of how you can’t advertise yourself. Everyone has their own concept of an ideal text, the word “best” can be used if this is confirmed by numerical data and actual characteristics, and “master of a pen and a word”, it seems, was one, Bulgakov. Working USPs look very different:
- Quick copywriting - any text in 3 hours after payment.
- Each client has a free consultation on improvement (enter the necessary).
- Free images for the article from commercial photo stocks, etc.
Here, behind each offer is the benefit that the client acquires with the author. The customer focuses on what he needs in addition to the article: images, consultation or high-quality and fast execution. But from the "best author" it is not known what to expect. Everything works the same in business.
Varieties
For the first time, American advertiser Rosser Reeves spoke about creating a unique selling proposition. He introduced the concept of USP and noted this concept as more effective than advertising odes, where there was no specifics.
He said a strong selling proposition helps:
- Fence off competitors.
- Stand out among similar services and products.
- Gain the loyalty of the target audience.
- Improve the effectiveness of advertising campaigns by creating effective messages.
It is customary to distinguish between 2 types of trading offers: true and false. The first is based on the actual characteristics of the product that competitors cannot boast of. False offer is invented uniqueness. For example, a customer is told unusual information about a product or presented from a different angle with obvious benefits. This is a kind of pun.
Today it is difficult to endow a product with some unique characteristics, therefore, false USP is being used more and more often.
Quality trade offer. Main criteria
According to the concept of R. Reeves, the criteria for a quality trading offer are:
- A message about the specific benefits that a person will receive by purchasing a product of a company.
- The offer differs from all available in this market segment.
- The message is convincing, and representatives of the target audience can easily remember it.
In advertising, a unique selling proposition is the foundation, so it must fully meet the needs of customers. Each message should sound profit, value and benefit, but, besides this, understandable reasoning is needed so that the client clearly understands why he should buy the product he is interested in right here and not somewhere else.
Stages
So, how to create a unique selling proposition? If you do not think hard, then this task seems creative and exciting, moreover, quite easy. But as the practice of UTP has shown, this is an example of extremely rational and analytical work. To invent something intricate and pass it off as a unique offer is like looking for a black cat in a dark room. It is impossible to guess which concept will work.
To get a worthy example of a unique selling proposition, you need to conduct a lot of research: in addition to the market, occupied niches and competitors, examine the product itself - from the production technology to the watermark on the package. Development consists of several stages:
- Break the target audience into subgroups according to certain parameters.
- Identify the needs of each of these groups.
- Highlight the attributes of positioning, that is, determine what exactly in the promoted product will help solve the problems of target audience.
- Describe the benefits of the product. What will a consumer get if he buys it?
- Based on the received input data, create a USP.
Scenarios
As you can see, this is a rather painstaking process where it is necessary to use all the analytical skills. Only after the full analysis is completed, you can begin to search for a key idea and after that proceed to create a trading offer.
This task can be simplified by using scenarios already tested by time and experience:
- Emphasis on unique characterization.
- New solution, innovation.
- Additional services.
- Turn disadvantages into virtues.
- Solve the problem of
Uniqueness + Innovation
Now a little more about scripting. As for the first scenario, “Uniqueness,” it is only suitable for those products or services that are truly unique and have no competitors. In extreme cases, this feature can be created artificially. The option of a unique selling proposition (USP) may be completely unexpected. For example, a company manufacturing stockings and socks entered the market with an interesting offer - they sold a set of three socks, and USP promised to solve the eternal problem of a missing sock.
As for innovation, here it is worth declaring a solution to the problem in a new way. For example, “The innovative formula of the freshener will destroy 99% of the germs and fill the room with a fresh scent.”
"Buns" and disadvantages
In the third scenario, the focus is on additional privileges. If on the market all products are the same and have almost identical characteristics, then you need to pay attention to additional bonuses that will attract visitors. For example, a pet store may offer buyers to take kittens or puppies for 2 days to make sure they take root in the family.
The disadvantages of the product can also be turned to their advantage. If milk is stored for only 3 days, then from a practical point of view it is not profitable, and the buyer is unlikely to pay attention to it. Given this, it can be reported that it is stored so little because of 100% naturalness. The influx of customers is guaranteed.
Solution
But the easiest option is to solve the problems of potential consumers. This can be done by the formula (yes, as in mathematics):
- The need of the target audience + Result + Warranty. In advertising, an example of a unique selling proposition may sound like this: “3000 subscribers in 1 month or we will return the money.”
- CA + Problem + Solution. “Helping novice copywriters find customers with proven marketing strategies.”
- Unique Feature + Need. “Exclusive jewelry emphasizes the exclusivity of style.”
- Product + Target Audience + Problem + Benefit. “With Polyglot audio lessons, you can learn any language at the conversational level within a month and without a doubt leave for your dream country.”
Unspecified points
For the USP to work, you need to pay attention to a few more nuances during its creation. Firstly, the problem that the product solves must be realized by the client and he should want to solve it. Of course, you can offer a spray from "brain brains" (which is not a problem ?!), but the buyer will spend much more on a regular cream from mosquitoes and ticks.
Secondly, the proposed solution should be better than what CA used before. And thirdly, each client must measure, sense and evaluate the result.
A couple more tips
When creating UTP, it is most rational to use the advice of Ogilvy. He worked for many years in advertising and knows exactly how to look for UTP. In his book On Advertising, he mentioned the following: great ideas come from the subconscious, so it must be filled with information. To hammer the brain to the limit with everything that may concern the product and turn off for a while. A brilliant idea will come at the most unexpected moment.
Of course, the article already mentioned analytics, but this advice does not contradict what was already proposed. It often happens that after conducting a hundred analytical processes, the marketer cannot find the only and unique link that will promote the product on the market. It is at such moments when the brain processes information that you need to move away from reality. As practice shows, very soon a person will see that elusive UTP that was on the very surface.
It is also very important to pay attention to those small nuances that competitors miss. At one time, Claude Hopkins noticed that toothpaste not only brushes teeth, but also removes plaque. So the first slogan appeared in the advertising community, that toothpaste removes plaque.
And one need not be afraid to take non-standard approaches to solving the problem. Marketers of TM “Twix” simply divided the chocolate bar into two sticks and, as they say, it started.
Idea protection
A unique selling proposition does not appear in the minds of marketers from nowhere. This is the result of a long, focused and hard work, which, incidentally, can be used by competitors.
Decades ago, intellectual property was inextricably linked to its bearer. That is, if one company introduced successful USP, the other did not even look in the direction of this advertisement. Today, things have changed a bit: managers can simply use the idea of competitors for their own purposes.
Therefore, there was a need for patents. These are documents that confirm the owner’s right to the exclusive use of the results of their activities. By inventions, we mean products or methods that solve a specific problem. In turn, the “unique selling proposition” in itself is a powerful incentive for innovation. The subject of advertising here is unnoticed by competitors, but an advantage recognized by customers. Patent protection of unique trade offers in our country is practically undeveloped, but in more developed societies each promotion is protected from plagiarism.
Thus, in order to succeed, you need to be a unique, one-of-a-kind supplier of demanded products that are in every store, but the best in this company.