What is The Most Unique Selling Proposition of Your Business?

The unique selling proposition or unique selling point is a marketing concept first proposed as a theory to explain a pattern in successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. The USP theory states that such campaigns made unique propositions to customers that convinced them to switch brands.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP) tells about the unique benefits of any product or service or even a company which helps not only in acquiring new customers but also motivates consumers to switch from competitor brands.

Products or services without clear differentiation are always at risk of being seen as a commodity and thus lower the price potential.

USP is the reason, most of the times the consumer chooses the brand. Let me give you some examples to clarify:

1)Domino’s Pizza: You get fresh & hot pizza delivered to your door step in 30 minutes or it’s free. Domino’s came up with this USP when either competitors were not delivering at all or they used to take lot of time. Domino’s committed freshness as well as within time delivery. THIRTY MINUTES OR FREE became it’s USP. Please pay attention Café Coffee Day’s “A LOT CAN HAPPEN OVER COFFEE” is mere a slogan but not USP.

2)Southwest Airlines: WE ARE THE LOW COST AIRLINE. Their USP was not business class travel or not the food they provide in the flight. In fact they in a way sent a clear message that don’t expect excellent service in this low cost and then anything they did in service became a wow from the passengers as they originally had not expected anything.

3)Head & Shoulders: Clinically proven to reduce dandruff.

Unless you can pinpoint what makes your business unique in a world of homogeneous competitors, you cannot target your sales efforts successfully. Finding your USP is indeed lots of soul searching but it pays to get clarity here. One easy approach can be to ask your customers on why they should buy from you and not anybody else. Find the real reason and let everyone out there know about this.

If you know your differentiation and don’t communicate the same to the market through all the marketing collateral, it won’t make a difference. So, once you know what differentiates your product or service from the competition, you need to focus on Marketing Communication.

Here are three secrets of identifying and leveraging an awesome USP of your product or service:

1) Focus on what your customers really value. USP is all about what they want and not what you as a business person want to deliver.  

2) Go Beyond Slogan: It’s really great if we can communicate the USP via a slogan but is much more than just a slogan. You should be able to live what you commit.

3) It should be assertive and not offensive. Talk about your product/service and don’t compare.

Successful business is not only about having a unique product or service, it's also about making your product stand out - even in a market filled with similar items.