2. USP
• A unique selling proposition (USP) is a
description of the qualities that are
unique to a particular product or service
and that differentiate it in a way which
will make customers purchase it rather
than its rivals.
3. USP
Unique - It clearly sets you apart from your
competition, positioning you the more logical
choice.
Selling - It persuades another to exchange
money for a product or service.
Proposition - It is a proposal or offer
suggested for acceptance.
8. • The Unique Selling Proposition (also Unique Selling
Point) is a marketing concept that was first proposed
as a theory to explain a pattern among successful
advertising campaigns of the early 1940s.
• It states that such campaigns made unique
propositions to the customer and that this convinced
them to switch brands.
• The term was invented by Rosser Reeves.
• Today the term is used in other fields or just casually
to refer to any aspect of an object that
differentiates it from similar objects.
• A unique selling proposition (USP) defines your
competitive advantage Your must identify what
makes you different from your competitors and
emphasize these advantages in your marketing.
9. 3 parts of the definition
• 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.
10. • Communicating a Specific Benefit to the Customer
• As many products are identical in offering the main
benefit, you must identify the main advantage your
product offers over the competition.
• In order to make your advertising
message attractive, you must find an important
benefit unique to your product or service in one of
three ways.
• Product feature. This USP may be based on
product features associated with the product,
ranging from what it does to the quality of your
support services.
• Emotion. The USP may be based of an emotional
appeal, such as love, humor, or fear.
• Association. The USP may be communicated by
association with a well-known personality.
11. Identifying Your USP
• Five Question You Should Ask Yourself:
• Will my perspective customers perceive this as
an advantage?
• Is it significantly different from what my
competitors are offering?
• Why my prospective customers actually
believe in this USP?
• How will my customers benefit from this USP?
• Will this USP motivate customers sufficiently
to actually make a purchase?
12. • Before you can begin to sell your product or service
to anyone else, you have to sell yourself on it.
• This is especially important when your product or
service is similar to those around you.
• Just look around you: How many clothing retailers,
hardware stores, air conditioning installers and
electricians are truly unique?
• The key to effective selling in this situation is what
advertising and marketing professionals call a
"unique selling proposition" (USP).
• Unless you can pinpoint what makes your business
unique in a world of homogeneous competitors, you
cannot target your sales efforts successfully.
13. • Pinpointing your USP requires some hard soul-
searching and creativity.
• One way to start is to analyze how other
companies use their USPs to their advantage.
• This requires careful analysis of other
companies' ads and marketing messages.
• If you analyze what they say they sell, not just
their product or service characteristics, you
can learn a great deal about how companies
distinguish themselves from competitors.
14. • For example, Charles Revson, founder of
Revlon, always used to say he sold hope, not
makeup.
• Some airlines sell friendly service, while others
sell on-time service.
• Each of these is an example of a company that
has found a USP on which to hang its
marketing strategy.
• A business can base its USP on product
characteristics, price structure, placement
strategy (location and distribution) or
promotional strategy.
• These are what marketers call the "four P's"
of marketing.
15. Steps to develop the USP for a brand
• Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Too often,
entrepreneurs fall in love with their product or
service and forget that it is the customer's needs,
not their own, that they must satisfy.
• Step back from your daily operations and carefully
scrutinize what your customers really want.
• Suppose you own a pizza parlor. Sure, customers
come into your pizza place for food.
• But is food all they want?
• What could make them come back again and again
and ignore your competition?
• The answer might be quality, convenience, reliability,
friendliness, cleanliness, courtesy or customer
service.
16. Steps to develop the USP for a brand
• Remember, price is never the only reason
people buy.
• If your competition is beating you on
pricing because they are larger, you have
to find another sales feature that
addresses the customer's needs and then
build your sales and promotional efforts
around that feature.
17. • Know what motivates your customers'
behavior and buying decisions.
• Effective marketing requires you to be a
psychologist.
• You need to know what drives and motivates
customers.
• Go beyond the traditional customer
demographics, such as age, gender, race,
income and geographic location, that most
businesses collect to analyze their sales
trends.
Steps to develop the USP for a brand
18. • For our pizza shop example, it is not enough
to know that 75 percent of your customers
are in the 18-to-25 age range.
• You need to look at their motives for buying
pizza-taste, peer pressure, convenience and
so on.
• Cosmetics and liquor companies are great
examples of industries that know the value
of psychologically oriented promotion.
• People buy these products based on their
desires (for pretty women, luxury, glamour
and so on), not on their needs.
Steps to develop the USP for a brand
19. • Uncover the real reasons customers buy your
product instead of a competitor's.
• As your business grows, you'll be able to ask
your best source of information: your
customers.
• For example, the pizza entrepreneur could ask
them why they like his pizza over others, plus
ask them to rate the importance of the
features he offers, such as taste, size,
ingredients, atmosphere and service.
• You will be surprised how honest people are
when you ask how you can improve your
service.
Steps to develop the USP for a brand
