Unique Selling Proposition (USP) -- Why You?                                         

submitted by John Hillage

1. The problem -- "me too" marketing
2. The solution -- a USP
3. How to create your USP
4. Example USPs
 

Open the Yellow Pages to the category covering your business. What do you see? A lot of the same thing, no doubt. A lot of ads that look and sound alike. Using the same tired buzzwords, like "Quality," "Service," and "Low Prices."

The problem -- "me too" marketing
Most marketing is like most other marketing, if you think about it. A company trumpets their name in their advertisements and letters, a few cliched taglines ("Your success is our success!"), sits back and waits for the orders to come in.

But "me too" marketing will kill your business. In effect, you're telling prospects, "Please buy my brand. I'm just like the other guy, so please give ME your money." This argument fails miserably every time. It's lazy, lacks creativity and insults the intelligence of consumers. Yet 90% of all businesses use it or some variation! Are YOU dooming your business to failure?

(Because I write résumés for a living, this is a topic that's near to my heart. In essence, all I do is find USPs for my clients, to help them stand out from the crowd.)

The marketplace is far too overcrowded to forgive you for failing to differentiate your business from your competitors.' According to one source, the estimated dollar volume of advertising in the United States nearly doubled between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. Corporate advertising now amounts to more than $100 billion each year, or $400 worth of advertising for every person in the country. That's a LOT of television commercials, direct mail, billboards and radio jingles.

To give you an example of "me too" marketing, I've opened the Yellow Pages at random to the Bankruptcy Attorneys section. Of the first four display ads, each taking up a full page and costing thousands of dollars each month, EVERY AD has this phrase, or some variation:

"STOP Harassment, Foreclosure, Garnishment, Tax Levies, Lawsuits."

These four attorneys are all saying the same thing. Their "me-too" marketing is wasting my time, their time and a lot of advertising dollars. If everybody says the same thing, it means nothing.

How, then, is a busy consumer supposed to make a reasoned decision and choose the right business? More importantly, why should people choose you?

You have to figure this out for your prospects. And tell them. Because they certainly don't have the time or inclination to do it for you!

The solution -- a USP
Fortunately, there's a solution. It's known as a unique selling proposition, or USP. It was first popularized in 1961 by Rosser Reaves in his book, Reality In Advertising (now out of print).

Your USP is your proprietary competitive advantage briefly stated. Every business must have one in order to succeed. (Most businesses don't have one. Not surprisingly, most businesses fail.) If you don't have a USP, you make it hard for people to choose your business over someone else's.

According to Reaves, your USP needs three traits to be effective:

1. It must make a specific promise to customers. Example: "Buy this product and you will get this clear benefit."
2. It must be one your competitors cannot or will not match. It must be unique. Your customers should not be able to get the benefit anywhere else.
3. It must be so strong that it can create a crowd of eager buyers. It must be so exciting that only a lunatic would refuse to buy from you! (Don't worry -- it's possible!)

Reaves goes on to say that 80% of all ads do not have a USP. If you look through your local paper or Yellow Pages, I think you'll find this percentage is even higher today. The key to any good advertisement is its USP. Can you find it in the ads that attract your attention? In some cases, business owners may even change their product or service to match a USP they've created.

What if you find no real difference between your products and your competitors'? What can you do? Tell consumers something about your products that's never been said before. This is a particularly effective way to create a USP. Develop a new claim, even if that claim is true for your competitors' goods or services. The first one to make the claim will be the first to reap its benefits, because consumers will remember whoever was first to bring them news (more about educating your prospects in this manner in later chapters).

You can even use the guarantee you created in the last chapter and make it your USP. I did so with tremendous success!

How to create your USP
Think of your USP as the answer to the question, "Why should I buy from you and not some other company?"

It can refer to who you are, what you do, how you do it, where you do it, or for whom you do it. All of these areas are potential USP material.

Remember our bankruptcy attorneys in the Yellow Pages, the ones who all used "me too" marketing? Well, one of them found a way to stand out in his ad. This phrase caught my eye and would make me more likely to call him versus his competitors:

"Bankruptcy. This is all we do. And we do it well!"

Now that's more like it. These folks have focused on what they do to set themselves apart in their USP. It's effective because the average consumer is more likely to trust a specialist with their problems than a generalist. But how does this translate into a USP for your business?

Here's one way to do it. Sit down and write a list of at least five reasons why customers should by from you. Examples: your guarantee, in-home estimates, free initial consultations, the largest selection in town, 24-hour service, special certification/training, X years of experience, etc.

When you've finished your list, look at the advertising of your competitors and write down what benefits they offer. Call your main competitors and grill them in detail (posing as a prospective customer, of course) to make sure you're not missing anything. Now, look at your first list and cross off those items that your competitors also offer. What's left is the raw material for your USP. If there are two or three benefits that only you offer, choose the one that's your strongest, easiest to implement or most difficult for your competitors to copy. That single remaining benefit is your USP!

Perhaps my experience may help illustrate. When I sat down to pick a USP for my fledgling résumé service, I looked through the Yellow Pages and the World Wide Web to see what the competition was up to. With few exceptions, they all touted the same features/benefits in their advertising and brochures:

• 10-15 years of experience
• Major credit cards accepted
• Certification
• Interview coaching
• Full service

On the other hand, here's a list of benefits that customers could get by doing business with me:

• 10 years of writing and hiring experience
• Personal checks accepted
• Friendly, personal service
• Access to local and national recruiters
• Unconditional money-back guarantee

Looking at my competitors, I couldn't compete on years in business. I couldn't accept credit cards, either. These were my two weaknesses. But I didn't care about certification, since no diploma can make a poor writer into a wordsmith overnight. Interview coaching seemed unimportant, too, as I preferred writing to coaching. And full service means nothing, since everyone has a different definition of what service means.

Where did that leave? I had been writing for publication and hiring people for a total of 10 years' experience, so I used that figure. Taking personal checks was a stopgap measure until I could accept credit cards. Friendly service and access to recruiters, while not earth-shattering claims, were better than nothing.

Which brings us to my guarantee. Nowhere in any of my competitors' ads did I find the word guarantee. None of them promised anything to their customers. This intrigued me.

To double check, I called some established résumé services and asked them about their guarantees. One competitor called guarantees a "sales gimmick." Another said flatly, "I can't make any guarantees." I hung up the phone and grinned from ear to ear. Here was a gaping niche in a crowded marketplace.

From my years of research into marketing and advertising copywriting, I knew the incredible power of the word "guarantee." It removes the fear of buying. It makes people curious about what you do and what you promise. And it gives them a feeling of control during the buying process. So I created and used a one-year, unconditional money-back guarantee as my USP.

Now, I wouldn't trade that guarantee for a million dollars. Because that's what it's worth to my business. Your USP could be worth a fortune to you, too!

Here's a second way to create a USP. Fill in the blanks in this sentence:

"My competitors all ___________. But in my business, we ____________."

Looks easy, doesn't it? But it's a statement 99% of all business owners can't make, because they've never taken the time to think it through. Now, you have.

To get a better feel for what might constitute your USP, you must look at your entire business from the customer's point of view. From the moment you pick up the phone to answer their initial sales call, to the process of fulfilling their order, to your final "thank you" after the sale, there's a priceless USP lurking in your business just waiting to be uncovered.

I say "priceless" because your USP can be of incalculable worth if you create and use it correctly. It can be the weapon strikes fear into the hearts of your competitors while driving throngs of customers to your door.

To get closer to discovering your USP, you have to look at your business with fresh eyes. Assume that the prospective buyer knows nothing about what you do or why you do it. Sit down and write out all the steps involved in your business. Focus on numbers, percentages and other tangible items that might be of interest or benefit to prospects.

For example, if you run an auto body shop, don't write that your mechanics inspect every car thoroughly before returning the car to your customer. Write: "Our team of 11 mechanics are all state-certified and have at least five years' experience doing what they do. On average, each mechanic has inspected 60-70 cars each week per year, so they have seen at least 15,600 cars in their experience; they're bound to have seen a situation similar to yours. There are 15 steps to our inspection process and we use a checklist to ensure accuracy, which we then give to you when the job is done."

Is this a USP? Not yet, but we're close. Now, imagine that your competitors in the auto repair business are all slashing prices by 10% to 15% during the same month. Their ads are in all the newspapers and on television. How do you compete? You counterattack with the ammunition you've assembled above. Your USP might read something like this: "Your car won't leave our garage until it passes 15 quality checks, done by our certified
mechanics, all with at least five years and 15,000 cars worth of experience."

Get the picture? Your USP is right under your nose. All you have to do is take the time to look around your business and find it.

Below are some traits about your product or service that you can examine to create a winning USP.

• Price (Do you offer the lowest price in your industry? Although it's almost always a bad idea to compete on price, this may work for some businesses. Perhaps you have the HIGHEST price, like L'Oreal hair color?)
• Value (Compared to your competitors', is your product or service worth more? Does it save customers more time or money? If not, can package several products or services together to create high value?)
• Design (Does your product or service look better, or at least different? Think of Apple's iMac computer, with its space-age design.)
• Convenience (Is it easier to buy from you than your competitors? Are you open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year?)
• Service (Will you come out to fix or repair products at no charge? In the middle of the night? 100 miles away? Do you service all brands?)
• Performance (Can customers expect better, faster, cheaper performance using your product or service?)
• Reliability (Does your product perform 99% of the time? 100%? Will it last for 10 years? 25 years? Does it need little or no maintenance?)
• Technology (Is your product or service more advanced than your competitors'? Can you explain to prospects how this technology will save them time or money?)
• Experience (Do you have more years of experience than your competitors? More importantly, what does this mean for your prospects?)
• -EST (Are you the oldEST, youngEST, fastEST, largEST, hippEST or funnEST in your industry? Everyone loves to find the ultimate in anything. That's why the Guinness Book of World Records is a perennial best seller. Where does your business fit in?)

To sum up, the possibilities for creating your USP are unlimited. But it's best to focus on one part of the marketplace that's being neglected. Look at what your competitors are doing, look at your strengths, then do something different. Something that speaks directly to the needs of your customer.

Think about why you buy from the companies you do. Do you patronize businesses that are just standing there, holding out their hands for your money? No. More likely, you shop at the store with the biggest selection in town. Or the one where the clerks all smile and treat you like a human being. Or the one that delivers and guarantees satisfaction, or your money back.

But remember one thing: a good USP will not appeal to everybody. No successful business can be all things to everybody. There's a big difference between the affluent customers and the bargain hunters who only look at price. You probably can't reach both segments of the market. Which group would you want to come into your store?

Think like a customer. Why you? USP!

Example USPs
Here are some more real-world examples of USPs that made fortunes for the businesses that created them. How does yours compare?

Coke -- "The Real Thing."
FedEx -- "Absolutely, positively overnight."
Avis -- "Why go with Avis? We try harder."
L'Oreal -- "The most expensive hair color in the world."
Kelogg's Raisin Bran -- "Two scoops of raisins in every box."
7Up -- "The Uncola."
 

That wraps up this installment of Guaranteed Marketing.

Remember, I'm available to consult with you personally on your marketing efforts. And if your sales don't increase, you owe me nothing. Interested?

Just e-mail kevin@guaranteedmarketing.com to get started!

Warmest regards,

Kevin Donlin
Author, Guaranteed Marketing