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Unique Selling Proposition: Flying Blind Without the 2 Secrets of the USP

Do you know what your unique selling proposition is? Can you spout it off to someone in less than three sentences? If you don't know what it is, or can't succinctly say it, you may need help. Soon.

Formulating your unique selling proposition is the most important strategic marketing task you will ever do. What is the U.S.P? It's defined as the way you do two key things up front: you differentiate yourself from all your competitors; you do it preemptively. Let's take each of those concepts in turn. First, you have to be different from the others. People are attracted to and buy products or services from those who are "different" from the crowd. In today's sea of mediocrity with its me-too, commoditized products, the one that stands head and shoulders among the rest, is the one that wins.

Unfortunately standing out is not quite enough. That kid in the fast food joint with the purple hair and the ugly ring in his nose sticks out as being different, but that's where it ends. You have to do this well, positively; preemptively. It's not enough to be different, Anyone working hard and observing what everyone else is doing, can do that. At least until everyone else now has purple hair and rings in his nose. Then he's no longer different, just another sheep: like all the rest.

What's required here is being the first one into this market space; or being the first one with a new way of 'being or doing' things. In this case, a way that does not easily allow others to copy-cat him with their stale rendition of what he has worked so hard to do. Naturally, this is where patents come in, but that's another whole discussion. We're talking here about how we offer or do something in a unique way; in a way that essentially "preempts" your competition. The key concepts are: "unique" and "preemptive."

Remember that old example of Avis up against Hertz. When Avis came out with the slogan: "we're #2, but we try harder," they did two key things. First, they stole what we call the "underdog position." They were the first to do so in the rental car market. Then they also differentiated themselves by claiming superior customer service in that same market segment. Now they owned this valuable "underdog" position in the minds of the consumer.

Everyone cheers for the underdog, right? Now Avis was it, up against huge monolithic #1, Hertz. Hey, let's hear it for the little guy! The second very smart marketing thing they did was differentiate themselves by letting their prospective customers know – in advance – just how much harder they would work for and to keep his business. In those days, no one was pointing out the 'Emperor's new clothes.' The big guy was weak on service. Avis had done their marketing research. They learned the weaknesses...and the strengths...of their bigger competitors. They knew to stay away from the things the bigger rival could easily do because of size, economies of scale, or available resources. When the lawsuit launched by Hertz against Avis finally came to court, Avis now was #2. Really. When Avis originally launched their campaign, they actually were #5...or worse.

If you are going to succeed in your business, large or small, you can't do without an incisive marketing strategy that incorporates the use of the Unique Selling Proposition. The concept was first developed in the late 1940s by Rosser Reeves, then working at Ted Bates Advertising in NYC. It has stood the test of time, and is even more relevant and important to success today, 60 years later. Why? Because now we have many more products, sizes, line extensions, colors, shapes, you name it. We have more companies competing for the same scarce dollars in the customers' pocketbook. There is only room for those marketers who understand this hyper-competition.

Those who are willing to sit down, take a bit of time, study the market and the host of competitors. Those who will produce products, services, or experiences that are different from the others. Additionally, there are those who want to be the first one in the marketplace to do so in such a unique way. They make it very difficult to copy them, without looking exactly like nothing but a cheap copycat version of the "real thing."

©Copyright, Roy W. MacNaughton, 2006