An important aspect of advertising is educating your target audience about your business. Most of the time, it’s a short and dry list of the following: what you sell, the prices you charge, the quality of the products, and the friendly customer service you provide. However, most commercial advertising overlooks the most important thing you should be educating your prospects about. This is what is commonly known in the marketing industry as “your USP” – Unique Selling Proposition.
What is a USP? The definition of a USP is simply to explain the reason for the existence of your business. What unique services or products does your business offer that you can’t possibly get anywhere else? How is the merchandise in your store different from the guy on the block? Why is your auto repair better than the rest of the places listed in the yellow pages? Defining and articulating your USP is a critical strategy for moving out of a commodity business and into ownership. In a commodity industry, anyone can become your competitor. But if you take steps to make your products and/or services unique to you, it’s much harder for competitors to take business away from you.
A brand name is an example of a USP. Although there are many colas available, there is only one Coca-Cola. What is your USP? A soft drink that is considered far superior to any other (sorry Pepsi fans!).
Apple’s vaunted iPod is another example of a USP. While there are hundreds of MP3 players, they are all called “generic” compared to the iPod. By making such a great, easy-to-use, virus-worthy product, they have designed a USP that has proven to be a formidable challenge for competitors, even to this day. A USP shouldn’t be a 2-hour speech about why your business is better. Rather, it should be something that is easy to explain in a few short sentences. If your products are better quality than the competition, that’s your USP. This can be used to explain why your prices are higher. If your prices are the lowest, that’s your USP.
The USP should be used in various ways. In advertising, make sure your target audience can clearly see in the ad how unique your business is. In strategic planning, use it to make sound decisions. And when you decide which aspects of your business to improve, remember to strengthen the unique qualities of your business. Doing so makes you stand out from your competitors and is a compelling factor for your customers to choose you over others in your market.