News
 One
Question to Answer… “What’s In It For Me?”
That’s exactly what your consumers want to know from
you about your product or service. In one, concise
statement, you can communicate your firm's most
compelling offer and benefit in a way that the
potential client can automatically answer that
question. That one statement is your Unique Sales
Proposition, your USP.
“It's not the business with the best product or
service that wins, but the business with the best
marketing,” says William Bodri, author of The
Million Dollar USP Maker. You need a way to find a
highly profitable competitive market niche and claim
“top of the mind” awareness for all those potential
customers out there, because you want them to think
of you first. You need a Unique Selling Proposition.
USP is a marketing concept invented by Rosser Reeves
in the 1960's. Reeves, author of Reality in
Advertising and creator of the USP “They melt in
your mouth, not in your hands,” came to the
conclusion that the only way to make customers come
to you was to create an advertising message about
your product that contained the following three
characteristics:
1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the
consumer. "Buy this product, and you will get this
specific benefit."
2. The proposition must be one that the competitor
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.
3. The proposition must be so strong that it can
move the mass millions, i.e. pull over new customers
to your product. An effective USP communicates your
firm's unique ability to fill an obvious void in the
marketplace. The USP shows your target market how
your firm is uniquely qualified to solve their pain
or increase their gain. A USP can be your firm's
single most powerful marketing weapon.
To craft a USP for your firm, ducttapemarkeitng.com
suggest your first make a list of all the benefits
of doing business with your firm. Don't leave
anything out. Then cut the list down with these
guidelines.
1. What things on your list are unique versus your
direct competitors?
2. Which of these benefits is most important to your
clients?
3. Which of these would be difficult for other's in
your industry to copy?
4. Which of these can be easily communicated?
Narrow your search to the top one or two benefits of
doing business with your firm. From there it is
simply a matter of injecting this chief benefit or
USP into everything that you do. Warning - You must
deliver on the big promise communicated in your USP.
Failure to do so may actually do more harm then
drifting along without any marketing focus.
Craft headlines that promote your USP, put a USP
statement on your stationery and business cards,
build your USP into all of your sales presentations.
The ultimate goal is to become known to the market
as whatever your USP promotes.
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Melissa Data
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