What's Your USP? A Crucial Marketing Tip for Small Business Owners (Part Two)
Last week we started talking about USPs -- Unique Selling Propositions. Specifically, why your company needs one in order to stand out from the crowd and be one step ahead of the competition. If you missed part one, you can read it here.
USPs are marketing taglines or phrases that brands incorporate in order to differentiate themselves from the competition. USPs must be unique, must make you stand out, and they have to be true, too. You can’t just make up some catchy phrase and start throwing it around as your USP. Genuine and authentic is the name of the game.
You’ve seen USPs everywhere, you just may not realize it. Consider:
“Fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in thirty minutes or less---or it’s free.”
Recognize that? It’s the Domino’s Pizza USP. And the company stands behind the claim. Notice the tagline says nothing about the quality of the pizza, just that they’ll get it to your door quickly. That’s what makes that USP so noteworthy and effective. All pizza places claim to have the best pizza in town, but what other retailer claims to get pizza to your door quickly? Domino’s was the first to make that claim, and to this day they’re still the only one. Domino’s isn’t the best pizza around, but it is the fastest. Bingo! An authentic (and effective) USP.
How about this USP:
“Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
Of course you recognize the M&M tagline. Most chocalatiers tout the creamy taste of their chocolate, or the robust flavor, or the health benefits. Not M&Ms. Their tagline doesn’t seem to take the taste of the chocolate into consideration, just that M&Ms won’t burden you with sticky fingers. What other chocolate claims to do that?
Now, not all USPs have to be recognizable. They really just have to describe what’s unique about your brand or company in a sentence or two.
How can you do that?
Part three of this blog series will give you some real-world examples that you can incorporate into your own USP. Read it now.