Unique Selling Proposition and Tagline
Finding Your Unique Selling Proposition
What is Your USP or Unique Selling Proposition? It’s what sets you apart from your competitors and convinces people to choose your company.
A USP condenses the objective of your positioning strategy into a brief, catchy phrase. When creating your USP, use short punchy action words to tell the story of your business. Think “Just Do It,” “Got Milk,” and “Because you’re worth it.” USPs are essentially slogans that reinforce a company’s brand and identity.
Here are some ideas:
- Lean Green Designing Machine (Green Design Company)
- Lean Green Building Machine (Green Building Company)
- You Call – We Bolt, Service Even Zues Would Love (Electric Company)
- We Take Your Home Personally (Contractor)
Positioning is about making your offering different from, and more valuable than, your competitors’ offerings–and placing that idea in the minds of a target group of customers. Positioning attracts customers by creating a positive and unique identity for your company and its offerings. Positioning is vital for distinguishing your offering from everybody else’s.
In a world where there are more and more products and services every day, your customers are on advertising overload, you must strive to be unique and memorable.
There are many different ways to stake out a position. Just remember, your position reflects your unique selling proposition, and it is what makes your offering more valuable to your customers than what’s being offered by your competition.
Perception of your Business
How will your business be perceived as different from your competition in the minds of your targeted customers? To figure this out, you must look for your best customer and then design a position that matches his or her wants and needs to an advantage that only you can offer. Remember, you can’t be all things to all people, but you can be the vendor of choice for a group of them.
Positioning is the basis for all your communications–your packaging and product design, sales promotions, advertising, and public relations. Everything you do must reinforce that position–otherwise you just undermine your marketing efforts and sow confusion instead of confidence.
Good Examples
Your USP may be expressed as a summary of what you do and how you do it better or differently than others. Often, a USP can be summed up in just a few words that become something of an advertising jingle or catch-phrase. No matter how you express it, your USP should focus on how it benefits the customer. Here are a few well-known examples:
* Burger King: Have it your way
They build on the premise that it’s easy for a customer to request changes. Benefit to the customer: Satisfaction. No hassles (for trying to change the standard burger offerings) and a hamburger that’s just the way you like it.
* Enterprise: Pick Enterprise. We’ll pick you up.
While Avis made a name for itself with its “We’re number two, We try harder” slogan that emphasized customer service, Enterprise focuses on one key selling point – customer pick up. Benefit to the customer: Convenience. You don’t have to worry about taking a cab or bother with finding some other way to go get your rental car. It comes to you.
* Bounty: The Quicker Picker-Upper
Many products, such as paper towels or toilet tissue, have similar qualities. Bounty makes their mark by saying that their product absorbs spills faster. Benefit to the customer: Time-Savings. You get the dirty work done sooner and can get on to other more important matters.
Developing Your Positioning Statement and Tagline
When you’re doing construction, on the surface you’re offering the same thing that thousands of others are offering. How do you set yourself apart?
To begin creating your own USP, answer the following questions with short, articulate answers that relate your offering to your customers’ needs.
1. What do you do? If you have a broad offering, can you focus on one or two key services that are most in demand? List your specialities or niche areas. Is there something special, unusual, or significant about the way you do business?
2. Who are your current customers (or those you wish to attract)? Look at the demographics – age, interests, location.
3. What do your customers want? Is it low price, your personality, your specialty, your location, your reputation, or something else that attracts customers to your business? List the benefits that customers derive from working with you.
4. How will your customers perceive this benefit, relative to the competition?
Your Assignment
Answer the above four questions about your business. Pick out at least one key point from your answers to each question. Which one stands out in your mind? Run your ideas past a few trusted friends to find the one that best expresses what is special about what you offer. Now, take what’s unique about your business and express it as a benefit to your customer. Please feel free to share your USP with us.
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