What Really Is 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 want to give it some serious thought.

Formulating your 'USP' is the most important strategic marketing task you will ever do. Implementing it well is the second most important.

What exactly is the USP? I hear people using many different variations of it.  I've even heard the USP to mean:unique selling point. This is incorrect. Let's just set the record straight.

The concept of the USP was first developed and explained by Rosser Reeves, then president of major NYC ad agency, Ted Bates, more than four decades ago.

It has stood the test of time ever since. (I know this through personal experience; because my mentor, Peter Zarry, then president of Ted Bates Advertising for Canada, the UK and Europe, hammered this concept into my head when I was a young 'thirty-something' until I knew it backwards and forwards. Peter made sure I knew just how valuable a concept it really is…if done correctly and efficiently. Unfortunately, many marketers still don't. They pay it lip service. Even these marketers don't really 'get it'.

The USP was defined by its founder, Rosser Reeves, 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 product or service that stands head and shoulders above the 'rest', is the one that usually wins.

Unfortunately standing out is not quite enough. That kid in the fast food outlet with the purple hair and the ring in his nose stands out as being different; but that's where it ends.

You have to do this expertly, 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.  He has commoditized himself.

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."

Are you old enough to remember this from Avis Rent-a-Car?  "We're # 2. But We Try Harder!"  That's a classic USP, expressed in two short sentences. Today an excellent  example would be this creative four-word USP from FedEx:  "The World On Time" You'll see it emblazoned on every truck, package, plane or uniform. These four short words sum up what they do, how they do it; and most importantly, WHY you should buy from them.

If this were easy, everyone would be doing it.  It's not. It's hard work; but worth it.

We'll talk more about the USP in future posts. For now, realize that you can only develop, and then implement an effective USP, after you have a good handle on the answer to this question: "where am I (and my business) now?"

This means doing some "research" with your suppliers, customers and competitors; essentially knowing a lot more about the arena or environment in which you are trying to compete and do business.

Naturally, if you don't know where you are; or where you want to go, any road will take you there.

What do you think? Care to share your 2 cents? I'd appreciate your feedback and comments below.