10 Minute Guide Unique Selling Proposition

Introduction The process of identifying a USP helps This item explains how to develop a you to focus on the key benefits that unique selling proposition for your help to sell your products or services business or a product or service. and contribute to your profits. You can It explains what a unique selling also use your USP to provide a focus proposition is and how you use it. for, and therefore improve the It then takes you through a process effectiveness of, your promotion to identify the features of your product and sales activities. or service, to convert the features into benefits that the customer will If you want to see examples of USPs recognise and finally to identify in practice, then advertising is a good which benefits you are going to place to look. Advertising agencies use to develop your USP. It uses have limited space to convey all the the example of an optician to show features and benefits of a particular how the process can be used. product or service. So, in just a few words, they seek to communicate What it is how the company is different and what ‘USP’ means unique selling proposition. customers can expect when they buy It is one of the basics of effective the product or service. A couple of marketing and business that has examples from a recent daily stood the test of time. newspaper include: 3 Citroen want to draw attention to A USP can help customers by saving the fact that not only do their cars them time when they are considering have new gizmos and gadgets (as buying a product or service. By stating do the other manufacturers’ cars) simply and clearly why your product or but that theirs have been designed service is different, it will stand out with the customer in mind (unlike from the competition. You can use a other manufacturers’): “Technology different USP for every product or as it should be: 100% useful”. service within your range. Alternatively, 3 Olympus cameras want potential you may decide to use a company- purchasers to know that a new related USP, such as high levels of model can do all the things that customer service. a professional would want but without requiring the expertise, Why it is important expense and effort required to set Every business needs a USP for its up and produce quality results: products and services. To stand out in “All the features of a professional today’s crowded market place you must camera without the fuss”. be either BETTER or CHEAPER than your competitors.

www.cim.co.uk  The Chartered Institute of Marketing 2004 10 Minute Guide: Unique Selling Proposition

A thought: if you find that your What you should do customers are switching to competitors Here are some steps to work or buying purely on price through to define a USP for one 3 have you identified the USPs for of your products or services. your products and services? 3 if so, are you communicating 1. Start with the product or service that your USPs clearly to customers? you most want to succeed, has the greatest potential or provides the What you need to know largest contribution to your profits. One of the advantages of USPs is that If you want to identify your most it is a very easy concept to understand. profitable product or service, take a You just need to concentrate on making look at the ‘10- minute 18-20 Rule’ it work for your business. 2. List all the main features of the product or service. Features Before you start to use it, it helps describe what your product or to know: service does. Your list should 3 The features of the product or include features such as quality, service you wish to promote service, delivery, price, and 3 How and why the customer functional or technical uses the product or service characteristics. 3 Features of your competitors’ 3. Convert each feature into one product or service or more benefits. While features describe what your product or You may already have this information service does, a benefit describes from your own experience, from what customer need it fulfils. your sales team or from past market Converting features into benefits is research. If not, call a few customers very important because customers and get their help – most customers buy benefits, not features. are happy to tell you why they bought your product. Make sure that they A simple technique which makes the are representative of all your target task of converting features into benefits customers and encourage them to much easier, is to use the words “which give you an unbiased view. means that…” after stating the feature. Therefore, what the feature “means” to When finances allow, this information the customer is the benefit that they should be verified through market derive from it. If, at the first attempt, research, whether you carry this the result of “which means that…” is out yourself or use outside help. not a specific customer benefit, simply use the words again until it becomes one. Here are some examples for an industrial machine:

Feature …which means that…Benefit

Reliability The machine is available more hours of the working day

Operating speed The machine produces 10% more widgets than comparable machines

Ease of use The machines requires minimal training for operators

www.cim.co.uk  The Chartered Institute of Marketing 2004 10 Minute Guide: Unique Selling Proposition

4. Some benefits will be more What to do now important to the customer than When you have defined a USP for each others. Look down your list of of the products or services you are benefits and rank them in considering, then you should decide priority order. what your message should be and 5. Consider each benefit in turn and how to communicate it to your target indicate whether this benefit is: audience. For more information on 3 standard to all competing planning your marketing suppliers’ products or services (S) communications, take a look at 3 something that is different and the 10-minute Promotional Mix). special to you (D) – these are candidate unique selling Where to find out more propositions. A good way to learn about identifying and using your USPs is to watch 6. If all your benefits are rated 'S', marketing communications from then this indicates that there are no other companies, for example their obvious differences between your advertisements, mail shots and press products or services and those of articles. See if you can spot what your competitors. In this case the company see as their USP and the there are two things you can do: message they are using to communicate 3 Consider how your company with their target audience. scores against your competitors on those benefits that the An example in practice customer considers to be Let us look at the example of a local most important. Look for those optician. benefits where your rating is high and shows the biggest The table shows how the optician has difference between you and identified the features of the service the competition. This analysis (step 2), converted the features into will reveal whether you have benefits that customers will value particular strength that may (step 3), ranked the benefits in order be exploited in a similar of importance (step 4) and identified way to a USP. the benefits as being ‘standard’ or 3 Consider how you could ‘different’ (step 5). develop your product or service features to deliver new customer benefits that are not provided by other suppliers.

7. Repeat this process for all other major products or services.

8. When you have done this, think about your promotional activities.

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Features Customer BenefitImportance Standard or (“which means that…”) (/10) Different

40 minute eye tests Customers can expect a 9 S detailed eye examination

Competitive prices Customers will not pay 9 S more than at comparable local practices

Qualified dispensers Customers get professional 8 S advice on lens options and frame styles

Wide range It is likely that a frame will 8 S of frames be available in the style that you want

Friendly and The practice cares about 7 S personal service its customers

Instant photo Customers can see what 7 D machine they look like in different frame styles

Automatic Customers don’t have to 5 S reminders for remember when they are next eye test next due for an eye test

... which means that …

Customers know that the health of their eyes will be monitored for them at suitable intervals

Note the last feature relating to eye enable the customer to wear their test reminders did not yield a clear own spectacles and see clearly how customer benefit at the first attempt, they look from different angles. so the techniques were reapplied. On the second attempt a clear customer This equipment, and the customer benefit does result. benefit it delivers, therefore provides a USP for the optician. This USP can You can see in this example that only be highlighted in promotional activity, one feature is unique to this optician, and hopefully, as this benefit is the special photo-equipment which important to the customer (7/10), allows the customer to see how they attract new business. look in a small selection of frames and in doing so helps them to make the final choice. This is helpful because display frames have clear lenses, which means that customers with a sight correction and wearing the new frames cannot see themselves clearly in the mirror. These special photographs

www.cim.co.uk  The Chartered Institute of Marketing 2004 10 Minute Guide: Unique Selling Proposition

However, no USP will last forever. Competing opticians may notice that this service is being provided and may experience the loss of customers. In this case, after some time (perhaps two years) all competing practices will provide this service and the service will become a standard offering. The optician therefore needs to go through this process once in a while, particularly after a competitor has launched a new service to catch up or try to get ahead.

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www.cim.co.uk  The Chartered Institute of Marketing 2004