When you come across some USPs, it comes out: "Oops!".

Typical, no benefits, lackluster, too general.

But the unique selling proposition is the heart of any business. This is what the entire marketing strategy revolves around, which helps you differentiate yourself from competitors and occupy your part of the market.

Let's think of the USP as a core surrounded by hot marketing magma. It moves and mixes positioning, target audience characteristics, competitive information, product or service benefits, and the company's business objectives.

If the core is weak, then the magma spreads, smearing the outlines of the company throughout the sales market. And sooner or later, the boundaries of business are erased, and then disappear altogether.

Here's a metaphor. It’s easier to say this: a strong USP = a strong company.

John Carleton in one of his speeches says that in search of “that same USP” It may take you more than one sleepless night. But the result should be something special that will make your business take its place in the buyer's mind.

To help you in this difficult task, we have collected 8 scenarios, using which you will create your own competitive offer without much loss of time and nerve cells.

Scenario #1: Unique characteristic

If there are a great many analogues of your business on the market, then try to find some unique difference. Either find or create.

What the Twix TM marketers did in this situation: they divided an ordinary chocolate-wafer bar into two sticks. And the entire communication strategy was built on this.

Scenario No. 2. What remains outside the attention of competitors

It is very difficult to come up with something original in a classic business. Then it’s worth looking for what your competitors are missing.

For example, Claude Hopkins once noticed that toothpaste not only cleans teeth, but also removes unpleasant plaque (film). This is how the slogan was born "Gets Rid of Film on Teeth".

And when developing the USP for a beer brand, he noticed that at the factory the bottles are not just washed, but are doused with a powerful jet of steam. Mr. Hopkins brought this workflow (which, in fact, all beer producers use) into the concept - "Our Bottles Are Washed With Live Steam!"

Of course, here you need to immerse yourself in all areas of the business: from production to the work of secretaries and delivery services.

By the way, you probably remember the classic example of Domino’s pizza delivery. It sounds like this: “Delivery in 30 minutes. If we’re late, we’ll give you pizza as a gift.”.

There is a small stratagem in this scenario: the business owner often gets blinded, but an experienced copywriter with the makings of a Maigret detective is able to pull out a hot and fresh USP into the world.

Scenario No. 3. John Carlton Formula

The formula is ideal for service businesses. You don’t even need to come up with anything revolutionary or creative here. Submit your details and get a working USP.

“With the help of ________ (service, product) we help ________ (ca) solve ______ (problem) with ____ (benefit).”

Options:

• With the “Weight Loss” course we will help women put on their favorite bikini by summer.
• The “Be Your Own Copywriter” training will help businessmen save hundreds of dollars on freelance services.
• The “Mary Poppins” service will help mothers calmly go to the gym, cinema and shopping while the baby is under the supervision of an experienced nanny.

The examples are not perfect, but they demonstrate the very principle of working with the Carlton formula. The main thing is that we explain to the target audience what benefits our product or service brings.

Scenario No. 4. Innovation

If the product solves the buyer’s problems in a completely new way, then this must be stated in the USP. AND "…do not be shy"- as Ivan Dorn sings in his hit.

What could it be:

• innovative formula;
• new product;
• new packaging;
• a new format of interaction with the buyer;
• revolutionary delivery method;
• and so on...

• Innovation! The first 3 in 1 roll-on gel Nivea Q10 for wrinkles, dark circles and swelling.
• Vicks - We combine healing ingredients and the smooth taste of lemon tea to relieve 6 cold symptoms.

Scenario No. 5. USP with a problem

You can include your audience’s problem in your unique selling proposition. Those. go not from a description of the service, but from solving a complex problem for a potential buyer.

• Is your tooth aching? Nebolin ointment will relieve pain in 5 minutes.
• Bad mood? Invite a friend for coffee at McDonald's.
• Confused about finding cheap air tickets? Check out our offers from 183 airlines.

Example of a TV commercial:

— Got a cold? Flu? With Aflubin tablets, a noticeable improvement in health occurs much faster. (Translation from Ukrainian).

Scenario No. 6. USP with a bow

This is what we call any advantage that is associated with gifts, bonuses, discounts, guarantees and other consumer goodies.

• Samsung phones have a 5-year warranty. Order dessert and get coffee as a gift.
• Buy 2 pizzas, the third one is free.
• Place an order for 1000 rubles, and our taxi will take you home for free.

This is a successful scenario for a unique offer, but it is unlikely that such a USP will work with the same effectiveness over time. Use this formula for seasonal promotions.

Scenario No. 7. USP with muscles

Here you need to flex the muscles of your business, show all your friends and envious people the strongest sides of your company, product, service.

What could it be:

• low price;
• huge assortment;
• free service;
• products from cool brands;
• support for a bright personality;
• hundreds of awards and diplomas;
• offices throughout the country.

In general, all the characteristics to which you can add the word “most”.

Just declaring your “self” is not enough for USP. We need facts, figures, evidence.

Marketer Andrey Zinkevich - on how to effectively differentiate yourself from competitors

If you open any good book on marketing or attend relevant training, there is a 99% chance that you will come across the term “unique selling proposition.” Why do all marketers talk about the importance of USP? It would seem that the answer is obvious: show the potential client the differences between the product and the benefits of using it, and he will make a purchase. But here lies the main pitfall: how to identify those unique differences and how to present them in the form of benefits? What if your product or service is no different from your competitors? Well-known marketer Andrei Zinkevich spoke about how to formulate a USP.

Andrey Zinkevich, entrepreneur, marketing consultant. Founder of the project . The geography of clients includes 9 countries. More than eight years of experience in sales and marketing at Kimberly Clark and Biosphere Corporation. Author of the booksCustomer pipeline », « Secrets of customer focus" And " Profitable Internet projects ».

Background

Reeves was one of the most prominent students of the famous Claude Hopkins and was an adherent of the “selling” style. He believed that advertising could only have one purpose - sales. Not loyalty, not recognition, not popularization and other terms so beloved by advertisers, but sales!

In his book, Reeves emphasized that the effectiveness of advertising (read: sales) depends on one factor: advertising must instantly capture the attention of a potential client with the help of one, but very strong offer that competitors cannot make; offers that will encourage the recipient of the advertisement to perform a targeted action.

This idea formed the concept that Reeves called the “unique selling proposition.” True, today Reeves’ concept is overgrown with implausible myths; one of them is that now the competition is much stronger and it is almost impossible to find differences between competitive products.

Is it really? Of course not. Look at most well-known brands or companies, they all have a unique selling proposition and stand out because of it.

Let's try to figure out how to highlight the distinctive qualities of your products and services and turn them into a USP.

Step-by-step instructions to create a unique selling proposition

Step one is to determine the most important characteristics for our customers in our products.

The first step in preparing a unique selling proposition is the selection of product characteristics or criteria that influence the client's decision making.

This step is the most important (although it is often simply skipped), since the fate of the USP depends on the selected characteristics: will it really show the benefits of your product or will it compare you “with the rest.”

Therefore, our task at the first stage is to analyze our products or services and determine the ten most important characteristics for clients in each of them. The best way to do this is to ask existing customers what product features are most important to them and what criteria/factors influence their purchasing decision.

If the customer base is too large, then it is advisable to select a sample of the most loyal or most profitable customers and survey them.

If you are launching a new product and there are no clients yet, then you can brainstorm and independently determine the characteristics that are most important to the client. Or survey those who are most likely to become buyers of your product.

After real clients appear, you can repeat the analysis and select characteristics based on real data.

You need to record all responses received from respondents in a separate file.

Step two - filter and rank the received data.

After feedback from clients has been received or brainstorming has been carried out, our task is to select the 10 most important characteristics for the client and rank them in order of importance.

It's not difficult to do. Among all the answers received, we need to select those that are repeated more often than others. The characteristic with the most repetitions will top your list, the rest will be located below it according to the same principle. As a result, we should have a table approximately like this (for example, we will have in mind a hypothetical online store):

Why do I recommend limiting yourself to 10 characteristics? A larger number may simply confuse you and make it difficult to analyze. In most cases, you will notice that the most important characteristics for the client will be no more than 5-7.

Step three - compare ourselves with three main competitors.

The next step is to compare the obtained characteristics of your product with three competitive ones. When conducting such an analysis, you must be as objective as possible: if you are inferior to a competitor in something, be sure to note this.

I recommend rating each selected characteristic or criterion for your product and for each of your competitors on a 10-point scale. For example, in the previous table we determined that the most important factor for a customer is intraday delivery. If we can deliver the product within a few hours after ordering, we can give a rating of 10, if not, we lower the rating. Next, we analyze competitors and note how quickly they are able to organize delivery. The longer the delivery time, the worse the rating for this criterion will be.

Step 4 - choose criteria for USP: what are we stronger at.

Having carried out such an analysis, we get a clear picture: in what characteristics or criteria that are important for the client we are superior to our competitors, and in what areas we are objectively inferior. The criteria by which we dominate and should form the basis of our USP.

Key rule: for each service, product or company as a whole, a separate unique selling proposition is created!

Auxiliary formulas for creating a USP

Now let's figure out how to formulate a unique selling proposition based on the selected characteristics. I suggest using one of three formulas.

Formula one: need + result + guarantees. Using this formula, we guarantee the potential client that we can satisfy his need better than others. Here is an example of a USP based on this formula for our hypothetical online store: “We will deliver your order within a day or return your money!”

This formula is used by my partner Ilya Rabchenko, general director of the SMOpro studio, to create a USP for his services. This is what the unique selling proposition for the service “Attracting subscribers to a group on VKontakte and Odnoklassniki” looks like: “We are guaranteed to attract 1000 targeted subscribers within the first month according to the parameters you set, or we will return your money!”

Formula two: important criterion/characteristic + need. The second formula is based on a combination of characteristics that are important for a potential client and his needs. Some banks use a good example for such a USP:

“We’ll apply for a loan in 5 minutes without proof of income.” Applying for a loan is a need of the target audience. The absence of the need to provide a certificate of income and the speed of loan issuance are important criteria for a potential client that influence his decision.

Formula three: target audience + need + solution. Famous business coach Alex Levitas likes to use this formula. For himself as a consultant, he uses the following unique selling proposition: “I - Alexander Levitas - help owners of small and medium-sized businesses increase their net profit with the help of low-budget and free marketing techniques” . In Alex's USP, the target audience is small and medium-sized business owners. Their need is to increase net profit. The solution Alex proposes is the use of low-budget and free marketing tools (read: the use of guerrilla marketing tools).

False unique selling propositions

I would also like to mention false USPs. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and marketers are guilty of this.

What is a false USP? This is a proposal based on misinterpretation of facts or the use of criteria in the USP that a potential client expects by default.

For example, a dental clinic cannot use the characteristic “professionalism of doctors” as its USP. Why? Because, by default, a potential client expects that you have professional doctors. Otherwise, why would he even contact you?

Second example: using a 14-day money back guarantee as a USP. According to the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”, the buyer already has every right to return the product within 14 days from the date of purchase. Therefore, there is a distortion of facts here.

Test questions to check the USP

After you have worked with the comparative characteristics template and created a unique selling proposition, one question remains: how “workable” is it? Isn't it false?

You can test yourself with the question (your USP should answer it): “Why should I choose your product or service among all the offers available to me?”

The second option is to formulate your USP in the form of a phrase: “Unlike others, we…”.

If both security questions have good answers, then you have truly created a unique selling proposition.

Offers like “the most interesting courses” and “the most useful webinars” have not attracted customers for a long time. To attract your target audience on the Internet, you need to show why you are better than others and why a person should turn to you. Let's figure it out how to create a unique selling proposition, which will hit the client to the heart!

What is USP?

American advertiser Rosser Reeves, author of the M&Ms slogan - “Melt in your mouth, not in your hands” - was sure that advertising should do only one thing - sell. He formulated this idea in the book “Reality in Advertising,” which became a bestseller among marketers around the world. In it, he first outlined the concept of USP in order to forever rid buyers of meaningless words like “most,” “best,” “outstanding.”

A unique selling proposition or USP is what customers will love you for, choosing you over many other companies. According to Reeves, a USP is an advertising message that states your main difference from competitors and the main reason for purchasing a product from you. It is used on banners, in contextual advertising, in mailing lists or on product cards, as well as in the store description on the website.

A well-written USP makes it easy to sell, because the client immediately sees why the offer is right for him. A competent USP allows you to avoid price competition and increases the percentage of repeat purchases.

However, do not forget that if irons from your online store are constantly returned with breakdowns, then no USP will retain dissatisfied customers.

Algorithm for creating a USP?

So, you've decided to create a unique selling proposition to sell your products online. Where to begin?

Step 1. Analyze your strengths

For clarity, make a table and mark in it all the competitive characteristics that your company has: extensive experience, price, qualified employees, etc. Write as many points as you can - indicate specific deadlines, numbers. Now cross out everything that your competitors can offer. As a result, you will receive a squeeze of unique benefits that only your company and your product can boast of. Put them into the basis of your USP.

Analyzing the competitive environment will allow you to find your unique advantages - these are exactly what you need to sell to potential clients.

You'll gain a better understanding of your business if you simply answer these questions:

• What are we doing?
• What are our strengths?
• What are our weak points?
• How are we different from other companies?
• What do your competitors say about themselves?
• Where are our growth areas, what else can be improved?

It is important to answer the questions as objectively as possible. Happened? Go ahead!

Step 2: Determine who you are working for

Imagine that you are going to a close friend's birthday party and you decide to give him a sweater. How will you choose? You will choose the right size, remember his favorite color, and don’t forget that he loves thin woolen fabrics and thigh-length length. Knowing a person well, you will probably give him a truly desired gift. Now imagine that you are congratulating a colleague with whom you work in different offices. It will be difficult to make a choice because you are not familiar with his preferences.

A sincere understanding of who your client is will allow you to offer him exactly what he needs. Therefore, personalize your potential client as much as possible. To get started, answer these questions:

• Is it a man or a woman?
• What age is your buyer?
• What are your hobbies?
• What makes him happy?
• What's troubling?

Supplement your list of questions with topics that are relevant to your business to create a holistic persona.

Are you opening English language courses? Then it is important for you to know how long the potential client has been studying the language and what is his level of Byron language proficiency.

You should end up with a description something like this:

Our client is a housewife, a mother of two children, who loves to cook and previously held a leadership position in a large company. She vacations abroad twice a year, drives a luxury foreign car, enjoys yoga, and is allergic to cats.

The avatar will help to describe the client from three sides: based on the situation, focusing on the psychotype and by belonging to the generation. This way, instead of a soulless target audience, a real person with peculiarities of perception, character and life circumstances will appear.

Now you know exactly who you are offering your product to.

ACCEL residents, founders of the “Happiness Is” school of relationships, Ivan and Maria Lyashenko, collected detailed feedback from their listeners and were able to create an accurate portrait of a potential client. This is how they managed to attract new students and make educational materials more useful for a narrow audience.

Here is what the entrepreneurs themselves say about this: “We have significantly increased the share of educational content, reduced and made the selling part more understandable, and justified the pricing policy. We explain in detail why we offer this product and how it will help the needs of webinar participants.”

Step 3: Tell us how you are willing to help

Switch places with your buyer. What will you pay attention to when choosing: price, guarantees, reliability, appearance? Personally, would you buy what you are trying to sell?

Surely some of your potential clients for some reason go to your competitors. Try to understand what they have that you don’t. Try to highlight the strengths in your USP, work on the “failing” places.

According to Vladimir Thurman, an expert on the commercialization of innovations, the USP should talk about why you, as the owner, decided to start a business. He writes about this in his article “How to increase demand for your products without going to war with competitors.” It's likely that the problem you solved by starting a business is also relevant to other people. The solution found should be emphasized in the USP.

Step 4: Formulate your USP

Now that you have studied your audience, their needs and your competitors, it’s time to formulate your USP.

To compose a not very creative, but working text, you can use the formula of copywriter John Carlton. Substitute your company's data instead of spaces - and your USP is ready:

With the help of _______ (service, product) we help ______ (target audience) solve ____ (problem) with __ (benefit).

For example: With online volleyball training for adults, we will help all women over 18 years old learn to play for the beach season.

You can approach the USP text more creatively. The main rule is to write to the point. General phrases, literary flourishes, approximate and generalized figures leave potential clients indifferent. Do you offer a 26% discount? Talk about exact numbers, not about “huge discounts” and “great deals.”

Here are a few more important points to pay attention to:

• Write simply, as if for a friend. Your proposal should be clear the first time. Leave abstruse phrases and specific terms for scientific papers. The client must understand what he is buying and why.
• Focus on your strengths. Mention in your USP something for which customers should want to come to you and not to your competitors. If your educational center employs doctors of sciences, you should not tell how easy your website navigation is - this will divert attention from the important to the unimportant.
• Keep it short. Your goal is to interest a potential client in a minute. USP is a short message of one to three sentences.

Use our cheat sheet so you don’t forget anything:

• Who might benefit from this product/service?
• What will a person get by becoming your client?
• Why are you better than your competitors and why can’t you buy an analogue of your product?

Mistakes when drawing up USP

You can't lie in your unique selling proposition. If you promised a 50% discount and only gave 25%, the client will feel deceived. You will lose your reputation, and with it your customers.

In addition, you should not include in the USP those benefits that the client receives by default, for example, the ability to return funds within 14 days (this is guaranteed by the law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”). Needless to say, you have “professional masters of their craft.” If this were not the case, would you be able to provide services?

Arguments must be supported by real facts. It’s not enough to say that your service has no analogues on the market - tell us what exactly is unique about your business, give more specifics.

Conclusion: How to check the effectiveness of your USP

So, you have studied your advantages, your competitors, introduced your target audience and prepared the basis for your sales - the USP text. Now check its viability - make sure that:

• Your unique selling proposition will not be able to be used by competitors. They don't provide the same services, use the same materials, or can't compete on price. Only from you will the client be able to obtain these benefits.
• Your USP can be formulated in reverse. For example, an entrepreneur who sells “women's shoes in large sizes” may well imagine that there is a company that sells small shoes. Only such a USP is competitive. And here is an example of a bad USP: “In our club there is only good music.” It's hard to imagine that someone could offer bad music to customers.
• Your USP doesn't look absurd. Clients are unlikely to believe that you can learn English in online school X in 1 hour.
• You have tested your USP on clients. Email different proposals and choose the one that gets the most responses.
• Make sure that your USP is the answer to the question: “Why do I choose this one among all similar offers?”

Drawing up a USP is a painstaking analytical work that will take time. But once you invest time in it, you will end up with long-term access to the hearts of your target audience.

Do you want to create your own online school, produce yourself or your expert? Register now for a free webinar and receive a PDF plan for step-by-step creation of your online school using this

A unique selling proposition (USP) is an outstanding characteristic of a product or brand on which marketers build an advertising campaign; it is usually used for differentiation.

From a consumer's perspective, this is the reason why people should buy from you rather than another seller with a similar product. Why use Slack and not Facebook? Why order pizza from Papa John's when there's Pizza Hut? A clearly formulated offer answers these and similar questions.

How does USP work?

Some companies undoubtedly dominate their field. They are the only ones on the market - because they are huge or so innovative that no one else offers similar solutions. But this situation rarely lasts long.

A value proposition is an opportunity to convey to the customer that no one else is doing what you do. Your brand is extraordinary. Best. It is associated with success, positivity, luck. In short, buy our product, and “everything will be Coca-Cola.”

The USP offers a product or service that is not available through other channels: even from competitors who, at first glance, offer analogues.

The USP connects the brand with what it sells. If you offer a whole list of services, no one will understand what you do. But if you call yourself “the city's premier SEO agency” or “the city's best Americano,” consumers will think of you when they need SEO or a cup of coffee. If you are a web studio or a cafe, your offer is weak because it is not separated from the competition. use the well-known fact that a person needs not a drill, but a hole, and report that a person will drill the required hole only with a drill of a specific brand.

How does the USP differ from the company’s slogan and mission?

A slogan is the essence of a brand's identity and everything it offers. A slogan can contain a USP, and many good examples do. Example from FedEx: “When a package needs to be delivered overnight.” The mission will likely also overlap with the value proposition. But, unlike the mission and slogan, the USP is what distinguishes your company from the rest and attracts consumers. From this grows marketing, sales and all market positioning.

Value propositions are so familiar that we no longer notice them. Every good advertisement contains a clearly stated offer, and most companies achieve success thanks to a successful USP. When all search engines used only keywords, PageRank was Google's unique selling proposition.

What does a good USP look like?

A striking example, which became the basis of an advertising campaign and at the same time a successful slogan, is provided by Avis, a brand that provides car rental services. For many years it held second place to the mighty Hertz. In 1962, on the verge of bankruptcy, Avis took their problem to the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bertzbach, whose employees found a way to turn a negative characteristic - No. 2, not No. 1 - into a positive one.

The problem was this:

Avis is only #2 in the car rental market. So why contact us?
We are trying.
We simply can't afford dirty ashtrays. Or half-empty gas tanks. Or worn out wipers. Or unwashed cars. Or flat tires. Or something smaller than chair back adjusters that actually adjust. Ovens that heat. Anti-icers that prevent windows from freezing.
Most of all we try to be good. Greet you with a new car, such as a four-wheel drive Ford, and a sweet smile. Know, for example, where you can buy a good sandwich in Duluth.
Why?
Because we can't afford to take our customers for granted.
So next time please contact us.
Our queues are shorter too.

From this text, marketers made a value proposition:

Avis is only No. 2 in the car rental market
That's why we try.

They affected clients:

What's important is not the slogan itself, but the fact that it turns a negative characteristic into a positive one and contains a clear, compelling value proposition. Why rent a car from Avis rather than, say, Hertz? After all, a car is a car. But Avis was able to offer better service and a better experience that aligned with consumer values ​​and interests. In the first four years after the slogan was introduced, Avis' market share grew from 11% to 35%. They used it until 2012.

However, this is an old story. What about more modern ones?

The obvious choice is Saddleback Leather Company. They, like Avis, needed to turn a disadvantage into an advantage: they make leather bags, and high-quality leather is expensive. In some cases, it's downright expensive: prices start at $300 and sometimes exceed $1,000. How can you turn this obstacle into a unique selling proposition?

Saddleback Leather offered an incredibly long warranty of 100 years. And they emphasized it with the following words: since the bag will most likely outlive its owner.

In the modern market of goods and services, no one will be surprised by the fact that you are the best. To compete with other companies, you need to be not just the best, but unique. Only then will it be possible to talk about increasing the number of clients. A unique selling proposition is something that marketers of many firms and companies puzzle over. Today we will look at this concept and learn how to create a USP ourselves.

Most importantly

In every business, USP (or unique selling proposition) is the most important thing. No USP, no sales, no profit, no business. It may be a little exaggerated, but in general that’s how it is.

A unique selling proposition (also called an offer, USP or USP) is a distinctive characteristic of a business. At the same time, it doesn’t matter what exactly a person does, there must be a distinctive characteristic. This term implies a difference that competitors do not have. A unique offer gives the client a certain benefit and solves a problem. If the USP does not solve the client’s problem, then it is just an extravagant name - it is memorable, sounds beautiful, but does not greatly affect the conversion level.

A unique selling proposition should be based on the two most important words - “benefit” and “different”. This offer should be so radically different from the competition that no matter what introduction the client takes, he will choose exactly the company that has a worthy USP.

USP and Russia

Before starting the main course, I would like to pay attention to domestic marketing. In Russia, the problem is immediately obvious - everyone wants to be the best, but no one wants to be unique in their own way. This is where the main problem comes from - companies refuse to create unique selling propositions. When they try to outdo a competitor who has created a USP, they end up with something between a fancy phrase and a characteristic of a product or service.

Take, for example, the unique selling proposition that is in the portfolio of some copywriters:

• Best author.
• Ideal texts.
• Master of pen and words, etc.

This is not a USP at all, but rather an example of how not to advertise yourself. Everyone has their own concept of an ideal text, the word “best” can be used if it is confirmed by numerical data and factual characteristics, and it seems that there was only one “master of the pen and word”, Bulgakov. Working USPs look completely different:

• Fast copywriting - any text within 3 hours after payment.
• Each client receives a free consultation on improvement (fill in as required).
• Free pictures for the article from commercial photo stocks, etc.

Here, behind each proposal there is a benefit that the client acquires together with the author. The customer focuses on what he needs in addition to the article: images, consultation or high-quality and fast execution. But you don’t know what to expect from the “best author”. In business, everything works exactly the same.

Varieties

For the first time, American advertiser Rosser Reeves spoke about creating a unique selling proposition. He introduced the concept of USP into use and noted this concept as more effective than advertising odes, which lacked specifics.

He said that a strong sales proposition helps:

• Separate yourself from your competitors.
• Stand out among similar services and products.
• Win the loyalty of the target audience.
• Increase the effectiveness of advertising campaigns by creating effective messages.

It is customary to distinguish between 2 types of trade offers: true and false. The first is based on the actual characteristics of the product, which competitors cannot boast of. A false selling proposition is uniqueness invented. For example, the client is told unusual information about the product or obvious advantages are presented from a different angle. It's kind of a play on words.

Today it is difficult to endow a product with some unique characteristics, so a false USP is being used more and more often.

High-quality trade offer. Main criteria

According to the concept of R. Reeves, the criteria for a high-quality trade offer are:

• A message about the specific benefit that a person will receive by purchasing a company's product.
• The offer is different from all those available in this market segment.
• The message is compelling and the target audience can easily remember it.

In advertising, the unique selling proposition is the basis, so it must fully meet the needs of customers. Each message should convey benefits, value and benefit, but, in addition, a clear argument is needed so that the client clearly understands why he should buy the product he is interested in here and not somewhere else.

Stages

So how do you create a unique selling proposition? If you don’t think too hard, this task seems creative and exciting, and quite easy. But as practice has shown, USP is an example of exclusively rational and analytical work. Coming up with something fancy and passing it off as a unique offer is like looking for a black cat in a dark room. It's impossible to guess which concept will work.

To get a worthy example of a unique selling proposition, you need to do a lot of research: in addition to the market, niche occupied and competitors, study the product itself - from production technology to the watermark on the packaging. Development consists of several stages:

1. Divide the target audience into subgroups according to certain parameters.
2. Determine the needs of each of these groups.
3. Highlight positioning attributes, that is, determine what exactly in the promoted product will help solve the problems of the target audience.
4. Describe the benefits of the product. What will the consumer get if he buys it?
5. Based on the received input data, create a USP.

Scenarios

As you can see, this is a rather painstaking process where it is necessary to use all analytical skills. Only after a full analysis has been completed can you begin to look for a key idea and only then begin to create a sales proposal.

This task can be simplified if you use scripts that have already been tested by time and experience:

1. Focus on unique characteristics.
2. New solution, innovation.
3. Additional services.
4. Turn disadvantages into advantages.
5. Solve the problem of

Uniqueness + innovation

Now a little more about scripts. As for the first scenario, “Uniqueness,” it is suitable only for those products or services that are truly one of a kind and have no competitors. As a last resort, this feature can be created artificially. A unique selling proposition (USP) may be completely unexpected. For example, a company that produces stockings and socks entered the market with an interesting offer - they were selling a set of three socks, and the USP promised to solve the age-old problem of the missing sock.

As for innovation, it is worth declaring a solution to a problem in a new way. For example, “The innovative formula of the air freshener will destroy 99% of germs and fill the room with a fresh aroma.”

"Buns" and disadvantages

The third scenario focuses on additional privileges. If all the products on the market are the same and have almost identical characteristics, then you need to pay attention to additional bonuses that will attract visitors. For example, a pet store might ask customers to adopt kittens or puppies for 2 days to make sure they fit into a family.

You can also turn the shortcomings of the product to your advantage. If milk is stored for only 3 days, then from a practical point of view it is not profitable, and the buyer is unlikely to pay attention to it. Considering this, we can say that it is stored so little because it is 100% natural. The influx of clients is guaranteed.

Solution

But the simplest option is to solve the problems of potential consumers. This can be done using the formula (yes, like in mathematics):

1. Need of the target audience + Result + Guarantee. In advertising, an example of a unique selling proposition might sound like this: “3,000 subscribers in 1 month or we’ll refund your money.”
2. Target audience + Problem + Solution. “We help new copywriters find clients using proven marketing strategies.”
3. Unique characteristic + Need. “Exclusive jewelry will emphasize the exclusivity of style.”
4. Product + Target Audience + Problem + Benefit. “With audio lessons “Polyglot” you can learn any language at a conversational level in just a month and without a doubt go to the country of your dreams.”

Unspecified points

For the USP to work, you need to pay attention to a few more nuances during its creation. First, the problem that the product solves must be recognized by the customer and he must want to solve it. Of course, you can offer a spray against “brain-snatchers” (isn’t that a problem?!), but the buyer will spend much more actively on a regular cream against mosquitoes and ticks.

Secondly, the proposed solution must be better than what the target audience used before. And thirdly, each client must measure, feel and evaluate the result.

When creating a USP, it is most rational to take Ogilvy’s advice. He worked in advertising for many years and knows exactly how to look for a USP. In his book On Advertising, he mentioned the following: great ideas come from the subconscious, so it must be filled with information. Fill your brain to the limit with everything that can relate to the product and switch off for a while. A brilliant idea will come at the most unexpected moment.

Of course, the article has already mentioned analytics, but this advice does not contradict what has already been proposed. It often happens that after carrying out hundreds of analytical processes, a marketer cannot find a single and unique link that will promote a product on the market. It is at such moments, when the brain processes information, that you need to step away from reality. As practice shows, very soon a person will see that elusive USP that was on the very surface.

It is also very important to pay attention to those small nuances that competitors miss. At one time, Claude Hopkins noticed that toothpaste not only cleans teeth, but also removes plaque. This is how the first slogan appeared in the advertising community that toothpaste removes plaque.

And there is no need to be afraid to take non-standard approaches to solving a problem. Marketers of TM “Twix” simply divided the chocolate bar into two sticks and, as they say, away we go.

Protecting the idea

A unique selling proposition does not appear in marketers' heads out of nowhere. This is the result of long, focused and hard work, which, by the way, competitors can also use.

A few decades ago, intellectual property was inextricably linked to its owner. That is, if one company introduced a successful USP, the other did not even look in the direction of this advertising. Today, things have changed somewhat: managers can simply use their competitors' ideas for their own purposes.

Therefore, there was a need to create patents. These are documents that confirm the owner’s right to the exclusive use of the results of his activities. Inventions here mean products or methods that solve a specific problem. In turn, the “unique selling proposition” itself is a powerful incentive for innovation. The subject of advertising here is an advantage unnoticed by competitors, but realized by customers. Patent protection for unique selling propositions is practically undeveloped in our country, but in more developed societies, every advertising campaign is protected from plagiarism.

Thus, to achieve success, you need to be a unique, one-of-a-kind supplier of in-demand products that are available in every store, but the best in this company.