“So, what’s your USP?” No, this is not the latest pickup line or abbreviated word for a text message. What is it then you ask? “USP”, or “unique selling proposition” is quite simply, what makes you different. Well, not you personally, but your business. And without one, you’re just like everyone else.
What’s the first thing you typically hear when you describe your product or service offering to people? I’ll bet you it’s something like “How are you different than XYZ’s business?” In other words, they are asking you why they should buy from you rather than someone else. And if your answer is not compelling enough, they are likely to remain with XYZ’s products.
Put yourself in the shoes of a typical consumer. They stroll the aisles of stores regularly looking for something that stands out from the pack. Perhaps it’s a slick label or special sales price. But whatever it is, it draws them in and gets them to purchase the item. As a small business, you may have the capital to invest in great packaging or the benefit of purchasing in volume so you can offer low prices. However, neither price nor packaging will help you sell if a consumer can’t distinguish why your product or service is better than what they traditionally have purchased.
How do you make yourself stand out and be different from the myriad of similar businesses out there? Simple. Look within. Now before you roll your eyes and think you have to go off to the mountains and meditate to find your business’s USP, hear me out. While you may need to do a little soul searching, trust me, you already know the answer.
Think back to when you wanted to start your business. What were the one or two things that really got you excited? What were the things you were going to do differently than your competitor? And maybe most importantly, what was the one thing that you were going to be sure people knew about? Perhaps it was a unique product you developed or maybe it was a new service offering not yet available in your local area. Either way, the answers to these questions are going to help you formulate your unique selling proposition. Without them, you will likely be differentiated by someone other than yourself, and that is, your competition. And believe me…you do not want your competition telling your potential customers what makes you different!
Let’s look at an example or two to illustrate this principle. A new salon is opening up in your neighborhood. It will offer the typical services you’d expect, like hair styling, nail care and various hair and nail care products. So far nothing to get too excited about, right? Now, let’s say this salon is going to be offering products that are 100% natural and have no chemicals or harmful ingredients. If you are someone who regularly uses natural or organic products, then this salon is going to appeal to you and you are going to want to try it out. Their use of natural products makes them different from the other salons in the neighborhood and will enable them to stand out amongst their competition.
Ok, that example was pretty straightforward. Let’s look at another example, where we have to look a bit harder to uncover the product’s unique selling proposition.
Your best friend is about the best cookie baker you know. She’s been wowing friends and family with her tasty treats for as long as you can remember. People are now coming to her asking her to concoct a cookie for all sorts of occasions. Not only are the cookies delicious, but she decorates them in a variety of themes, like sports and cartoon characters. The cookies are so “real” looking; sometimes you don’t even want to eat them!
Your friend loves to bake cookies and whips up a batch or two every weekend for some occasion, or just to try out a new theme. One day, you and she are chatting over coffee and partaking in her latest cookie creation, when you suggest she ought to start her own cookie business. You describe to her all the reasons why and you are both excited. Why not? Her products are in demand. They are hand-made. She loves to create them. You both think they are unique and “cool”. Sounds good, right? Well…maybe.
I will agree with you on most of the above points (except for the fact that they are “cool” as everyone thinks their own products are “cool.”) All you have to do is browse any cookie aisle in any grocery store and you’ll see a myriad of cookie products. Now, are they hand-made? Probably not. Are they as unique as her cookies? Not likely. Ok, these are big-box grocery stores and of course they are not going to have cookies like your friend’s. So, visit your local bakery or farmer’s market. What are they offering? Hand-made cookies. Hmmm…now things begin to look a little different for your friend. We now have to dig a little deeper to discover the one or two things that will set her apart so that she can either sell her cookies into existing bakeries and restaurants or start her own cookie business.
How to start? The best way is to sit down with pen and paper in hand and begin to document all of the things that she does to create her cookies and why she started creating them in the first place. Does she use special ingredients? Where did the recipe come from? How does she make them? Why does she make them? These and other questions are going to help her figure out what to focus on when she promotes her products to the masses.
Let’s try to help out your friend by answering some of the above questions. You find out that she uses all natural and organic ingredients. In fact, some of her recipes are gluten-free since someone in her family has a gluten allergy and she wanted to create a special treat for them. The colorings she uses to decorate her cookies are free from dyes and artificial colors. Ok, now we’re talking! Not only are her cookies going to appeal to those wanting their foods free from chemicals and preservatives, but they will also appeal to those people who are allergic to gluten and know how difficult it is to find cookies that they can safely eat. Wow!
You and your friend have now discovered three things that are going to make her stand out from her competition. First, her cookies are hand-made. Secondly, they are all-natural and made from organic ingredients. Third, they are gluten-free. With three points of differentiation, she can easily market these to people demanding these types of food products. Additionally, she can offer her cookies to existing bakeries or stores that don’t currently offer this type of cookie product, thereby expanding their product line as well.
Your friend will need to utilize these three points in her marketing. Her packaging must look “natural” in order to convey that her cookies are made from natural ingredients. Soft, earth tones may be best on paper that’s been recycled or made from natural raw materials. Wording on her packaging or other promotional materials must highlight that her products are gluten-free, natural, and contain no artificial dyes. (It’s understood that your friend would need to comply with all governmental regulations for food product advertising.) And lastly, her ability to customize cookie themes is critical to illustrate her uniqueness. Pictures are worth a thousand words to showcase her decorating talents. And with the myriad of friends and family to whom she has been providing her cookies, she will have a boatload of testimonials endorsing her tasty creations.
It may appear that your friend has it made. And she might, for a while. But soon enough there will be another hand-made, custom-decorated, natural, gluten-free cookie baker coming along. Your friend must always be aware of the competition and what they are offering so that she can either re-evaluate her positioning or find new ways of communicating what makes her products so different. It may simply be that her cookie recipe was passed down from her great-grandmother and no one else can claim that point of difference. Think about it. The only thing that really makes Coca-Cola different is its recipe.
If your business is struggling to find its USP, it may be time to re-evaluate your product offering or simply get back to your roots like I spoke of earlier. (See last month’s article: “What’s My Widget, Part 2”.) Take a moment to return to the original mission of your business and see if you can uncover a point or two that can make you stand out from the competition. Remember, it’s not always what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside that sets you apart. And while you may have the best product at the best price, the thing that’s going to make a consumer buy yours is most likely going to be tied to you, its creator.
So, as Oscar Wilde so eloquently stated… “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” When you can clearly communicate what makes your product or service offering different from what’s already in the market, not only will your customers be able to easily pick your product from the shelf, but your competition will have a tougher time competing against you.
Coming next month: “What’s In It for Me?” Learn how to listen to what your customers want and make sure your product/service meets their needs.
Jennifer Covello, MBA, is an award-winning author and owner of Frittabello, LLC, a baby gift business she started in 2008. Her products are available online at www.frittabello.com and in upscale Fairfield County, CT retailers. Ms. Covello facilitates “Put Your Love on Paper” baby journaling workshops (http://www.facebook.com/putyourloveonpaper) as well as small business workshops for moms called “Moms to Mompreneurs”. www.frittabello.com 203.524.0784. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frittabello
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