Do you want to create a killer USP and speed up your business?

As of 2013, there are about 10 billion brands registered in the world. And each of them wants you to be their client. Everyone is trying to sell something. How to remember them, how to distinguish between them?

Each of your potential customers faces such a problem. In every niche, whatever it is: selling car parts; production of building materials; beauty salons and hairdressers; private hospitals and so on and so forth, many different companies operate. And each offers identical or nearly identical goods or services. How to choose? How to distinguish? Who to contact? How to remember if you have almost decided?

Every company, no matter how big or small (especially!) needs to stand out from the competition. The logo and is only half the battle. You need to come up with some unique, special offer that will set you apart from the general background and help you shout to the client in the general noise.

Here's how to come up with and compose your unique selling proposition, or USP, and will be discussed in this article.

What is USP and how it is used in marketing and sales

A USP is a unique selling proposition. It implies some special characteristic of a brand or product, which is presented as an advantage or additional benefit for the client. USP is used by marketers when developing an advertising campaign - it is often built on this particular feature in order to distinguish a company from its own kind in the market.

This concept was introduced as such by the American advertising specialist Rosser Reeves. He developed this concept as an alternative to the eulogies in advertising, which ordinary consumers simply stopped believing. According to his concept, USP should:

• translate real benefits for the client;
• increase the loyalty of the target audience to;
• be unique, special, one of a kind on the market.

If you peep a feature from a competitor and present it with your own sauce, it will not be a strong USP. It will be just a stolen idea, an imitation.

It seems to have a unique selling proposition, but 9 out of 10 competitors have the same

The USP is the reason consumers should choose you. And every company needs it. Only those who launch a new, innovative, revolutionary product, which simply has no analogues, can do without a USP. In this case, this very product is a unique offer.

In all other cases, tune in or die, to paraphrase a classic.

Why business USP?

• to stand out from competitors;
• to win the appreciation of the target audience;
• to create strong promotional materials () and work out a marketing strategy;
• to make your product stand out from the crowd.

Distinguish between true and false USP. The real thing is the real unique characteristics of the product that no one else has on the market in this niche. It's what's in the product itself. False benefits are made-up benefits, in the absence of a true difference. This is what and how it is said about this product. And in most cases, entrepreneurs resort to such USPs. But what if you offer the same product and service as the rest? If you have not invented something unique, some kind of exclusive product, you have to turn your head on and think carefully about how you can hook customers.

Detachment from competitors is the key to the success of an advertising company. A unique offer should clearly indicate the benefits for customers, on which the message will be built, which will later be broadcast in advertising, on social networks and other promotional materials.

How to create a unique selling proposition

Many business owners think that writing a USP is easy. The two obvious paths they take are:

"We have the lowest prices!"

Price races are a dubious advantage for two reasons. First, there will always be someone who is cheaper. The second is that by low prices you attract the appropriate contingent of customers - insolvent and overly economical, to say the least.

"We have a quality service!"

In fact, the concept of quality is completely different for everyone. And you can not always guarantee this very service - the human factor plays a lot. But even if so, you really work in good conscience, it is this phrase “quality services”, “best service” that set the teeth on edge so that they simply fly past your ears.

If you are just starting out, yes, for quick sales you can still somehow beat these two trump cards as part of some kind of promotion. For example, the lowest price. But if you want to build a strong brand for a long time, you need to take the development of the USP seriously.

In general, any unique selling proposition is built on three fundamental principles.

1. Advertising message must convey a specific benefit to the consumer. That's right, you need to submit a USP not in the light of your advantages, but in terms of benefits for the client. He is not so interested in Italian wallpaper in itself, as in the sight of his room, pasted over with this wallpaper. So sell him a beautiful repair, easy maintenance of wallpaper that is washable and does not fade, and not the wallpaper itself. But this is all of the above, he can get only by buying these very wallpapers from you.

Only if it is profitable to cooperate with you, customers will choose your company.

2. Customer benefit must be unique compared to other products similar to yours. Everything is clear here - this principle is embedded in the definition itself. Want to be different? Come up with something that your competitors don't have. Only by being different, only by offering something that no one else offers, can you be different from everyone else. As a result, your product will be chosen (if the benefit is well described) and remembered.

3. The benefit must be significant, that is, attractive enough so that the client can make a choice in favor of your product without much thought. Benefits must be reasoned, and not invented or sucked from the finger. That is why you should perfectly study your target audience, know your customers, their pains and based on this.

When you know what problems your customers have, you can offer them a solution in the form of this unique benefit.

Examples of compiling USP

You can often find USPs that absolutely do not play into the hands of the business: they are too general and do not attract attention.

How to create such an offer that will become the heart and engine of your business success?

1. Tell something that your competitors are silent about.

If there are hundreds of businesses like yours, it is very difficult to find something truly unique. But maybe there is something that your customers are simply silent about?

Such a case was in my practice. The company is engaged in the production of granite monuments. For clients, a service is offered “by default” - the development of a 3D model of a future product, and free of charge. Other companies also provide this service, but they are modestly silent about it. We did not become silent. The benefit of seeing a full-fledged three-dimensional image of the future monument works well for many of the company's clients.

And chewing gum, "Orbit", which is sugar-free? Read the composition of other similar rubber bands - it is identical. And no sugar too. But Orbit presents it as a USP.

2. Point out novelty or innovation

If you've invented a new way to solve a customer's problem, or updated your product, or added some new ingredient to it, don't be silent. You need to do your USP, and quickly, before someone else does it before you.

Think of an advertisement for any new shampoo or cream. Either they came up with a new formula, then they added keratin, then some kind of l-lipids, which no one had heard anything about, but if you believe the advertisement, shampoo makes hair stronger. And the cream just smooths out wrinkles for one or two. All thanks to the INNOVATIVE formula. Get armed.

3. Formula John Carlton

Using this formula, it is very easy to make a USP, especially if you provide services. The formula is built like this:

The product ___ helps ___ to solve a problem ___ indicate the benefit.

For example:

The new cream will help women overcome the first wrinkles and look younger.

Marketer Andrey Zinkevich - on how to effectively stand out from competitors

If you open any good marketing book or attend a related training, you are 99% likely to 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 customer the differences of the product and the benefits of using it, and he will make a purchase. But here is the main pitfall: how to identify those very unique differences and how to present them in the form of benefits? What if your product or service is no different from the competition? Andrey Zinkevich, a well-known marketer, spoke about how to formulate a USP.

Andrei Zinkevich, Entrepreneur, Marketing Consultant. Project Founder . The geography of clients includes 9 countries of the world. Over eight years of sales and marketing experience with Kimberly Clark and Biosphere Corporation. Author of the booksCustomer pipeline », « Secrets of customer focus" and " Profitable Internet projects ».

Background

Reeves was one of the brightest students of the famous Claude Hopkins and was an adherent of the "selling" style. He believed that advertising can have only 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 one but very strong offer that competitors cannot make; an offer that will encourage the recipient of the advertisement to perform the targeted action.

This idea formed the basis of the concept that Reeves called the "unique selling proposition." True, today the concept of Reeves has acquired 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 due to 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 for creating a unique selling proposition

The first step 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 decision of the client.

This step is the most important (although it is often skipped), as the characteristics chosen determine the fate of the USP: whether it really shows the benefits of your product or compares 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 customers for 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 take a sample of the most loyal or most profitable customers and interview them.

If you are launching a new product and there are no customers yet, then you can brainstorm and independently determine the most important characteristics for the client. Or interview those who are most likely to become a buyer of your product.

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

All responses received from respondents you need to enter in a separate file.

The second step is to filter and rank the received data.

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

It is not difficult to do this. Among all the answers received, we need to choose those that are repeated more often than others. The characteristic with the most repetitions will head your list, the rest will be located below it in the same way. As a result, we should get something like this table (for example, we will mean a hypothetical online store):

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

Step three - compare yourself with the 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 should be as objective as possible: if you are inferior in something to a competitor, be sure to mark it.

I recommend scoring on a scale of 1 to 10 each selected feature or criterion for your product, and for each of your competitors. For example, in the previous table, we determined that the most important factor for a customer is delivery within a day. If we can deliver the product within a few hours after the order, we can give a score of 10, if not, we lower the score. Next, we analyze competitors and note how quickly they are able to arrange delivery. The longer the delivery time, the worse the score for this criterion.

Step 4 - choose the criteria for the USP: where we are stronger.

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 competitors, and in what 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 USP

Now let's see how you can 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 to 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 refund your money!"

This formula is used by my partner Ilya Rabchenok, the CEO of the SMOpro studio, to create a USP for his services. This is how the unique selling proposition for the service “Attracting subscribers to a group on Vkontakte” and “Odnoklassniki” looks like: “Guaranteed to attract 1000 targeted subscribers within the first month according to the parameters you set, or we will return the 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. A good example for such a USP is used by some banks:

“We will issue a loan in 5 minutes without a certificate of income.” Making a loan is the need of the target audience. The absence of the need to provide a certificate of income and the speed of issuing a loan 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 moves" . In Alexa's USP, the target audience is the owners of small and medium-sized businesses. Their need is to increase net profit. Alex's solution is to use low-budget and free marketing tools (read, use guerrilla marketing tools).

False unique selling propositions

Separately, I want to mention false USPs. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and marketers sin with this.

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

For example, a dental clinic cannot use the characteristic "professionalism of doctors" as a USP. Why? Because, by default, a potential client expects you to have professional doctors. Otherwise, why would he contact you at all?

The second example is using a 14-day money-back guarantee as a USP. According to the law "On the Protection of Consumer Rights", the buyer already has the full right to return the product within 14 days from the date of purchase. Therefore, there is a distortion of facts here.

Control questions for checking USP

Once you've worked through the comparative specs template and come up with a unique selling proposition, one question remains: how does it "work"? 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 indeed created a unique selling proposition.

Hello dear readers. Today we will talk about a very important component of any business, which 90% always forget about. This is a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). This is the foundation of the basics, this is what any business project should start with, this is what distinguishes you from competitors, what pushes your business up or, on the contrary, drags you down. We will talk about what a USP is and how to form it for your business in this article.

This article will give you an idea of ​​how to accurately solve a client's problem, turn his desire into reality and persuade him to make a purchase from you.

What is a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

A USP is a definition of the features of your business that are unique in their own way to your product or service. In addition, these properties are the distinctive features of your product, and, of course, are not available from competitors. This is what fundamentally distinguishes you from competitors, shows your strengths and solves the problem of potential customers.

Why a business needs to start with the development of a USP

Let's take online shopping as an example (if this is closest to me). The vast majority of modern online stores, even at the beginning of their work, try to master everything at once. As a rule, their principle of work is to become famous for excellent quality, affordable prices, instant delivery of goods, polite couriers, a high level of service quality, as well as a long warranty period. But that's not all.

But often it turns out that trying to cover a lot of things, you can not cover anything.

I already brought him up. For example, you have an Audi car. Something is broken and your car needs to be repaired. You find 2 auto-services: a car service that repairs many brands of cars and a car service that specializes specifically in the Audi brand. In favor of which of the above options would you still make your choice?

Of course, the right decision will be the service station that specializes in the Audi brand.

But not everything is so simple, there are exceptions. The first company may also have vast experience in servicing your car and will cope with the task quickly and efficiently. But, if you conduct a survey, then the majority will obviously be for the service station, which specializes in a separate brand.

What conclusion can be drawn from this? When developing your USP, you need to cover only a piece of the market, but cover it 100%. For example, not to sell children's clothes, but clothes for newborns. Many examples can be cited. The main thing is to convey the essence. Start with a narrower niche, become a leader in it, and only then expand.

How to create your own USP

An algorithm consisting of just five steps will help you create your USP, which will become your calling card for every potential buyer.

Describe and rate your audience

Before starting a business, decide who your potential audience is. Try to think more narrowly and then you will hit right on target. For example, if you want to open a pet food store, consider only reaching out to cat owners or dog owners. You do not need to initially cover ALL animals. Believe me, if you have great service and a large assortment of dog food, then you will have enough customers in the face of dog breeders. Because of the diversity in the choice and focus on them, all dog breeders will be yours.

Find customer issues

Try to put yourself in your client's shoes. What problems might he have? When we opened the handbag store, we immediately realized that among women, the majority of customers would be women with small children. And we were not wrong. When delivering the goods, very often we were thanked for the delivery, because you can’t go shopping and leave a small child alone. We also understood that we would often need to deliver goods to the place of work, because not everyone has time to go shopping after work. We also brought goods up to 10 pieces to choose from, because we knew that the choice in this case is very important and this is one of the problems of a client who orders in an online store without seeing the thing and without touching it with his own hands.

Highlight your most important qualities

This step involves finding and describing 3-5 characteristic qualities that will help the client choose you, and not a competitor. It is important to convey to the audience that all these bonuses can only be obtained by working with you! What advantages do you have, not your competitors?

Think like your consumer. What benefits matter most to your customers? How do they solve their problem? Also compare your offer with that of competitors. Whose benefits are more enticing?

What guarantees can you give

This is a very important element of the USP. You must give people a guarantee for your services and products. But not just a guarantee, but a guarantee of the “I answer with my head” type. Examples:

“Our courier will deliver your order in no more than 25 minutes. Otherwise, you will get it for free!”

- "If our method of losing weight does not help you, we will return 2 times more money than you paid for it."

If you are not confident in your products and services yourself, then customers will not be confident.

We compose USP

Now collect everything that you got from the first 4 points and try to fit it all into 1-2 small sentences. Yes, it is possible that this will take a lot of thought for a long time, but it's worth it! After all, it is this offer, as a rule, that is the first thing that catches the eye of a client who has visited your site or seen your advertisement.

What is the key to a successful USP?

1. USP should be clear and concise;
2. Don't complicate it, it will make it harder for customers to understand;
3. Promise only what you can deliver;
4. Put yourself in the place of the client and evaluate everything from his side.

Just don't rush into it. Give the USP a few days. Believe me, it's worth it. Then it will be easier for you to make advertising, you will be more confident to move on.

If your goal is to create a successful and profitable business, don't try to chase every product and service in your niche. Narrow it down as much as possible. In addition, try to do everything qualitatively. This will allow you to earn a good reputation, earn positive reviews from satisfied customers, and also stand out from your competitors.

Unique Selling Proposition Examples

Below we will analyze the USPs that are common and make an adjustment. The result will be more targeted and tempting.

"We have the lowest prices!"

Is this a UTP? Yes, prices are important, but anyone can write like that. By including a guarantee, you can get a much cooler USP. As the M-Video store did: “If you find a price lower than ours, we will sell at this price and give a discount on the next purchase.” That's what I understand by UTP. I myself used this 1 time, throwing off a link to a product in another online store and receiving a product in M-Video for this amount, as well as a coupon for a discount of 1000 rubles. for your next purchase.

“We have the highest level of quality!”

Also blah blah blah. “If our simulator did not help you, then we will refund you 2 of its cost.” Here's how you can not buy, reading such lines?

“Exclusive only with us!”

It’s more complicated here, but since you write this, then confirm with a guarantee. "If you find this product elsewhere, show us and get a gift with your purchase."

“We have the best service and support”

Well, what is it? Another thing: "If we do not deliver in 40 minutes, then you will receive the order for free." Or an example from Virgin Airlines: "If our operator does not answer within 10 seconds, you will receive a free flight." This is what I mean by SERVICE!

Conclusion

I think that this article turned out to be as detailed as possible and you can create a USP for your business based on it. If you have any questions, ask in the comments. But just don’t ask to create a USP for you or give an example specifically for your business. This is not a quick process and I will not just sit and brainstorm. You are the founder of your business and it is YOU who should come up with the USP.

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

What is a UTP?

American advertiser Rosser Reeves, author of the M&Ms slogan - "Melting in your mouth, not in your hands" - was sure that advertising should do only one thing - to 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 “the best”, “best”, “outstanding”.

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

A well-written USP makes it easy to sell, because the client immediately sees why the offer is right for him. A good USP avoids price competition and increases repeat purchases.

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

Algorithm for creating 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 dates, numbers. Now cross out everything that your competitors have to offer. As a result, you will get a squeeze of unique benefits that only your company and your product can boast. Put them at the heart of your USP.

Analysis of the competitive environment will allow you to find your unique advantages - that's what you need to sell to potential customers.

You will 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 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? Move on!

Step 2: Determine who you are working for

Imagine that you are going to a close friend's birthday party and decide to give him a sweater. How will you choose? You will choose the right size, remember his favorite color, do not forget that he loves thin woolen fabrics and thigh length. Knowing a person well, you will surely give him a really 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 addictions.

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

• Is this a man or a woman?
• What is the age of your buyer?
• What is he interested in?
• What pleases him?
• What worries?

Complete the list of questions with topics that are relevant to your business so that you have a holistic character in front of you.

Do you offer English 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 like this:

Our client is a housewife, mother of two who loves to cook and previously held a management position in a large company. She rests 2 times a year abroad, drives a luxury foreign car, is fond of 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 belonging to the generation. So 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 Relations Ivan and Maria Lyashenko collected detailed feedback from their listeners and were able to draw up an accurate portrait of a potential client. So they managed to attract new students and make training 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 attendees.”

Step 3: Tell us how you're willing to help

Swap places with your buyer. What do you pay attention to when choosing: price, guarantees, reliability, appearance? Would you personally buy what you are trying to sell?

Surely some of your potential customers for some reason go to competitors. Try to understand what they have, but you don't. Try to emphasize the strengths in your USP, work on "failing" places.

According to Vladimir Turman, an expert on the commercialization of innovations, in the USP it is worth talking 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 is likely that your problem, which you solved by starting a business, is also relevant for other people. The found solution should be emphasized in the USP.

Step 4: Formulate a USP

Now that you've studied your audience, their needs, and your competitors, it's time to formulate a USP.

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

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

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

The text of the USP can be approached more creatively. The main rule - write to the point. Common phrases, literary prettiness, approximate and generalized figures leave potential customers indifferent. Do you provide a 26% discount? Talk about exact numbers, not about "huge discounts" and "great deals."

Here are a few other important things to keep in mind:

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

Use our cheat sheet in order not to forget anything:

• Who can 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 in compiling USP

You can't lie about your unique selling proposition. If you promised a 50% discount and gave only 25%, the customer will feel cheated. 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 Consumer Protection Law). Needless to say, that 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 is not enough to say that your service has no analogues on the market - tell us what is unique in your business, give more specifics.

Conclusion: How to test the effectiveness of your USP

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

• Your unique selling proposition cannot be used by competitors. They don't provide the same services, don't use the same materials, or can't compete on price. Only with you the client will be able to get 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: “There is only good music in our club.” It's hard to imagine that someone can offer customers bad music.
• Your USP does not look absurd. It is unlikely that customers will believe that in the X online school you can learn English in 1 hour.
• You have tested your USP on clients. Submit different proposals by mail and choose the one that will collect the most responses.
• Make sure that your USP is the answer to the question: “Why, among all similar offers, do I choose this one?”.

Drafting 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 step-by-step PDF plan for creating your online school using this

• How to understand which product characteristics to emphasize in a unique selling proposition
• Creating a unique selling proposition: how often to update the USP
• Examples of a unique selling proposition: what to base on if the products are no different from competitors' offers

Unique selling proposition so far it has to be considered a rather young phenomenon that has been used in Russian business since the early 2000s, when brands began to enter the market.

We have to admit that with a lot of talk about this issue, few are really involved in the development of the USP. Most companies in Russia do not have a clear understanding of their target audience, as a result they are focused on everyone.

How often does a manager need to deal with the company's strategy or change it? Most CEOs who have created successful businesses and management consultants agree on one thing: in modern times, all the time. A change in strategy is not an indicator of weakness, but, on the contrary, an indicator of the company's vitality.

In this article, we have collected four types of strategic approaches, their examples, as well as templates and tables for defining a company's strategy.

Without the ability to distinguish itself from its competitors, without the ability to highlight the features of its offer to customers, the company will be forced to limit itself to a rather modest flow of buyers and sales.

Algorithm for developing the right USP

First step. Collection of primary information. You should draw up a table that will indicate the characteristics of the products and the competitive advantages for the client that he receives through cooperation with your company. Experience confirms that the more written, the better. It will be possible to write 15 competitive characteristics - excellent, 20 - even better. At the same time, all benefits and advantages for customers, albeit insignificant, should be described. After specifying your advantages, you should cross out those benefits that your competitors can offer. Our goal is to find and offer competitors the advantages that only we have.

Second step. Checking the relevance of benefits.

1. Search engine statistics. You should test each of the selected benefits with a search query to understand how often potential customers try to find a solution to a similar problem.
2. Feedback cards. For loyal customers, you can offer to fill out feedback cards, highlighting the most important benefits.
3. Open question. If it is not possible to achieve clear results by comparing their advantages with the benefits offered by competitors, sales staff and marketers should be instructed to ask loyal customers the question - “Why do you choose to work with us?”. Quite a variety of answers can come out of the output, but the most common ones can be used for your USP.
4. Sales analysis. This method was used to compile a unique selling proposition for a garment factory. The head of the sales department noted the high demand for plus size women's clothing and plus size clothing compared to other items in the company's assortment. This information formed the basis of a unique trade offer: “Clothes for obese women. Our dresses, thanks to a special cut, allow you to hide the fullness and emphasize the beauty of the figure - all your femininity. This text was chosen for the advertisement when published in newspapers, magazines and other media. Over time, it was possible to confirm the excellent dynamics of the overall increase in the number of sales.

Third step. USP testing.

1. Divide your clients into groups randomly, sending different types of messages for each group.
2. Placement of contextual advertising based on various types of unique selling proposition. The USP option becomes the main one, which helped to achieve the maximum number of responses.

3 conditions for creating a unique selling proposition

To form a unique selling proposition, three conditions must be taken into account:

The first condition is to emphasize the uniqueness of your product. Quite a difficult question for many. In particular, how to emphasize the uniqueness of a standard washing powder? But in reality, there are many characteristics of your product that can be noted, attracting the attention of the target audience - including:

1. Useful additional service. "Buyers of goods for any amount are provided with free delivery within the city." Or jewelry stores offer to “enter each date into the database so that the buyer does not forget to congratulate his beloved.”
2. Polite and diligent staff. Probably, many have met such ads - “we will wash the car in 20 minutes or return your money”, “only polite and sober movers”.
3. Narrow specialization - "shop of elite alcoholic drinks" or "rock-karaoke bar".
4. Orientation of the company to a specific category of customers. "Toy store for girls".
5. Leading positions in the market. "The largest selection of automotive parts in town." At the same time, it is important that the statement in the USP is true - in order to avoid negative consequences for the company's reputation.
6. Elitism - for example, a commercial photographer in his USP may indicate "shooting in luxurious interiors with expensive items."
7. High result. "85 of our students are employed within 3 months."
8. Providing customers with guarantees. Including a refund or free service for a certain period. In any case, there will be returns, but for the most part they turn out to be isolated cases. If there is no way to keep this promise, it is better to change your unique selling proposition.
9. Ask what your customers need. In particular, you can think about a survey, or a study on finding the most interesting USP for the target audience is suitable.
10. The USP should not be directed at the users themselves, but at the decision makers.
11. Compare your services or products with competitors. For example, one of the washing powders gained its fame thanks to the motto "If there is no difference, then why pay more?".
12. Keep the cost to a negligible amount. For example, “advertising in our newspaper - 600 rubles. per month. Advertisements are published three times a week - 12 times a month. Therefore, one publication will cost only 50 rubles. 20,000 subscribers will be able to see this ad, so pay only 0.25 kopecks for each client.”
13. Express the cost in non-financial terms. In particular, one of the coupon services sends offers to its customers - “give your beloved a festive bouquet of roses, a romantic evening and two movie tickets for the price of a tank of gasoline.”

False unique selling propositions

1. Obvious promises. "If you do not like the product, we promise to return the money for the purchase within 14 days." But such a promise cannot be considered a unique selling proposition, because it is a mandatory requirement under the law "On the Protection of Consumer Rights".
2. Invented advantage. Among the most striking examples are “cholesterol-free vegetable oil” (cholesterol can only be found in animal fats) and “non-GMO salt”.
3. Opposition based on a play on words. "Smoke Cool - Avoid hot cigarettes." Cool cigarettes are opposed to other brands and allegedly differ in temperature characteristics. It's just that in the slogan the main emphasis is on the play on words ( English cool - "cool, cool").

The second condition is that the client must understand his own benefit. The properties specified in the unique selling proposition must meet the needs of the buyer. You need to clearly show what benefit the client will receive, noting other important qualities:

1. Saving washing powder. It rinses out easier, does not harm the skin.
2. More washes for the same price.
3. Compact sills are environmentally friendly, reducing environmental impact.

The complex of advantages, if not limited to only one benefit, allows you to interest a wider target audience - those who want to save money, those who care about the skin, and those who are worried about the environmental situation in the world.

• Commercial offer: samples and examples. 16 killers and boosters everyone needs to know

CEO speaking

Evgeny Panteleev, General Director of the cosmetic association "Freedom", Moscow

Our company is launching a new line of cosmetic products this year. The USP includes the principle of the ratio of quality and price - the product is presented in the mass market price category, and in terms of characteristics and composition it is more reminiscent of the products of the world's leading brands. Let us consider in more detail how such a USP of our cosmetic products appeared.

The company celebrated its 170th anniversary in 2013, and in preparation for such a significant date, it decided to send employees to participate in the major French exhibition In-Cosmetics. There we managed to meet the heirs of the founder of our company, many hereditary perfumers. They introduced us to many representatives of French laboratories that specialize in new areas in the field of cosmetology, and helped us a lot in organizing negotiations. We were particularly interested in the developments of the Soliance laboratory - its representatives offered us exclusive conditions for the supply of a component with a unique rejuvenating effect (hyaluronic acid microsphere). The use of this component for leading cosmetic products is already envisaged, including in the assortment of the famous world brands YvesRocher, L'Oreal and Clarins.

In addition to the exclusive right to use this microsphere for our cosmetic line, we also managed to count on comprehensive methodological support from business partners from France. They assisted in the formation of new SKUs, the research center of our company also created its own recipes. This approach allowed us to provide the first USP - the high quality of our products. There were also additional arguments in favor of our line - the results of testing the quality of competitors' products, which we organized in the research center. According to the results of the last study, it was possible to confirm that our product is not inferior in its properties to more expensive analogues.

The second component deserves special attention - the cost. In the matter of price, our USP has a certain “immunity”. Since we received an exclusive opportunity from the French developer to use his know-how - the hyaluronic acid microsphere. Therefore, it is unlikely that any of the Russian manufacturers will be able to compare with our prices, and foreign analogues are much more expensive.

Alexey Pyrin, General Director, Artisifood, Moscow

We are engaged not only in production, but also in the sale of fish and seafood. We make the main bet in our activities on the b2b sector. As a rule, wholesale suppliers of food products do not have a well-known, recognizable brand, so it is really difficult to stand out from the background of their competitors. They decided to take the factor of an extensive assortment as the basis for promoting their services. The vast majority of companies offer a little bit of everything, they cannot deliver rare products. We managed to significantly expand the range of our services - about 200 types of seafood and fish, while informing customers about various unusual products. Therefore, we managed to surpass our competitors in terms of USP margin by 8-10%.

The third condition is the significance of the promised benefit. We only have ten seconds to interest a potential client. Therefore, with a more significant problem that we propose to solve to the client, with the most understandable and accessible wording of your proposal, it will be possible to make the brand more recognizable and well-known for potential customers. This rule is relevant almost everywhere - only complex equipment becomes an exception (as a rule, consumers analyze and compare characteristics in advance).

In the FMCG market, the most significant property should be determined, which will be fixed in the unique selling proposition and on the packaging. In particular, the pleasant aroma of the product can be noted on the packaging. This property over time has already begun to be taken for granted, so we moved on to “effective stain removal”. The heroes of our commercials could get very dirty, but no amount of dirt could withstand the effects of a powerful powder. As a result, we managed to achieve sales growth of more than 5 times within five years.

• Private label products: what buyers are willing to give their money for

Is Your Product's Unique Selling Proposition Effective: Three Parameters to Check

Ilya Piskulin, Director of Love marketing agency, Moscow

Try, for example, creating an "antonym" for your unique selling proposition.

1. Your unique selling proposition cannot be used by competitors

If competitors repeat your offer, they will deceive the client. Somehow in my practice there was a case. One of our companies started producing windows with a ventilation system. A competing firm said their windows are also ventilated. We sent a mystery shopper to them and found out that we are talking about valve ventilation, which works only at positive temperatures and is not installed in Russia. The company also knew about this and therefore immediately warned customers that it was not worth buying windows with ventilation. That is, the company attracted customers by the fact that it was not going to sell. Of course, the buyers were disappointed. There was no other competitor on the market who could repeat our USP and at the same time keep the promise.

USP examples. The restaurant is the only one in the area that cooks dishes on the grill or serves a business lunch in 20 minutes. The window manufacturing company is the only one among its kind that makes metal siding under a log. Production of road paint that glows in the dark. A development company can offer a lake on the territory of a holiday village or an already operating gas supply system in a new house.

If competitors repeat your offer, they will violate their positioning. Once I watched the death of a grill bar. At first, he positioned himself as an extreme bar, but unexpectedly announced that he was starting to hold children's matinees on Sundays. The regulars were at a loss, and new customers (young mothers with children) did not dare to go to an incomprehensible institution. It is important that the USP reflects exactly your positioning and does not suit your closest competitors.

USP examples. If BMW announced that it had produced the safest car, it would cause bewilderment of motorists (safety is a familiar attribute of Volvo). The announcement that the Chanson radio festival will take place in the Gipsy nightclub will also sound strange.

2. You can build a reverse USP without it being absurd.

Often, instead of USP, people say things for granted about high quality, great prices and a wide range. In my practice, there was a company that publicly declared that it had the most expensive apartments in the city. Sales were excellent (I note that this was before the crisis). At the same time, another company was operating on the market, which claimed to have the cheapest apartments. And they sold well too. Both USPs sounded good and worked. If the USP does not have a working "antonym", then it will not be very effective. So, in my practice there was a cottage village that sold the largest plots, measured in hectares. Unfortunately, there was no company on the market that sold the smallest plots, for example, 10 acres, because no one needs them anymore. Sales were neither shaky nor fluctuating ... You should not write in the advertisement of the club that it has great music (it is unlikely that there will be a club with terrible music) or emphasize in the advertisement of the restaurant that there is delicious food and good service.

USP examples. In a restaurant ad, it’s better to write “located on the roof, away from the bustle of the city” instead of “located in a great place” (because you can say the opposite - “a restaurant in the very center of the city”, and this will also be a good USP).

3. You want to believe your USP

It happens that the USP is formulated either indistinctly, or incomprehensibly, or simply does not inspire confidence. We once promoted lymphatic drainage massage, which, when used correctly, can create the effect of a slight weight loss immediately after the session. It turned out that people did not really believe in the slogan “weight loss in 1 hour”, in contrast to the slogan “weight loss in 1 day” (there were many times more clicks).

USP example. You should not promise “weight loss by 10 kilograms in 3 days”, indicate more realistic terms.