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| | The Marketing, Channels/Partnership & Sales Execs Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | re: Unique selling propositions are not strategic | Views: 853 | | Dec 13, 2004 1:53 pm | | re: Unique selling propositions are not strategic | # | 
Nancy Fraser | | Chen,
You are right when you say that USP is usually not very strategic, but that is not do with USP, it's due to the person behind the decision of what the USP is and how that message will be conveyed.
That's an interesting perspective, to consider USP a cost saving measure to create branding.
Brand is the personality of a business. If you consider, for example, your own personality, and look at it from the perspective of your friends. They will be able to list features of your personal brand that they like and don't like but generally there is one positive characteristic of your personality that each and every one of your friends mentions near the top of their list. People who don't know you well, may not even be aware of this unique facet of the brand of "you". If you want to grow your group of friends doesn't it make sense to highlight that overriding positive about yourself to attract other people who are going to like you?
Then it comes down to, how do you convey that facet of "you" so that people see it and it's memorable.
USP is about standing out from the crowd; cost saving on what...on the fact that your investment in your business will be lost if people can't figure out why they should deal with you? You have to get the money before you can think about cost saving measures.
The development of a strong USP requires the identification of the core target. Many businesses, when asked, will say that everyone is their target market. These are the businesses that will never develop a strong USP because they are so afraid of losing a customer by excluding them, they are bland through their generalization.
No one forms a strong emotional connection with bland...better to be controversial than bland, and boring.
Nancy
Nota Bene Consulting
www.notable-marketing.com
> Chen Sun wrote:
> Unique selling proposition is not very strategic. Almost any product and its associated services has an unique selling proposition, or one can be effectively created for it. That’s not to say some selling propositions aren’t more valuable than others.
>
>Unique selling proposition is basically a cost-saving measure to create branding. It is too expensive to make sure that a consumer remembers the multiple selling propositions, so one is selected and promoted. If one had the advertising budget, why not promote more than one? It causes some confusion, but I believe that promoting more than one—it’ll work. So, the prior postings regarding unique selling proposition having strategic value—I think it’s primarily a cost saving value.
>
>Chen Sun
>www.WebAndNet.com,
>a Web Inventions eNterprise, WINning Solutions TM
> Private Reply to Nancy Fraser | | Dec 13, 2004 9:08 pm | | re: re: Unique selling propositions are not strategic | # | 
Helen Bassett | |
Nancy, that is one of the best explanations of a USP I have ever heard. As a Journalist I also agree it is better to be controversial than bland. Bland is confusing and when people are confused they don't trust you and won't buy from you.
Strong, direct and focused beats strategic any day (mind you, I never really have worked out what strategic means. It's one of those words people throw around because it sounds good!)
Warmest Wishes
Helen Bassett
helen@headhonchomarketing.com
www.handbagmillionaires.com
"A Practical Down-To-Earth Net Guide For Women - By Women"
Ph: 613 62250679
Tasmania, Australia
> Nancy Fraser wrote:
> Chen,
>You are right when you say that USP is usually not very strategic, but that is not do with USP, it's due to the person behind the decision of what the USP is and how that message will be conveyed.
>
>That's an interesting perspective, to consider USP a cost saving measure to create branding.
>
>Brand is the personality of a business. If you consider, for example, your own personality, and look at it from the perspective of your friends. They will be able to list features of your personal brand that they like and don't like but generally there is one positive characteristic of your personality that each and every one of your friends mentions near the top of their list. People who don't know you well, may not even be aware of this unique facet of the brand of "you". If you want to grow your group of friends doesn't it make sense to highlight that overriding positive about yourself to attract other people who are going to like you?
>Then it comes down to, how do you convey that facet of "you" so that people see it and it's memorable.
>
>USP is about standing out from the crowd; cost saving on what...on the fact that your investment in your business will be lost if people can't figure out why they should deal with you? You have to get the money before you can think about cost saving measures.
>
>The development of a strong USP requires the identification of the core target. Many businesses, when asked, will say that everyone is their target market. These are the businesses that will never develop a strong USP because they are so afraid of losing a customer by excluding them, they are bland through their generalization.
>
>No one forms a strong emotional connection with bland...better to be controversial than bland, and boring.
>
>Nancy
>Nota Bene Consulting
>www.notable-marketing.com
>
>> Chen Sun wrote:
>> Unique selling proposition is not very strategic. Almost any product and its associated services has an unique selling proposition, or one can be effectively created for it. That’s not to say some selling propositions aren’t more valuable than others.
>>
>>Unique selling proposition is basically a cost-saving measure to create branding. It is too expensive to make sure that a consumer remembers the multiple selling propositions, so one is selected and promoted. If one had the advertising budget, why not promote more than one? It causes some confusion, but I believe that promoting more than one—it’ll work. So, the prior postings regarding unique selling proposition having strategic value—I think it’s primarily a cost saving value.
>>
>>Chen Sun
>>www.WebAndNet.com,
>>a Web Inventions eNterprise, WINning Solutions TM
>> Private Reply to Helen Bassett | | |
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