www.essential-marketing.com

Wish you had an inside view on the latest marketing issues?

Now you can with Essential Guide, the marketing information service from Essential Marketing.

Essential Marketing is a talented and dedicated team of marketers, sales professionals, creative thinkers, designers, web programmers and project managers, each with over 10 year’s relevant experience in their field. Each month, we cover two new topics and share our knowledge on these through Essential Guide. We hope you find our guide useful and if you’d like to see a particular topic covered, please let us know.

Are you bothered by something in marketing? Click here.

The USP is dead!

Typically the purpose of identifying and cultivating your USP ('Unique Selling Point') is to differentiate yourself from your competition, by defining a clearly 'unique' service or product feature.

It is commonly believed that the more unique your proposition, the stronger your brand which in turn will lead to higher volume or greater value sales. However, there is a danger in pursuing a 'unique selling point' – if you have something that is truly unique, what stops your competition following suit and capitalising upon the opportunity?

You could invest significant time and monies – not to mention, blood, sweat and tears! – cultivating your USP, only to find that you are simply feeding your competition with valuable R&D. If they are able to adopt the USP better or quicker, they will go on to make it their own (rather than yours!) – leaving you out in the cold, wondering what went wrong.

A USP doesn't need to be unique. Instead of trying to identify a unique quality which you can sell, spend time identifying the value that your customers seek in the market. Then work out how your business can deliver and communicate that value more consistently than your competition. This will always win buyers over.

By understanding customer needs and communicating consistently, you will immediately overcome two of the biggest marketing pitfalls –

  1. Being focused on what you can do, rather than understanding customer needs and the value they seek.
  2. Failing to communicate consistently. You can out-gun your competition simply through a consistent message and persistence in communicating that message through every aspect of your business.

It's something which is clearly understood and followed in consumer marketing. Think of EasyJet. They weren't the first to offer cheap air travel, there were others already doing it, but they have cleverly and successfully positioned themselves in the market and made that category their own. So much so, competitors are left to fight over comfort, price and choice as alternative differentiators.

Discover how to position and brand your business with Essential Marketing. Call us 0117 9079930 and take the first step in unlocking your value.

Return to top