Building your product or service into a brand - Part II

Feb 21, 2011

We are still talking about some of the basic concepts of building your product or service into a brand and what you need to think about when you are building a brand.

2. Unique Selling Propositions (USP)

A unique selling proposition is what I define as a tactical strategy not an overall one.

There are some who would disagree but I have used both positioning and USPs to build brands fast and effectively

A unique selling proposition is something that is extremely special that you are communicating to your customer in a short and very effective way. A USP for short is usually to get customers to buy your product instead of competitors.

Think of Pizza delivery

• There are two major players globally, firstly there is Dominos and secondly Pizza Hut who has been a global player for a longer period of time
• But Dominos used a very effective USP to build its brand, which is
• A Hot tasty Pizza delivered to your doorstep in 30 minutes or we will give you one for free. (subject to terms and conditions of course)
• This 30 minute guarantee for delivery has a very special USP that is way above the norm in the industry.

Another example of a good USP would be M&Ms chocolates which uses the USP

• ”The milk chocolate that melts in your mouth not your hands”

USP strategically gives companies an advantage by finding something that is unique, special that customers would be able to find some value in or more importantly great value in. This tactical Strategy must be communicated effectively and frequently until there is an association between that product and the USP that influences buying decisions.

Let’s put this into a practical application.

Exercise

To develop your own tactical USP

1. list down the unique things about your product or service that customers would find really special

• ___________________________

• ___________________________

• ___________________________

• ___________________________

• ___________________________

2. Pick one or at the most two things that you would want to communicate as a USP. Develop a Statement out of those things like what M&M and Dominos did.

• _____________________________________________
• _____________________________________________

A very good way to find a positioning or USP is to listen to Dr Jonathan David when he is preaching or talking about impacting society and pray along these lines for God to give you a strategy. I have based my corporate strategy, USPs and even positioned my company from what he has taught and it has brought me fantastic results.

Now you are halfway there. In the next article we will explore how to use public Relations and Advertising in a low cost and more importantly effective way.