What is a trade proposal? Unique selling proposition. About prohibitions. What cannot be used in USP

1. High functional significance of the product. The consumer needs to be told exactly what problem he will solve by purchasing this product. The achievement of the goal after using the product should be clearly highlighted to instantly attract attention.
2. The advantage of being unique among competitors. Developing an offer that is not offered by other companies on the market will help you win the competition. You can stand out by the quality of service, delivery, as well as additional conditions.

3. Target audience orientation. A segment of potential consumers should be clearly defined and a marketing program should be carried out based on the behavioral characteristics of this group of people, including their gender, age, lifestyle and basic preferences. It is especially important to think through the logistics of placement retail outlets, as well as their operating hours.

Types of unique selling proposition: true and false

Unique trade offer should highlight the visible benefits of a product, even if they are not directly present in the product itself. The advertising move should attract the buyer and inspire confidence. Not all products are new in their field, so 2 types of USP are used for advertising.

True USP is based on drawing attention to the special characteristics of the product that really exist and are an advantage over competitors. Market leaders Apple take advantage of this when advertising new flagship technologies.

False USP is aimed at creating the image of the product and does not directly concern its properties. An example would be the Ariel ad “Cleans what others can’t.”

The first step in developing a unique selling proposition is to select product characteristics or criteria that influence the customer's decision making.

This step is the most important (although it is often simply skipped), since the fate of the USP depends on the selected characteristics: will it really show the benefits of your product or will it level you “with the rest.”

Therefore, our task at the first stage is to analyze our products or services and determine the 10 most important characteristics of each of them for customers. The best way to do this is to select the TOP 10 customers who bring the greatest profit to your company and ask which product features are most important to them and what criteria/factors influence the purchasing decision.

If you withdraw new product market and there are no clients yet, you can brainstorm and independently determine the most important characteristics. Or survey those who are most likely to become buyers of your product. After they appear real clients, you can repeat the analysis and select characteristics based on real data.

All answers received from respondents must be recorded in a separate file.

2. Filter and rank the data

After customer feedback has been received or brainstorming has been done, our task is to select 10 characteristics and rank them in order of importance.

It's easy to do. Among the responses received, we select the options that are repeated more often than others. Characteristics with the largest number repetitions will head the list, the rest are placed below it according to the same principle.

Marketer Andrey Zinkevich - on how to effectively differentiate yourself from competitors

If you open any good book in marketing or attend the relevant training, then with a 99% probability you will 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 client the differences between the product and the benefits of using it, and he will make a purchase. But here lies the main pitfall: how to identify those unique differences and how to present them in the form of benefits? What if your product or service is no different from your competitors? Well-known marketer Andrei Zinkevich spoke about how to formulate a USP.

Andrey Zinkevich, entrepreneur, marketing consultant. Founder of the project . The geography of clients includes 9 countries. More than eight years of experience in sales and marketing at Kimberly Clark and Biosphere Corporation. Author of the booksCustomer pipeline », « Secrets of customer focus" And " Profitable Internet projects ».

Background

Reeves was one of the most prominent students of the famous Claude Hopkins and was an adherent of the “selling” style. He believed that advertising could only have 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 the help of one, but very strong offer that competitors cannot make; offers that will encourage the recipient of the advertisement to perform a targeted action.

This idea formed the concept that Reeves called the “unique selling proposition.” True, today Reeves’ concept is overgrown with implausible myths; one of them is that now the competition is much stronger and to find differences between competitive products almost impossible.

Is this really true? Of course not. Look at the most famous ones brands or companies, they all have a unique selling proposition and stand out because of 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 to create a unique selling proposition

Step one 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 client's decision making.

This step is the most important (although it is often simply skipped), since the fate of the USP depends on the selected characteristics: will it really show the benefits of your product or will it compare 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 clients in 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 select a sample of the most loyal or most profitable customers and survey them.

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

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

You need to record all responses received from respondents in a separate file.

Step two - filter and rank the received data.

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

It's not difficult to do this. Among all the answers received, we need to select those that are repeated more often than others. The characteristic with the most repetitions will top your list, the rest will be located below it according to the same principle. As a result, we should end up with a table something like this (for example, we’ll keep in mind a hypothetical online store):

Why do I recommend limiting yourself to 10 characteristics? More might just confuse you and make it difficult to analyze. In most cases, you will notice that the most important characteristics for the client will be no more than 5-7.

Step three - compare ourselves with 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 must be as objective as possible: if you are inferior to a competitor in something, be sure to note this.

I recommend rating each selected characteristic or criterion for your product and for each of your competitors on a 10-point scale. For example, in the previous table we determined that the most important factor for the client - delivery within a day. If we can deliver the product within a few hours after ordering, we can give a rating of 10, if not, we lower the rating. Next, we analyze competitors and note how quickly they are able to organize delivery. The longer the delivery time, the worse the rating for this criterion will be.

Step 4 - choose criteria for USP: what are we stronger at.

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 our competitors, and in what areas 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 figure out how to 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 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 return your money!”

This formula is used by my partner Ilya Rabchenko, general manager SMOpro studio to create a USP for your services. This is what the unique selling proposition for the service “Attracting subscribers to a group on VKontakte and Odnoklassniki” looks like: “We are guaranteed to attract 1000 targeted subscribers within the first month according to the parameters you set, or we will return your 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. Good example Some banks use this USP:

“We’ll apply for a loan in 5 minutes without proof of income.” Applying for a loan is a need of the target audience. The absence of the need to provide a certificate of income and the speed of loan issuance 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 Alex's USP, the target audience is small and medium-sized business owners. Their need is to increase net profit. The solution Alex proposes is the use of low-budget and free marketing tools (read: the use of guerrilla marketing tools).

False unique selling propositions

I would also like to mention false USPs. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and marketers are guilty of this.

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

For example, a dental clinic cannot use the characteristic “professionalism of doctors” as its USP. Why? Because, by default, a potential client expects that you have professional doctors. Otherwise, why would he even contact you?

Second example: using a 14-day money back guarantee as a USP. According to the Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”, the buyer already has every right to return the product within 14 days from the date of purchase. Therefore, there is a distortion of facts here.

Test questions to check the USP

After you have worked with the template comparative characteristics and have compiled a unique selling proposition, one question remains: how “workable” is it? 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 truly created a unique selling proposition.

On modern market goods and services will not surprise anyone that you are the best. To compete with other companies, you need to be not just the best, but unique. Only then will it be possible to talk about increasing the number of clients. A unique selling proposition is something that marketers of many firms and companies puzzle over. Today we will look at this concept and learn how to create a USP ourselves.

Most importantly

In every business, USP (or unique selling proposition) is the most important thing. No USP, no sales, no profit, no business. It may be a little exaggerated, but in general that’s how it is.

A unique selling proposition (also called an offer, USP and USP) is distinguishing characteristic business. At the same time, it doesn’t matter what exactly a person does, there must be a distinctive characteristic. This term implies a difference that competitors do not have. A unique offer gives the client a certain benefit and solves a problem. If the USP does not solve the client’s problem, then it is just an extravagant name - it is memorable, sounds beautiful, but does not greatly affect the conversion level.

A unique selling proposition should be based on the two most important words - “benefit” and “different”. This offer should be so radically different from the competition that no matter what introduction the client takes, he will choose exactly the company that has a worthy USP.

USP and Russia

Before starting the main course, I would like to pay attention to domestic marketing. In Russia, the problem is immediately obvious - everyone wants to be the best, but no one wants to be unique in their own way. This is where the main problem comes from - companies refuse to create unique selling propositions. When they try to outdo a competitor who has created a USP, they end up with something between a fancy phrase and a characteristic of a product or service.

Take, for example, the unique selling proposition that is in the portfolio of some copywriters:

• Best author.
• Ideal texts.
• Master of pen and words, etc.

This is not a USP at all, but rather an example of how not to advertise yourself. Concept perfect text everyone has their own, the word “best” can be used if it is confirmed by numerical data and actual characteristics, and it seems that there was only one “master of the pen and word”, Bulgakov. Working USPs look completely different:

• Fast copywriting - any text within 3 hours after payment.
• Each client receives a free consultation on improvement (fill in as required).
• Free pictures for the article from commercial photo stocks, etc.

Here, behind each proposal there is a benefit that the client acquires together with the author. The customer focuses on what he needs in addition to the article: images, consultation or high-quality and fast execution. But you don’t know what to expect from the “best author”. In business, everything works exactly the same.

Varieties

For the first time, American advertiser Rosser Reeves spoke about creating a unique selling proposition. He introduced the concept of USP into use and noted this concept as more effective than advertising odes, which lacked specifics.

He said that a strong sales proposition helps:

• Separate yourself from your competitors.
• Stand out among similar services and products.
• Win the loyalty of the target audience.
• Improve performance advertising campaigns by crafting effective messages.

It is customary to distinguish between 2 types of trade offers: true and false. The first is based on the actual characteristics of the product, which competitors cannot boast of. A false selling proposition is uniqueness invented. For example, the client is told unusual information about the product or obvious advantages are presented from a different angle. It's kind of a play on words.

Today it is difficult to endow a product with some unique characteristics, so a false USP is being used more and more often.

High-quality trade offer. Main criteria

According to the concept of R. Reeves, the criteria for a high-quality trade offer are:

• A message about the specific benefit that a person will receive by purchasing a company's product.
• The offer is different from all those available in this market segment.
• The message is compelling and the target audience can easily remember it.

In advertising, the unique selling proposition is the basis, so it must fully meet the needs of customers. Each message should convey benefits, value and benefit, but, in addition, a clear argument is needed so that the client clearly understands why he should buy the product he is interested in here and not somewhere else.

Stages

So how do you create a unique selling proposition? If you don’t think too hard, this task seems creative and exciting, and quite easy. But as practice has shown, USP is an example of an exclusively rational and analytical work. Coming up with something fancy and passing it off as a unique offer is like looking for a black cat in a dark room. It's impossible to guess which concept will work.

To get a worthy example of a unique selling proposition, you need to do a lot of research: in addition to the market, niche occupied and competitors, study the product itself - from production technology to the watermark on the packaging. Development consists of several stages:

1. Divide the target audience into subgroups according to certain parameters.
2. Determine the needs of each of these groups.
3. Highlight positioning attributes, that is, determine what exactly in the promoted product will help solve the problems of the target audience.
4. Describe the benefits of the product. What will the consumer get if he buys it?
5. Based on the received input data, create a USP.

Scenarios

As you can see, this is a rather painstaking process where it is necessary to use all analytical skills. Only after a full analysis has been completed can you begin to look for a key idea and only then begin to create a sales proposal.

This task can be simplified if you use scripts that have already been tested by time and experience:

1. Focus on unique characteristics.
2. New solution, innovation.
3. Additional services.
4. Turn disadvantages into advantages.
5. Solve the problem

Uniqueness + innovation

Now a little more about scripts. As for the first scenario, “Uniqueness,” it is suitable only for those products or services that are truly one of a kind and have no competitors. As a last resort, this feature can be created artificially. A unique selling proposition (USP) may be completely unexpected. For example, a company that produces stockings and socks entered the market with an interesting offer - they were selling a set of three socks, and the USP promised to solve the age-old problem of the missing sock.

As for innovation, it is worth declaring a solution to a problem in a new way. For example, “The innovative formula of the air freshener will destroy 99% of germs and fill the room with a fresh aroma.”

"Buns" and disadvantages

The third scenario focuses on additional privileges. If all the products on the market are the same and have almost identical characteristics, then you need to pay attention to additional bonuses that will attract visitors. For example, a pet store might ask customers to adopt kittens or puppies for 2 days to make sure they fit into a family.

You can also turn the shortcomings of the product to your advantage. If milk is stored for only 3 days, then from a practical point of view it is not profitable, and the buyer is unlikely to pay attention to it. Considering this, we can say that it is stored so little because it is 100% natural. The influx of clients is guaranteed.

Solving the problem

But the simplest option is to solve the problems of potential consumers. This can be done using the formula (yes, like in mathematics):

1. Need of the target audience + Result + Guarantee. In advertising, an example of a unique selling proposition might sound like this: “3,000 subscribers in 1 month or we’ll refund your money.”
2. Target audience + Problem + Solution. “We help beginning copywriters find customers with the help of proven marketing strategies».
3. Unique characteristic + Need. “Exclusive jewelry will emphasize the exclusivity of style.”
4. Product + Target Audience+ Problem + Benefit. “With audio lessons “Polyglot” you can learn any language at a conversational level in just a month and without a doubt go to the country of your dreams.”

Unspecified points

For the USP to work, you need to pay attention to a few more nuances during its creation. First, the problem that the product solves must be recognized by the customer and he must want to solve it. Of course, you can offer a spray against “brain-snatchers” (isn’t that a problem?!), but the buyer will spend much more actively on a regular cream against mosquitoes and ticks.

Secondly, the proposed solution must be better than that, which the target audience used before. And thirdly, each client must measure, feel and evaluate the result.

When creating a USP, it is most rational to take Ogilvy’s advice. He worked in advertising for many years and knows exactly how to look for a USP. In his book On Advertising, he mentioned the following: great ideas come from the subconscious, so it must be filled with information. Fill your brain to the limit with everything that can relate to the product and switch off for a while. A brilliant idea will come at the most unexpected moment.

Of course, the article has already mentioned analytics, but this advice does not contradict what has already been proposed. It often happens that after carrying out hundreds of analytical processes, a marketer cannot find a single and unique link that will promote a product on the market. It is at such moments, when the brain processes information, that you need to step away from reality. As practice shows, very soon a person will see that elusive USP that was on the very surface.

It is also very important to pay attention to those small nuances that competitors miss. At one time, Claude Hopkins noticed that toothpaste not only cleans teeth, but also removes plaque. This is how the first slogan appeared in the advertising community that toothpaste removes plaque.

And there is no need to be afraid to take non-standard approaches to solving a problem. Marketers of TM “Twix” simply divided the chocolate bar into two sticks and, as they say, away we go.

Protecting the idea

A unique selling proposition does not appear in marketers' heads out of nowhere. This is the result of long, focused and hard work, which, by the way, can also be used by competitors.

A few decades ago, intellectual property was inextricably linked to its owner. That is, if one company introduced a successful USP, the other did not even look in the direction of this advertising. Today, things have changed somewhat: managers can simply use their competitors' ideas for their own purposes.

Therefore, there was a need to create patents. These are documents that confirm the owner’s right to the exclusive use of the results of his activities. Inventions here mean products or methods that solve a specific problem. In turn, the “unique selling proposition” itself is a powerful incentive for innovation. The subject of advertising here is an advantage unnoticed by competitors, but realized by customers. Patent protection for unique selling propositions is practically undeveloped in our country, but in more developed societies, every advertising campaign is protected from plagiarism.

Thus, to achieve success, you need to be a unique, one-of-a-kind supplier of in-demand products that are available in every store, but the best in this company.

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