Developing A Brand Unique Selling Proposition
Do you know what your brand unique selling proposition is? Discover what it takes to create a brand unique selling proposition to make your brand stand out.
Hi Trish Davies, here and I want to cover another important branding element today. Specifically understanding what a brand unique selling proposition is and how you can develop one.
A brand USP doesn’t actually have to be unique. In other words, your competitors may also possess or utilize this factor, but they just haven’t laid claim to it yet.
Nonetheless I encourage you to find something unique about your business or unique about the product. If you find something that no one else offers, then that’s even better. For now, let me share with you an overview of how to develop your USP along with providing some examples from the biggest brands in the world.
Brand Unique Selling Proposition
The first thing to know is that your USP can be based on just about anything. As long as it’s something that it is important to your prospects and customers. So, let me give you a list of some of the possible ways to uniquely position your business.
I will do this by looking at what some of the biggest brands in the world do either now or what they have done historically. By then end of this post you will have so many ideas going round in your head, that’s a promise I will make!
Brand Unique Selling Proposition Examples
A Strong Or Unusual Guarantee
Domino’s Pizza used to offer a delivery guarantee to their customers. If customers didn’t get their pizza delivered to their door within 30 minutes of ordering, then their order was free. Domino’s succinctly summed up this unique selling position in their slogan, “30 minutes or it’s free.”
That’s a good example of a strong guarantee. Other examples include lifetime guarantees which some industries and niches use.
How The Product Is Made
Another example is the U.S. pizza delivery chain Papa John’s. Their slogan is, “Better Ingredients. Better Pizza, Papa John’s.” While they don’t use unusual ingredients in their pizza, their point is that their pizzas are better because they use better ingredients.
Using Patriotism
An example of this is Harley Davidson, which claims, “American by Birth, Rebel by Choice.” That slogan captures the market share of consumers who want to purchase American-made products. In other words, it evokes a feeling of patriotism. It also evokes a feeling of independence and freedom with its use of the word “rebel.”
You Are The Creator
You have some special qualification for creating the product. This unique selling position tends to work well for those who’re selling information, such as books, videos or even seminars.
That’s because you can easily establish yourself as expert or an authority in the niche. This brand unique selling proposition is what I focus on extensively within the Build Your AU programs.
Be The First in Class
You can claim to be the first or the original in some category. If you were the first to create a product or service, then you can use that a part of your unique selling position. For example, you can claim to be “the original and the best.” The Cheesecake Factory is one such real-life example, as you’ll see they position themselves as “The Original.”
However, you don’t need to be the first one in the entire world in order to claim this slogan. Instead, you can be the first one in your region, or you can be the first woman to do it. Or you can be the first person under the age of 25 or the first person over the age of 50.
In other words, you can create your own categories and then claim to be the first in this category. For example, you can be the first person in London to offer a certain service, or you can be the first person in California to sell a particular product.
The Benefit Brand Unique Selling Proposition
The product provides some special benefit or enjoyment. A lot of USPs are built on this concept of focusing on the benefit that the consumer gets when they use the product. So, let me give you several examples.
- One example of this comes from the chicken restaurant KFC, which claims their chicken is “Finger Lickin’ Good.”
- Another example of this is Blogger.com’s slogan, “Push Button Publishing,” which tells users how easy it is to use the service to create a blog.
- Still another example comes from the credit card company Visa, which states it’s “Everywhere You Want to Be.” The idea, of course, is that consumers will be able to use their Visa anywhere in the world, which provides peace of mind.
- Or take M&Ms, which promises the chocolate “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands.”
- Disneyland’s “The Happiest Place on Earth” slogan not only captures the benefit, but directly conveys the intended emotion.
- A final example: Energizer batteries promise long-life with the slogan, “They Keep Going and Going and Going.”
Filling A Gap In The Market USP
Here are some examples of companies that have developed a unique selling proposition through filling a gap in the market.
In the age of big family cars and huge sport utility vehicles being popular, Volkswagen developed the slogan, “Think Small”. This instantly differentiated them from the competition.
Another example is Apple’s Mac Pro, which had the slogan, “Beauty Outside, Beast Inside.” This filled the market gap where consumers usually had two choices: fashionable computers that didn’t do much, or powerful machines that were ugly. The Mac Pro’s branding promised consumers they could have beauty and power in one machine.
Customer Experience USP Examples
The product promises a good customer experience. United Airlines made this promise with their slogan, “Fly the Friendly Skies.”
Another example comes from Marks and Spencer, whose slogan says, “The Customer is Always and Completely Right.”
Develop Your Own Brand Unique Selling Proposition
Those categories and examples should give you a lot to think about with regards to how to develop your unique selling position. What you’ll want to do is start with your USP, and then boil it down to one succinct statement.
This statement can then be your slogan which you use on your website, products, marketing materials and everywhere else.
Here is an example of defining your unique selling proposition from a customers mindset.
Let’s suppose you were selling lottery tickets. You’d ask yourself what your customers want more than anything else? Well, they want to win, of course.
Problem is, you can’t promise your lottery customers that they’ll win. However, you can tap into their HOPES of winning. You can get them dreaming about what it would be like to win. That’s exactly what the National Lottery in the UK did when it created the slogan, “It Could Be You.”
Those four words instantly evoke hope, excitement, and big dreams. That slogan worked well to sell tickets in the UK with millions of people watching the draw with ticket in hand.
I know this post has used a lot of big brand unique selling proposition statements, past and present. Hopefully that has given you some inspiration and got the cogs in your mind turning. Build Your AU can help further so for more information on the program please click here. Alternatively leave me some feedback in the comments below and I will be sure to get back to you.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority, and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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