USP: Revisited
Back in December (see post) I wrote about how having a USP, or Unique Selling Proposition, was of little importance and most companies shouldn’t bother. That was a sort of a firestarter posting and I’m glad I did it because it has given people a reason to speak out. Since then, I have received all kinds of feedback from a variety of different types of people.
One bit of feedback I received recently sticks out in my head- from a marketing consultant in Atlanta. He said that a USP doesn’t need to be very complicated, it just has to be unique. Take this example: You run a dry cleaners. You used to say “top in customer service” and thought that this was your USP. However, what if you said “less than 1/4 mile off of I-85, exit 97.” This may bring you more business than anything else because people want their dry cleaner to be quick and convenient. Sounds unique to me.
To add to my previous post I also want to remind people that not every business will be all that unique. It’s something that you don’t hear many business-to-business companies saying- ESPECIALLY not marketing companies. Why? Because they don’t want to alienate potential customers. Not all companies need to worry about it. There are thousands of small businesses in America that are simply there to provide jobs for their owners and a handful of employees. The only thing that makes the convenience store down the street unique from the other convenience store down the street is that there’s a different person at the register. And do most people really care? So you’re going east instead of west. That’s how your decisions are made.
The point is, unless you need to figure it out, you might not need to spend so much time or money worrying about the USP. You might just need to work on your cash-flow instead. (or team-building, organizational management, yadda yadda). Visualize this one: two Hondas pull off the assembly line. One is red, the other blue. The red Honda has oil changes every 3,000 miles, regular tune-ups, maintenance, and the driver never hits a pothole. The blue Honda only gets an oil change every 10,000 miles, the driver doesn’t bother with tune-ups and I think you see where this is going… After 150,000 miles, which do you think is more likely to burn oil and spew nasty smoke out of the tailpipe? Neither is unique, they’re just operated differently.