Oct 26, 2020
A strong USP provides a solid foundation for differentiating your product and giving you a leg up on the competition. These famous USPs have worked well to promote products and services successfully.
Podcast Transcript
A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a unique selling point or slogan that differentiates a product or service from its competitors. A USP may include words such as the "lowest cost," "the highest quality," or "the first-ever," which indicates to customers what your product or service has that your competitors do not.
Using a USP is a great marketing tool to help position and sell your product. Some marketing experts go even further and believe that unless you can pinpoint what makes your business unique in a world of homogeneous competitors, you can't target your sales efforts effectively.
A strong USP provides a solid foundation for differentiating your product and giving you a leg up on the competition. These famous USPs have worked well to promote products and services successfully.
Avis
We're number two. We try harder.
This USP does a fantastic job of turning a drawback into a benefit. For a long time, Avis was the second-largest car rental company, after Hertz. In fact, Avis was struggling just to stay afloat.
As part of a total image makeover, Avis hired the famous ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach to come up with a new ad campaign. The campaign was so successful, Avis' market share went from 11% to 35% in just four years.
Fed Ex
When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
FedEx no longer uses this slogan, but while it was in effect, it was a perfect example of a compelling slogan. In very few words, FedEx was able to convey the message that it guarantees that it will deliver your package on time. FedEx replaced it with the slogan “The World on Time,” which is vague and doesn't contain a USP.
Mars
The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand.
The slogan for M&M's is an example of how even a rather off-beat USP can be catchy and compelling. Who would think of making a selling point out of the fact that a product doesn't melt if you hold it? Mars did, and it worked very well for them.
For more information on how you can develop a unique and razor sharp USP for your business please visit petergianoli.com/usp