In my last article, I talked about the importance of your product or service being “worthy” if you ever hope to have raving fans or excited customer evangelists.
One of the ways you can ensure that your product or service is worthy is by making sure that your product or service (or your company or business) stands out from what your competitors offer.
But what do you do if your product or service doesn’t naturally stand out?
Stick with me, because you’re about to learn nine things you do to can make your product or service stand out from the competition.
Are you ready? Here you go…
9 Ways to Create a USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
1. Personality or Brand – One way you can stand out from your competitors is based on who the founder/CEO of the company is or the person/identity that represents the company.
If your founder, CEO, or company are unique, then make sure to emphasize them in all your marketing and ads.
Examples:
Steve Jobs & Wendy’s
2. Backstory – How the company (or founder) got into this particular business is another way you can stand out from your competitors.
If you have a unique backstory, then make sure to tell it. And tell it over and over again.
Examples:
TOMs Shoes – According to the website, founder Blake Mycoskie “witnessed the hardships faced by children growing up without shoes” while traveling in Argentina in 2006.
“Wanting to help, he created Toms Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a new pair of shoes for a child in need.”
Clif Bar – Clif Bar is a family and employee-owned company that believes happy, healthy people create the best food. Their culture, pay, benefits, holistic wellness programs, and dedication to employees’ career growth create a unique and meaningful workplace. Where we take ourselves lightly and our work seriously.
3. Experience – The experience people have from buying or using your product or service to get the result they want.
If the experience you currently provide isn’t that unique, then think about what you can do to make it unique, fun, and different.
Examples:
Disneyland and any high-end restaurant
4. Process – How the company does what it does, creates the product, performs its service, or brings about the promised results.
Example:
Aquafina claims their water goes through a seven-step HydRO-7 filtration process that supposedly takes out more solids than other filtration methods, which makes it the purest bottled water you can buy.
5. Product or Service – The product or service itself is unique.
This is a rare way to stand out. But if this is true, then make sure to point it out to your prospects.
Example:
iPhone (when it first came out)
6. Price – Lowest price. This is the least effective way for MOST businesses to stand out. But if this is true, then make sure to let your prospects know.
Example:
Walmart
7. Promotion or promise – If you can’t find a way to make your product or service stand out from my previous six examples, then you can offer a unique promise to your prospective patrons.
Examples:
Dominoes = 30 minutes or less
8. Place – Physical location and/or the channel (or media type ) you will use.
This is a way to stand out from your competitors that most businesses and companies overlook. So take time to think about ways you can leverage this in your unique situation.
Example:
Blendtec Blender – Tom Dickson is the founder of Blendtec. And Tom is an inventor.
Back in 1975, Tom’s curiosity was piqued when he used a vacuum to clean up some spilled wheat kernels. This curiosity drove him to revolutionize the home wheat milling industry, taking it from stone grinding to his patented, stainless steel, milling heads.
But, like most inventors, Tom didn’t stop there. He dreamed of inventing the perfect mixer using the freshly milled flour from his mill, so he could make homemade bread in minutes.
And that is how he came up with the Blendtec Blender.
But Tom is a unique sort of guy. In order to test how strong his new blender was, he decided to try blending 2x2s. And guess what? It worked!
So how did he go from that to producing viral videos?
George Wright, Blendtec’s marketing director, heard about Tom’s habit of testing the blades by blending boards, so he had an idea.
Why not video Tom blending up items that you normally can’t (and probably shouldn’t!) blend?
The rest is history. They currently have 855k subscribers.
A video of them blending an iPad has 19M views.
They’ve also been featured in many articles and websites.
9. Big Idea – A clear, compelling big idea.
If none of the other ways I mentioned above are possible, then coming up with a big idea for your product or service can work for you.
Example:
P90X – A New York Times article said this…
“P90X fans swear by the workout, a mix of jumping, yoga, martial arts, and strength training that, in fact, isn’t all that revolutionary. But the secret of P90X’s success is the marketing.”
So by using these 9 ways to create a more effective USP.
Standing out from your competition is one way you can make your product more worthy.
But let me give you some questions you can ask that can help you to make your product more worthy.
Questions To Help You Make Your Product “Worthy”
For the rest of the articles in this series, I’m going to focus on cultivating, coordinating, and celebrating your fans and customer evangelists.
But having a product or service that’s worthy is the starting point that will impact your ability to do any of the other things I’m going to show you.
So let me leave you with these questions to help you work on making your product worthy.
- Who are you trying to help? You have to understand the target patron group you will market to. And you have to understand if they are the best group to actually market to, based on what the company offers.
- What are you actually offering? What forms are we selling it in? Can you change or improve this in some way in order to make your product or service more worthy?
- What problem are you solving for them? Can you add, subtract, or in some other way change the problem you’re solving?
- What are you asking for in exchange for what we are offering? Is the transaction just monetary? Or are you also asking for a time commitment, a commitment to a community of customers with similar needs, desires, etc.?
Read the First Two Articles About the 12th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed
If you have read my last two articles, you can do that below:
- The 12th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2022
- Want Raving Fans? Here are 3 Questions to See If Your Product or Service is Really Worthy.
Want to read the other articles based on the other 11 marketing fundamentals you need to succeed? Click here.
Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live
Did you enjoy this article? Then don’t miss when the next one goes live.
Sign-up below and you will be emailed whenever a new article is posted.
(That means that you will usually be emailed multiple times a week.)
