In this article and video below, I will help you understand what is Unique Value Proposition, how to form unique value proposition and how to differentiate your brand and make your brand outstanding from the crowd with the unique value proposition!
I realized when people discuss on marketing, they kept talking about USP, means Unique Selling Points. Actually it is not enough in current situation. Today, marketing and brand building become essential in every business. And almost brands in the market has its own unique selling points. So how do you distinguish your brand from the others? Whether UNIQUE selling points are still UNIQUE?
In fact, a famous brand rarely have a single unique selling proposition. Successful differentiation in building brand comes from combining multiple features or attributes into a unique value proposition.
WHAT TO FORM UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION?
Most companies share different common features or attributes with their competitors. These are the points of parity, the core features you must offer to be a trusted and credible brand.
The features or attributes that differentiate your brand and set you apart are the points of difference. Marketing success comes when you discover the powerful combination of points of parity and points of difference, which are your UVP.
To have a powerful UVP, we still need another kind of component. It’s RTB (or Reasons to believe). Especially, reasons to believe for the points of difference.
For example, I consider myself as a brand, and my first course in Udemy as a product.
My online course positioning is practical example-driven approach. My unique value proposition is Uplift your business mind in the practical way.
Uplift your business is point of parity because almost business and marketing courses offer new knowledge to help learners improve their knowledge and skills. And this point of parity has reasons be believe as key concepts, terms, explanation, guide, and models.
“In practical way” is the point of difference. Before I claimed this point, I research many other courses and realized that the others gave general or academic examples in the text books. So “in practical way” will be meaningful enough to the target audiences.
To make the UVP more powerful, I start with the RTB As my self-introduction, I had 12-year professional experience in brand marketing for multi-million USD brands, 7-year in business development, consulting and 9-year in affiliate marketing.
Other examples!
My previous craft beer brand. Here are just two of directions which I proposed in the past. Before I propose any direction, I analyze the benefit laddering and then summarize them into my unique value proposition model.
Background was that craft beer was perceived as great taste, multi-choices for flavors, high price but the market was still limited. Majority brands didn’t have their own positioning or unique value proposition and communication idea.
Then I decided to compete with lager beer rather than craft beer because lager beer market size was much much bigger than craft beer. Meanwhile, if I could inject a specific perception in consumers’ mind, I could win other craft brands as well.
PLEASE WATCH MY VIDEO FOR THESE TWO EXAMPLES:
HOW TO TEST YOUR UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION?
A successful Unique Value Proposition (UVP) should meet three tests as below:
Does our unique value proposition generate consumer value?
Can we sell our Unique Value Proposition (UVP)?
Is our Unique Value Proposition (UVP) sustainable?
Generate consumer value:
To be successful, your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) must add value. For product brands, does it offer relevant or powerful functional benefits? Offer any added value? For service, Does it reduce costs, improve performance, or raise satisfaction? In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter how good you think your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is.
Can the UVP be communicated?
To be successful, you have to be able to communicate and sell your Unique Value Proposition (UVP). With services that are often invisible and intangible, this sometimes can be a major challenge.
Can your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) be easily copied?
To succeed sustainably, you should make sure that your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is really UNIQUE and hard to be copied.
For example, BIODERMA, A Dermo-cosmetic brand. BIODERMA has acquired unique expertise by placing biology at the service of dermatology. This original scientific approach relies first and foremost on knowledge of the skin and its biological mechanisms to formulate products directly inspired by them.
In summary, after this article, I hope that you would consider Unique Value Proposition (UVP) as a more effective tool to distinguish your brand from the others rather than only considering Unique Selling Proposition.
Thanks and best regards