What is a Selling Proposition?
While many people have their own definition of the term, we would like to define it as a value that you are providing to your target audience.
Value refers to a benefit that your product or service offers – your business won’t be able to sell anything if the product or service you offer doesn’t provide any benefit to the consumers. However, this benefit does not necessarily need to enhance one’s quality of life, it can also be about satisfying one’s desire. The Air Jordan Brand, for instance, may not necessarily have the best-performing basketball shoes; the value that the brand provides is simply the elevation of your style and symbol of swagger.
However, the benefit of your product or service wouldn’t be a seen as a selling proposition if your target audience does not see value in it. Say you are a company that makes ballpoint pen, and you are looking to create a single multi-coloured pen because it provides user with the benefit of multiple colour options in one. Would you say that this is a selling proposition if your target audience is primarily students? The answer is probably no, because a student typically only needs to use one single colour to write; they don’t see a need to have the wide options of pen colour. The gist of this is that – a value is ONLY truly a selling proposition if your target audience perceives it as something that indeed benefits them.
What is a Unique Selling Proposition?
The definition of unique is pretty straightforward – a product or service that is unique is unlike anything else. While the idea of coming up with a unique product or service is very intimidating, it does not necessarily have to be difficult. This is because being unique does not mean that you have to come up with a product or service that the world has not seen; it can simply be unique within your estate, region, country, or continent. Besides geographical boundaties, your product or service can also be unique within your industry or sub-industry. For instance, the auto-pilot mode may not be a new technology in the aerospace industry, but it can be seen as a rather fresh idea if you introduce it to the automobile industry.
Why is it important to have a Unique Selling Proposition?
If it isn’t already clear enough, being unique means that your product or service is one-of-a-kind. This means that you are offering a value that your competitors are not able to provide. Naturally, people who are looking for this particular value will go to you; you are not going to provide them with the possibility to choose other businesses over yours. And the more unique your selling proposition is, the more market share you will be able to capture. Take the mobile phone industry for example, brands like Apple & Samsung consistently come up with new product ideas in order to differentiate itself from its competitors. Mobile phone brands that fail to innovate will be pushed to the bottom of the food chain.
It is going to be easy to think of a unique selling proposition? No, it’s definitely not. But is it something that can be done? A 100% yes. It is not just a manageable task, but an essential feature to ensure your business’s survivability.
We would also like to emphasise that having a unique selling proposition is not a home-run strategy for your business, it is simply an essential marketing fundamental that you need to have in place for your business to succeed. This is not to discourage you, but to let you know that you are definitely on the right track to success!
If you are struggling to come up with a unique selling proposition for your business, feel free to contact us! We are offering free business consultations for new and small businesses.