• Domino’s Pizza- “Fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free!” (Service – Speed)
• Lenscrafters-”1 hour eyeglasses while you wait” (Service – Speed)
• FEDEX-”When it absolutely has to be there overnight” (Service – Speed)
• GEICO- “15 minutes can save you 15% or more on car insurance” (Convenience/Speed and price)
• Amazon.com – “Earth’s biggest bookstore” (Broad Selection, convenience)
• Avis – “We’re #2. We try harder” (Service superiority)
• Subway – “7 subs with under 6 grams of fat” (Quality – Broad Selection of Lean)
• M & M’s candy – “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand” (Quality)

All these slogans represented the end result of intentional work by the firms in the list above to investigate what the marketplace cared about that competitors were either not delivering, or not communicating. The positioning represented by these slogans was reinforced by completely aligned, multi-channel strategic marketing campaigns that were so effective that the catapulted the companies into the stratosphere.

An effective USP is not just about saying something cute (like some of the creative ad agency types seem to push out), or even about something different. It’s about identifying a difference that means something beneficial to the marketplace.

Subway’s “7 subs under 6 grams campaign” would have absolutely no traction if the marketplace didn’t care about weight gain or healthy eating.

Branding is no longer just for the big corporation. With the advent of powerful customer relationship management software, internet marketing and social media, your small business will soon be underwater if you neglect the importance of building brands through relationship.

A clear and effective USP is the first foundation of any such brand building.
One of the biggest small business marketing mistakes I see made is overlooking the development of a USP.

There are 4 areas of a marketing system that really suffer when there’s a non-existent or under-promoted USP:

1. The Effectiveness of all Advertising campaigns
2. The number of Client Referrals (and the effectiveness).
3. The ability to recruit and retain external referral centers (strategic alliance partners).
4. The ability to effectively gain media publicity.

It is ironic that so many small business owners spend so much money paying for advertising that is often silently ineffective, and completely ignore the most powerful methods for getting new business, that also happen to be the cheapest to obtain; methods that provide the highest leverage and the greatest ROI!

Why is this?

I suspect that many entrepreneurs find the sort of “slowing down” required for in-depth business planning to be distasteful. The well worn advice to “work on your business and not in it” holds little meaning for these busy bees.

Not until there’s an emergency such as a drop in customers or a market downturn do these entrepreneurs bother to assess the guts of their business. By then, it may be too late.

Ultimately, developing your USP is one of the most important projects you can undertake. Granted, taking the time, effort, or expense to develop a USP is not for everyone. For instance, some business owners are convinced that marketing consists simply of putting out ads, creating fliers, or postcards, and getting them out.

If your commitment is to these tactics, and to these alone, you may not need a USP. However, if you plan to dominate your marketplace, get tons of referrals, build influence, attract free media attention and the affection of strategic partners, you must have an effective USP that is well researched and worth sticking to.

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, (shameless plug coming now…) my company is currently offering strategy and growth consulting sessions that can really help you identify an effective USP in your business.

In this first video:
I introduce a an Assets/Strengths identification framework known as the Wealth Capital Matrix. In addition to that, I use cases like the success of Oprah Winfrey to illustrate my points.

In this second video:
I go into how the Wealth Capital Matrix can be utilized in product development, business planning and wealth-building. I also introduce another powerful proprietary tool for mining your hidden gifts called a S.H.E.L.L. audit. Lastly, I go even deeper with the 4P framework – a complete business thinking system.

Yesterday I had a business brainstorm with a very impressive entrepreneur and general manager of a successful restaurant franchise right here in Colorado.

One of the things that came up during our conversation was the subject of taglines for business, product or programs.

A tagline or USP slogan is a short and memorable (hopefully) encapsulation of the unique value that a product or business delivers to the market place. It is not a USP (unique selling proposition), it is only part of a USP because a USP at its best should include a mini-argument supporting the claim or promise that is made in the tagline or slogan.

An effective tagline is important because it acts as an ambassador for your core selling argument. It helps you get the best response out of every advertising and marketing campaign, and helps you get the maximum number of referrals to your business possible, as well as boost the profitability of those referrals.

A good tagline or USP slogan should continually reinforce the central marketing promise or argument you want your business to be making in the marketplace. At its best, it provides your referral centers and referring clients with a ready-made and viral script for why others should do business with you.

In my opinion, the best taglines all successfully convey a believable promise regarding something the marketplace cares about. The first line of this article is from the product branding of Rice Krispies cereal, and that phrase has illustrated the longevity and power of an effective tagline since it was introduced in 1933.

The most compelling USP slogans encapsulate all the attributes of a good USP. These attributes, derived from Rosser Reeves in 1961, are as follows:

1. It must communicate a specific promise, offer, or beneficial claim to the consumer.
For example (GEICO: “15 minutes can save you 15% or more on car insurance”)

2. The promise, offer or beneficial claim must be something unique. To quote Rosser Reeves, something the competition “either cannot, or does not, offer.”
For example (FedEx: “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight”)

3. It must be compelling enough, strong enough, to move people to action. This is even more important in today’s world than ever before because today’s consumers are absolutely inundated with choices in media they consume, in marketing pitches and in engagement options. An example of a tagline that cut through the clutter and snatched attention was the phrase that yanked Domino’s Pizza upward and into prominence (“You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less — or it’s free.“)

Invest time, thought, money and effort in a system for finding the core strengths and core uniqueness of your business or products. It will pay off when you uncover a selling argument that meets the 3 conditions above. Once you have that selling argument or USP, coming up with a tagline that pops is just a simple hop, skip and jump away.

Till next time.

For instance, in my case, “I take small business owners on a field trip through their own business where I show them 16% growth or more in 16 weeks or their money back.”

I recently pondered the difficulty small business owners have with describing their business in a way that stands out from the pack. Usually this problem is more pronounced when a business owner has not seriously worked on developing their Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

The USP is the differentiating idea that justifies what makes a business, product or service uniquely valuable to the marketplace. It is an expression of the competitive advantage that causes a business to survive in the short run, and thrive, in the long run.

A recent need to update this blog brought my attention to the WordPress “web hosts” page. It really highlights the dilemma faced by many advertisers when they have to share the stage with their competitors.

This is really no different from any other “Red Ocean” marketing platform like:

1. A Yellow Pages Listing crowded with your competitors
2. Google Search Engine Results Pages crowded with your nearest competitors
3. Online local directory listing results
4. Portal Website advertising results pages (i.e. “Wedding photographer” on TheKnot.com)

…and many other such platforms.

The ability to create a headline concept is vital to separating yourself from the crowd in such environments. All your verbal business card is a highly mobile, highly customizable headline for your mobile sales script (or networking script).

One of the most interesting verbal business cards I ever heard was from a Jay Abraham seminar audio in which one of the participants said,

“I make loans to dead people”!

Now that’s a headline that keeps attention. How could anybody resist asking, “How”?

Well, it turned out he was in a niche of the mortgage business lending to probate estates.

I hope this helps you think about your own business in a new way, gives you new ideas for making your listings and ads more competitive, and helps you rescue dollars you’ve already spent on advertising.

Let’s jump into it!

When you’re in business, the 2 most important questions you must answer are:

“Why should I do business with you rather than the 2,000 other competitors and substitutes to your product?”
and…
“Why should I continue to do business with you?”

Finding a profitable answer to this question is not as obvious as it may seem at first.
The answer that satisfies the market can only be found in differentiating your business so that the market responds to your tactical marketing overtures, talks about you, and comes to you when it need your services.

Differentiation is exactly what it sounds like! It means being known for something…being different from the others. It’s about the idea that makes a prospect travel the extra 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 4 hours to pay you rather than your competitors. Differentiation that counts is noticed (and valued by prospects and clients) and is your source of competitive advantage.

So what’s positioning?
My definition of positioning is an outcome you achieve in the mind of the marketplace. It describes how the consumer perceives your company relative to your competitors. Your positioning is often largely determined by the choice you make about which valued attribute you want to embody – Upscale, low price leader, exclusive, etc and which customer segment you want to serve.

While Walmart and Target have been discount retailers, Walmart’s positioning has traditionally been “broad selection at the absolute lowest price” such that their USP slogan for a long time was “Always a low price, Always!” (they’ve changed it to the relatively weak “save money, live better”).
Target on the other hand, is positioned sort of as “affordable chic” with their slightly more sleek stores and fancy TV commercials.

Branding describes the efforts that businesses (or savvy and enterprising individuals) make towards embedding their desired positioning solidly in the minds of the marketplace. Since the scope of this blog, my concern and expertise is in the small business environment, I’ll elaborate on practical branding for small businesses and leave off “big business” concerns that may or may not be relevant to you.

For you small business owners and entrepreneurial professionals, the most accessible form of brand management is not a logo, not a fancy website or fancy brochures, but a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that works.

The USP 101 post goes deeper into the unique selling proposition and why it forms the foundation for every effective small business marketing system, but I’ll offer you a brief definition here.

A USP is a concise, benefit-telegraphing idea or promise that conveys powerfully and with immediacy why your target customer or client should do business with you rather than a competitor or substitute. A USP slogan is the statement that communicates the USP and that can be deployed and re-deployed throughout your marketing system.

Are you already doing a lot of advertising in valpak, yellow pages, newspaper and direct mail and want to see a dramatic jump in your business in a very short time?

Then you need to define, develop and deploy an effective USP. It’ll pay off for your business in spades!

Well, my first attempt to actually sample the gastronomic and culinary wonder that is the Salmon melt sandwich actually went awry. I picked up my wife from work and she deftly guided me to the Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli location where…

we ended up deeply disappointed. It was almost 6pm.

The place was closed!!

How sad! I razzed my wife about teasing me with a phantom salmon melt sandwich and bringing me too late to the place.

Well, today just by chance we were going by the same neighborhood and decided to try again.
What happened when we got there illustrates the power of word-of-mouth in a small business.

When we got to the counter and tried to order the salmon melt sandwich, we were told they were “sold out of salmon”! We asked about whether there was another Heidi’s located within striking distance, and were told the nearest was in Downtown Denver.

While we stood there wondering what to do next, another couple came by and asked for the same sandwich. When they were told they wouldn’t be able to order the sandwich, they protested that they had “driven one hour … all the way from Colorado Springs” to buy this sandwich.

It turns out the other gentleman and I were in the same boat. His girlfriend had tasted this sandwich and they planned to pick up this sandwich the next time they went to Denver!

Well, the good news was, they found some more salmon and we got our sandwiches!

It really was the best sandwich I’d tasted in a while. (Special note: I’m in no way connected to or affiliated with Heidi’s Brooklyn deli). In my last post, I mentioned how marketing and product experimentation can yield you the difference that makes your business and breaks the back of your competition.

She went on to regale me with the blow by blow account of how she thoroughly enjoyed the sandwich, what ingredients were in it and how I “just have to try it out”.

What can you do in your business to generate that kind of word of mouth?
One of the most powerful ways is to

generate a truly remark-able product or service offering in your business.

Don’t be afraid to experiment! Constant testing and experimentation has been the hallmark of the some of the world’s most profitable businesses. Some of the most popular and profitable sandwiches for McDonald’s Corporation (such as the Big Mac) were the results of experimentation by enterprising McDonald’s franchisees who were given the freedom to try and to test.

Whether you own/run a restaurant or some other type of service business, the same principle applies. One of the easiest ways to generate viral word-of-mouth is by bundling an additional service to your main product or service.

For instance, I came across a spa for built around giving teenage girls the group birthday party experience of a lifetime (complete with a uniquely decorated chauffeur-driven limo to the spa).

Think about what complementary product or service you could bundle with your current offerings to inspire and incite the spread of your marketing message.

Till next time.