|
20 Ways to Beat Your Competition
(We really had some fun writing this one!)
Make a list of products/services that compete with yours.
Go to their web sites and compare their offers to yours.
Some elements of comparison and sample USP's:
- Delivery
- Dominos Pizza, "Domino's delivers, 30 minute delivery or your money back."
- Durability
- Energizer, "Outlasts all other batteries.... It keeps going and going and going."
- Performance/Efficiency
- M&M's, "Melt in your mouth, not in your hand."
(Well, that's a type of performance!)
- Tide, "You bought a high efficiency washing machine... Why
wouldn't you buy a high efficiency detergent?"
- What it's made out of
- Ragu, "It's in there!"
(I hated those Ragu commercials, but I sure do remember them.)
- Provides feelings of self worth
- NIKE, "Just do it."
- Kia, "Who wouldn't be proud? Darn good cars. Darn good warranty."
(Now that's my kinda commercial.)
"Feelings of self worth" is one that you can really delve into. Go
back to the article, Product
for more ideas:
- Guarantee/Warranty
- Midas Muffler, "Guaranteed for as long as you
own your car."
- Price
- Walmart, "Rollback the prices."
- Convenience or ease of use
- 7-11, "Open all night."
- Dunkin Donuts, "Time to make the donuts..."
impying that whenever you're ready for a donut,
the donuts will be ready for you.
- Choice
- Verizon, "Whatever you want, whatever you need."
- JCPenney, "It's all inside."
- Saves money
- Geico, "A 15 minute call could save you 15% or more on car insurance."
- Bonuses or Extras
Here's an article on that one:
10 Free Bonuses That Can Ignite Your Profits!
- Process of making the product
- Stouffers, "Nothing comes
closer to home."
- Burger King, "Flame broiled the way you like it."
(If you have a home made or handmade or personalized product,
you can really develop a strong USP.)
- Customer Service
- Burger King, "Have it your way."
(This was an older Burger King USP)
- The ONLY one
- Paxil, "The only mediation proven effective
for social anxiety disorder."
(Can you tell I like to watch the soaps?)
- For the betterment of society
- Phillip Morris, "Working to make
a difference, the people of Phillip Morris."
(This one really irks me, should read,
"Working to bring you lung cancer and liver disease..."
but, I have to give credit where credit is due,
they are doing a heck of a job at re-branding.)
- Expert's Choice
- Metamusil, "The Doctor's natural choice."
- Solves a problem
- thingamajob.com, "Don't get lost in cyberspace. Life 2.0 starts here."
- Dependability
- First National Bank, "Here Today... Here Tomorrow... We have stood the Test of Time."
- Maytag, "The dependability people."
- Complementary Services
Are there other services that
complement the main service that you are offering? (Full Service
or Service Added)
- Targeting Service
We do one thing and we do it better
than everyone else.
Some companies will take a few of the above and encorporate them
into one strong USP. For instance, Kia takes "feelings of
self worth" and "guarantee/warranty" and "dependability" and
rolls them all into a bold USP.
If your competition is using one of the above, then you need to
establish a USP that is different than theirs, attack in a different
way than your competition.
Out of the above 20 examples, has something struck you?
Can you say that your company does one or more of those things
better than all of your competition? That's your USP.
|
