USPs were developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Rosser Reeves. Over the decades, they have proven to be a very effective medium for advertising. This has been true for giant corporations and even small businesses and service professionals.

Some of the most popular USPs have been used for decades. I’m sure you’ll recognize these two…

“Wonder Bread helps build strong bodies in eight ways.”

“Certs breath mints with a magic drop of retsyn.”

USPs are everywhere, if you take the time to notice. Keep learning about this positioning tactic and you’ll probably never look at advertising the same way again!

In addition to being used in highly effective ad campaigns for the past fifty years, America’s highest-paid marketing consultant Jay Abraham also recommends its use. He has helped giant corporations like Holiday Inn and Taco Bell with their marketing campaigns, as well as small businesses.

Jay Abraham is also a prolific writer who has put his marketing genius to writing and has hosted seminars (if you have the opportunity to purchase any of his books or attend one of his seminars, I highly recommend it). He never hesitates to suggest the use of USP for any type of business in any of his courses or seminars.

So whether you offer a service or a product, you need to find a way to differentiate your business from your competitors. It doesn’t matter if you are a dentist, hairdresser, real estate agent, accountant, doctor, lawyer, graphic designer, etc…

-Prayed-

Whether you offer tools, cleaning products, websites, how-to books, seminars, or anything else imaginable…

Using a unique selling proposition in your business will only benefit you.

This is what will allow you to make a profit pulling USP.

* Find a niche and position yourself as the ONLY option for that niche.

* Put your product or service on a different level than your competition, catapult it to a higher business plane and allow you to sell in a vacuum (ie, without direct competition).

* Protect you from market fluctuation.

* Free yourself from meaningless advertising and make your product or service be remembered more than any other in your market.

* Give greater preference to your company’s products and services so you can charge more and customers will happily pay your higher price.

Sounds interesting? Well, I certainly hope so.

Profit Pull USP Examples

Last time, I gave you some proof of the value of using a unique selling proposition. In this part of the course, I would like to provide you with some examples of profit extraction USPs.

But first, I want you to be aware of the power of an USP. You may want to think of a USP as a marketing strategy. Without a well thought out strategy, your advertising will send random messages that have no common theme.

This will prevent it from being as effective as it would have been if you had a strategy in place.

It would be like a basketball team without a game plan. Without strategy, players will move around the court, aimlessly, and their game will surely suffer. Even if they are the best players in the world, without a consistent game plan they probably don’t stand a chance against opponents with a well thought out strategy.

As you’re hopefully starting to see, it’s hard to have any sort of cohesive marketing message or “game plan” without an USP. Most companies struggle to attract new customers by shouting “we’re the best” or “buy from me.”

So how do the experts do it?

Okay, I’ll give you a couple of examples of well-known USPs. First of all, let me say that it is easy to overlook the power of these USPs because we are so familiar with them. But within each of them is the key to multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. While a multi-million dollar campaign probably isn’t what you’re after, pinpointing what makes these timeless IPs tick is still very important. So let’s give it a try and start with Head & Shoulders: “Healthy, beautiful, dandruff-free hair.”

If you’ve ever been in the shampoo aisle at the supermarket, you’ve seen it. And there are literally hundreds of shampoos to choose from. So when Head & Shoulders came out, who would have noticed, right?

Wrong. All because they noticed that Head & Shoulders targets people with dry, flaky scalps. People with dandruff. And this made all the difference in his campaign.

Without its anti-dandruff power, Head & Shoulders would be just another shampoo.

Can you see the power in selecting a target audience; do you have a doghouse?

Of course, people who don’t have dandruff won’t be as interested. But Head & Shoulders pretty much has a monopoly on the dandruff crowd, and has for decades. They were the first (that I know of) to cater to people with dry scalps and are still going strong today. It’s a unique concept and although it seems obvious now, it was very creative at the time.

Papa John’s – “Best Ingredients. Best Pizza. Papa John’s.”

Papa John’s is owned by John Schnatter. His pizzeria would have been just another local pizzeria were it not for its unique positioning in the market. He wanted to stand out and he did. It delivers on the promise and has been tremendously successful. Who would have thought that having the best pizza toppings would be a key to pizza success?

Also notice how this USP implies that other pizza restaurants aren’t using the freshest ingredients? This includes an extra powerful punch. Notice how any of these companies could have chosen to simply say “we’re better,” but they didn’t. Instead, they took it much further by being specific.

Hopefully, you’re starting to see the power of a USP. You don’t want to be just another dentist, mechanic, dry cleaner, or just another salesperson. You don’t want to just offer another set of tools, another “how to” book, or another cleaning detergent. You want to stand out!