We always talk with our clients about their USP (unique selling proposition), also known as the unique selling point, and how that is the most important part of brand positioning.
So why and what is brand positioning, and why is developing a USP so important for a business? How can that all be communicated through content?
What Is Brand Positioning?
Brand positioning is simply, how a brand differs from its competitors, and how and when customers or clients remember you. It is where the company is in your market, compared to its rivals, and how unique the strategy will be to stand out from the competition.
This means developing the USP. It is literally what makes a company unique.
This is crucial, because if you don’t know what makes you unique, then you have nothing really to hang your hat on in terms of how to sell your service or product to your client in any way that’s different from anyone else. What can you write about that will get people’s attention and get you noticed?
It is important because the best writing is writing about what you know. If you know who you are, and what makes you unique and what unique value you can offer, then focusing on that in your content will make you immediately stand out. Your content needs to reflect your core values and what you stand for.
As an example, in the case of starting a cosmetic business, it is important to understand what makes a company unique, in order to stand out. Is it some special ingredient that is unique or a stance in the marketplace that the company takes which makes it stand out?
Without a USP, you become just like any other company with nothing to distinguish you from your competition. So how does a company go about figuring out their USP? It can help to read how to develop an elevator pitch.
Brand Positioning Statement
It’s important to take the time to write out a brand positioning statement. This is in order to map out exactly what makes a company unique, and how it can serve a market better than anyone else because of its unique quality.
This is how the company is going to sell itself. This must be reflected in the content so that the entire persona is easily recognized by a prospective client or customer.
If the client is going to have to dig deep to figure out what makes you unique, you’ve already lost them. Therefore, it needs to be spelled out for the client/customer in a simple and concise way within this brand positioning statement. Having the content reflect what makes the company unique reinforces that idea to the client immediately.
As an example, when we started Nova Custom Printing, we had to compete with other businesses in our industry who had millions of dollars to spend on marketing.
We realized immediately that there was no way we could compete with them head-to-head. This meant having to use guerrilla marketing techniques to get noticed. We looked for areas that the big boys were not playing in. For example, we offered no-cost or heavily discounted, low-cost business label manufacturing to prospective clients in order to help us get the word out.
In other words, we distinguished ourselves by going after clients in unique ways that our competition was not utilizing. This meant a lot of networking and referrals from one client to another. We made sure that each and every client was 100% satisfied to the point that they would recommend us to others.
What is a Unique Selling Point?
So, what is a unique selling point then? Is it called the “unique selling proposition”? Or “unique selling point”? Essentially, it means the same exact thing. It’s just a synonym, so we will include it here just so that there is no confusion.
Whether asking, “what is a unique selling point” or “what is a unique selling proposition” is not important. It’s just semantics. What is important is that every company must have one in order to succeed.
Our company’s USP in a nutshell began as “the small business that cares, offering personalized service”, whereas every other company was focusing on numbers, and their bottom line.
Therefore, in our brand positioning statement and our content, we focused on educating our clients on how to get the best bang for the buck. We taught them how to tell if you are getting ripped off or getting a good deal. Is it possible to help people right off the bat to show that we care? We really wanted to make a difference.
So what is brand positioning? To sum up what I’m saying is every company needs to prove what makes it unique through its content. It needs to back up your claim of what makes you unique.
Today, Nova’s USP is literally at the top of the website, “Always Done RIGHT On Time”, highlighting the fact that work is always done correctly and always meets deadlines”. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve lost the original USP. “The small business that cares, offering personalized service”.
That is something that will never change and is still reflected in our current content. So, it’s okay to refine a USP as the company grows.
We hope this article helps in understanding the question, “what is brand positioning”? It is important to keep developing a USP and brand positioning so that a brand can flourish! As always, feel free to email with any thoughts on this article.
