Page 124 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

58 FIND THE USP

The USP or unique selling proposition is what makes your product
stand out from everyone else’s. However, what you think the USP
is may not be the same as what your customers think it is—a
restaurateur might, for example, think that the quality of the food
is the USP whereas it may be that the waiters and waitresses are
exceptionally attractive people.

Finding the USP may involve carrying out some basic market
research, but it will certainly pay off when you come to design your
promotional campaign.

The idea

K Shoes is a small shoe manufacturer based in Kendal, in the
English Lake District. The company is known for producing good-
quality, sensible footwear rather than high-fashion shoes: K shoes
last longer and wear better than other shoes, and one might be
forgiven for assuming that this is about as good a USP as one could
hope for.

However, some basic research among K shoe wearers revealed
something else—K shoes don’t squeak. Even when new. For the
wearers, this was the true USP, and was (for them) a sign of the
quality of the shoes.

K Shoes used this information to develop an advertising campaign
in which the advantages of non-squeak shoes were promoted in
a humorous way. For example, one K Shoes advert showed a wife
sneaking up on her husband while he was dining with another

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