For a long time, people have been saying the USP – or ‘unique selling proposition’ – is dead.
I’m one of those people.
Sure, there are the odd exceptions, but in the main, there’s such incredible parity between brands and products, that if any unique element is in existence, it’s either [1] unbelievably negligible [2] copied in an instant or [3] through the values of the brand rather than the features of the product.
OK, so that means that when done correctly, the value and benefit of a USP still exists – but with so many brands approaching things in terms of building down to a price, rather than up to a quality – it appears it’s rarer than hens teeth.
But does it have to be?
In my view, no … though the way to achieve it means letting go of your ego, which automatically means it’s an obstacle that few brands would be willing to do.
I’ve previously written about unplanned planning … where you embrace your audiences perception of the brand/product – good or bad – and use that as the foundation of your message.
As I said ages ago, the benefit of this approach is that you’re dealing with a perception that already exists in your audiences mind, so it’s easier to nudge them along or reframe their perspective than taking unbelievable amounts of time, effort and money to try and convince them to view things in a way they might never accept or believe.
Of course it’s not a new view – or a guarantee of success – however, in these days where planners are trying to push things into more and more ludicrous territories, maybe embracing the honesty of the situation is more of a pragmatic position than saying chewing gum is the stress ball for the mouth or something similar.
What the fuck am I going on about?
OK, you got me, all this is to simply justify using a picture a mate of mine sent me recently.
God I’m pathetic.
So to stop boring you any more, let’s get to it shall we?
A while back I wrote that Facebook’s demise might be inevitable.
While that situation looks far away, it hasn’t stopped companies from trying to launch similar platforms in a desperate bid to not get left behind.
While I do think that at some point in the future, younger generations will want a social platform that doesn’t have their brother/sister/father/mother/teacher/boss on it, maybe the way Google+ could start encouraging this transformation is by embracing their USP failure [depending on what data you use to justify that position] rather than trying to push a benefit few care about or want.
Maybe something like this:
Wow, all that post just so I could use that simple picture.
Wasn’t worth it, was it.
Sorry.