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In the marketing world, the unique selling proposition is usually referred to as the USP, although currently USP is also used to refer to less well defined concepts. For example, in computer industry the USPs are usually defined as those bullet point items listed on the back of the box. Today, a number of businesses and corporations currently use USPs as a basis for their marketing campaigns. ORIGIN In the early 1940s, Ted Bates & Company carried out extensive market research on successful advertising campaigns. In particular they identified two desirable attributes: the ''penetration'' and the ''usage pull''. The penetration is a measure of how many people can recall a given advertising campaign. The usage pull is the difference between people who buy the product in the penetrated and un-penetrated groups. For example, if 50% of people can remember a campaign then the penetration is 50%. If 10% of the un-penetrated group buy the product, and 20% of penetrated group buy the product, then the usage pull is 10%. The pattern they found among campaigns that produced a high usage pull was the basis for the theory of the USP. DEFINITION In his book ''Reality in Advertising'', Rosser Reeves (Chairman of the Board at Ted Bates & Company) gives the precise definition as it was understood at his company: # Each advertisement must make a proposition to the customer: "buy this product, and you will get ''this specific benefit''." # The proposition itself must be unique - something that competitors do not, or will not, offer. # The proposition must be strong enough to pull new customers to the product. Reeves also writes that a USP does not necessarily have to be a verbal message. It can be communicated both verbally and visually. For example, a classic Clairol advertisement showing a picture of a model and just the headline, "Does she or doesn't she?" implied the USP, "If you use Clairol products, people won't even notice that you dyed your hair." However, Reeves warns against forming a USP based on what he calls "The Deceptive Differential" - a uniqueness that is too small or too technical that customers cannot observe the differences in actual practice. EXAMPLES Some good current examples of products with a clear USP are:
Some unique propositions that were pioneers when they were introduced:
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