How to Create a Unique Value Proposition & Integrate it Into Your Marketing Campaign

We live in a cutthroat world where competition is fierce. As the old adage goes: you snooze, you lose! Business owners typically find themselves competing with many other companies also offering the same products & services, or the best they can do is compete on a price war strategy, ie if you drop your prices, I will too, which is not a smart strategy, as you end up  devaluing your products/services or tarnishing your brand image. Therefore, business owners must learn to create a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) for their target customers to gain an edge over their competition.

As a multi-award winning Digital Marketing Agency in Sydney, at Clixpert, we’ve helped thousands of businesses identify and leverage their UVP, and convey this message through the marketing campaigns we manage for our clients.

Read on to discover how your business can benefit from creating and integrating a Unique Value Proposition into your marketing efforts.

What is Value Proposition?

How to determine your brand’s Value Proposition

 A Value Proposition is a promise that you make to your target customers on the value they will get from purchasing your products or services. It is the main benefit that your customers will get when they become your customers.

Your company’s Value Proposition should answer the question, “Why should your customers choose you over your competitors?” Likewise, a value proposition should convince potential customers why your products or services will give them more benefits than choosing what other companies are offering.

What is Not a Value Proposition? 

A Value Proposition is the promised value that your customers will get when they become your customer. However, most people get confused about a Value Proposition and cannot distinguish it from buyer incentives and company slogans. To help clarify what a value proposition is, it is best to first understand what it is not. A Unique Value Proposition is not the same as the following marketing tools.

Incentives

Incentives are instant rewards that prospective customers will receive once they engage with your brand and become your customers. An example of an incentive is offering a discount on their next purchase or giving them one month free upon paying for a year’s subscription. While an incentive creates a positive motivation for your site’s visitors to act immediately, they should not be confused with value propositions. A Value Proposition informs your target audience of the benefits they will get in becoming your customers. However, it does not incentivise them to make a purchase right away.

Catchphrase, Slogans or Taglines

Catchphrases and tag lines are soundbites from commercials that help in brand recognition. Likewise, they are pieces of marketing copies written to briefly let people know what your brand is about and what you want your potential customers to know about your company. However, tag lines, slogans, and catchphrases should not be confused with value propositions since they do not communicate what sets your brand apart from your competition.

For example, Nike’s “Just do it” tagline does not communicate what benefits you will get when you engage with the Nike brand. However, this tagline is compelling since people can instantly recall Nike’s brand when they hear or read these three words. On the other hand, the Value Proposition of Nike is that it inspires anybody to become an athlete because of its superior athletic products. Therefore, Nike’s value propositions revolve around the concepts of accessibility, innovation, customisation, and status as the benefits that their customers will get.

Positioning Statement

While positioning statements emphasize the benefits of purchasing a brand for a specific customer persona, they should not be confused with value propositions that give you the larger sum of the value you would get from a specific brand. In a nutshell, a value proposition tells the target audience the whole range of benefits that a brand offers, while positioning statements are subsets of the value proposition created to communicate these benefits to a highly specific customer persona or segment.

Nike’s value proposition of accessibility, innovation, customization, and status offers the whole picture of customers’ value when they choose Nike. In addition, however, marketers can create positioning statements focusing on customisation, specifically targeting runners who need customizable running shoes based on their pronation or the natural movement of their foot when they run.

Why are Value Propositions Important?

1. Convinces Customers to Choose Your Brand

Make Your Brand More Desirable with a Unique Value Proposition

A Value Proposition is important because it communicates what benefits your customers will get when choosing your brand. Likewise, value propositions explain to your customers why working with your brand is one of the best decisions they will ever make. Finally, a value proposition will let your clients determine how your products and services offer solutions to their problems.

2. Makes Your Brand Stand Apart from Your Competitors

Make Your Brand Stand Apart with A Unique Value Proposition

Likewise, a value proposition will set your brand apart from your competition. This statement will make your products and services stand out from others that are similar. Therefore, your brand’s value proposition needs to be at the front and centre of all your marketing campaign efforts.

Your visitors should find your Unique Value Proposition on your company’s homepage (or slogan, or in its marketing headline) and every common entrance point of your site’s visitors, including blog posts, landing pages, and product pages. A well-written unique value proposition will not be effective in driving sales if potential customers cannot see it.

What are the Common Mistakes People Make in Creating a Unique Value Proposition?

A well-written and effective Unique Value Proposition should answer the question, “If I am your target customer, why should I choose your brand instead of your competition and what’s unique about your business that no other business can offer?” While this may seem like a simple question to answer, most companies struggle to sum up their answers in one simple statement. 

The main reasons why companies have difficulty in Creating their Unique Value Propositions are as follows:

Not Having Proof

Companies may have not yet identified what sets them apart (makes them unique) from their competition and what value they could give their customers. Likewise, companies do not have proof to substantiate their claims of offering unique value to their customers.

Using superlatives such as “Best Ever” or “The Most Effective” is not a good way to start your value proposition if you do not have the statistics to back your claims. Zoom, for example, can write a value proposition as being the top video conferencing platform since a Gartner analysis backs their claim.

Not Being Clear

The company is ineffective in communicating the value they are offering to their target customers. You know what your products and services can offer people, and you believe that customers can benefit and find value in what you are offering. However, are you communicating these benefits to your potential customers? Most often than not, when your company does not communicate your brand’s selling points and why customers should choose you, these customers will likely find a company that does.

Not Testing

The company is not testing or measuring the effectiveness of its Unique Value Proposition. You may think that you have created an Effective Unique Value Proposition; however, when you do not test it, you may find out too late that the language you use does not resonate with your target market. Therefore, it is vital to test the keywords you will use in writing the propositions to make your target audience understand them better.

How to Effectively Write a Unique Value Proposition? 

A strong Unique Value Proposition is a statement that will articulate your brand’s benefits, advantages (which must be unique) over your competition and explains why choosing it is the best decision for your customers. However, Writing A Value Proposition is not as easy as it seems. You will need to conduct extensive research and brainstorm ideas to develop an effective value proposition that will drive sales, and essentially one that no other competitors are offering in the marketplace.

Here are some of the steps to form a Unique Value Proposition for your brand.

Go Back to Your Brand Identity

It is best to always refer to your company’s mission and vision. However, if your mission and vision statements are vague or poorly worded, you will find it difficult to identify the values that you can offer your target market.

Identify Your Company’s Vision & Mission

To know your brand identity, it is important to answer these questions:

• Why does your brand exist?
• How does your company want to shape the future?
• What principles does your brand follow?
• What’s unique about your brand?

For example, suppose you are marketing a sustainable fashion brand that is more expensive than mass-produced clothing. In that case, you can answer the above questions by formulating a value proposition as such:

“Mass-produced clothes deplete natural resources faster while producing low-quality, short-lived clothing that will end up cluttering the Earth. Our clothes are made from sustainable production to produce eco-friendly and high-quality fashion items.”

Determine Your Brand’s Advantages

Identify all the benefits and value that your brand can offer your target customers. It is best to include the functional and the emotional benefits that choosing your brand can give your customers.

Find Your Brand’s Competitive Edge

For example, suppose your brand comes from sustainable production. In that case, you can include benefits such as high-quality, Earth-friendly, and list down the emotional benefits of pride and be guilt-free for choosing “Green” products.

Match Your Brand’s Advantages with Your Customer’s Problems 

This part is when your value proposition leads to your positioning statements. For your value proposition to become effective, it is best to ensure that it reaches the customers who use these benefits. One way of doing this is to create a plausible customer persona with specific problems that match your brand’s solutions. 

Match Your Brand’s Value Proposition with Your Customer’s Problems

 For example, runners have different types of pronation and supination that can cause their feet to ache if they use the wrong kind of shoes for running. Therefore, Nike offers shoes that customers can customise for their running style to ensure maximum comfort. In this example, Nike has successfully matched their UVP to their target customers’ problems, offering them an effective solution.

It is best to focus on the most important issues your target customers face and enumerate how your brand can solve them. It is important to remember that your customers will want to hear how your brand will solve their problems and not be told of your product’s features.

Explain Why Your Company is the Best Provider For that Unique Value

A good Value Proposition should differentiate your brand from your competition. It is best to conduct competitor research and look at their value propositions once you have matched your customers’ problems with your brand’s solutions. Knowing your competitors’ value propositions will help you create a value proposition that will beat their existing ones.

It is best to focus on why your customers must choose you as a provider over your competitors. For example, your main competitor might be a fashion company that offers less expensive clothes manufactured in China or a foreign country; you can highlight that your brand is locally made and emphasize the emotion of pride and the “buy local” movement to make your brand stand out.

Framing Your Value Position

After knowing your brand identity, listing down your brand’s advantages, listing down problems that your brand can solve, and differentiating your company from your competitors, it is now time to frame your value proposition into an attention-grabbing sentence. However, it is still acceptable if your value proposition reaches three sentences long.

It is best to try different approaches in your wordings or language to develop an effective value proposition. A value proposition with more than three sentences will not be effective since its length cannot easily be memorized or kept at heart by your customers. If you come up with a lengthy value proposition, take time to shorten it into one to three sentences in length.

Testing and Refining Your Value Proposition

You may end up having several value propositions after your brainstorming. For example, your fashion brand may end up having two value propositions such as “We are the leading manufacturer of affordable yet ethical clothing” or “We supply high-quality clothing that works with the environment.” If you do, it is best to run A/B tests to figure out which value proposition will work best with your target market.

To test different value propositions, you can launch landing pages containing different value propositions and determine which pages will yield better results. Likewise, you can conduct surveys to let you know which statements are more effective with your target audience.

Once you have identified the most effective Value Proposition, it is best to make it a core piece of your marketing efforts and make it visible in your website’s contents. Remember that an effective value proposition will let your potential customers understand who you are, what value you offer, and why you are above your competitors.

One of my favourite unique value proposition that helped the business increase sales and brand reputation, is the one from Dominos Pizza ie:

“We deliver Pizzas in less than 30 mins or else it’s free.”

[Source: https://www.dominos.com.au/30-min-or-free]

Another great example of a recent UVP or USP is from BWS (Beer Wine Spirits, a part of Woolworths). Due to Covid19 lockdown, they have come up with a new Unique Selling Proposition i.e. “We deliver with an hour, or get free delivery on your next order” – this has helped Woolworths increase their sales.

[Source: https://bws.com.au/help/delivery-guarantee]

Contact Clixpert to help establish your Unique Value Proposition to fuel your marketing campaign and make it more valuable to your customers & supercharge your Brand.

At Clixpert, our branding and marketing consultants have helped thousands of businesses identify and promote their Unique Value Proposition. Sometimes, having a new set of eyes can help you look at your business from a completely different perspective and find that one ‘something’ that only you have to offer. For marketing consultation, digital marketing services and more, get in touch with us today.

CALL 1300 254 973

Despite the lockdown, it’s business as usual at Clixpert! Please call us to book a virtual meeting (via Zoom or Google Meet) and our staff will be more than happy to accommodate your request.