Supercharge Your Product Launch With A Unique Value Proposition

Why should your ideal customer buy your new product and not your competitor’s? If you have an answer for that question, then you’ve already established your unique value proposition (UVP). Ask yourself this: what is it about my product that makes it so compelling that even if it was unavailable, my clients or customers would simply wait for it and not even look at the competition?

Your product needs to be unique and fill a specific niche in order to be competitive in the market. One of the worst mistakes that a small business can make is not positioning themselves as the best choice.

Crafting Your Message

1. Describe the 3 largest benefits of your product
   Explain why it’s important to the consumer. Think about what the product does for them, and what results they expect from a similar item.
2. Think about what makes your product unique
   Your UVP is what makes you different from the competition. This illustrates why your company is the best choice and explains what makes your product or service a necessary item. While there maybe certain features that you have in common with the competition, in order to have a strong value proposition there has to be one area in which your product is significantly better.
3. Solve a “Pain Point”
   Identify a need in your industry that isn’t being addressed. Target your message at that need. By solving a problem or frustrating aspect of your industry, you’re alleviating your prospects’ pain or concerns.
4. Give Prospects Proof
   People are naturally wary of the claims that companies make about their products. You help to ease their cynicism by offering specific proof that your product does what it says it does, whenever you can.
5. Coalesce the first four elements into one sentence
   The best UVPs are so perfectly phrased that you can’t change or move a word. This is what you should be striving for with your message. You want to take all of the details about your product or service from the points above and mold them into one carefully worded sentence.
6. Make sure it’s something you can live up to
   Be bold with your statement. Of course you want to make promises and guarantees that will capture your audience’s attention so that they respond to your message, but be cautious that you don’t over-extend yourself. Failing to deliver on your UVP will tarnish your reputation.

Effective UVPs?

Let’s look at a few statements and see which are effective UVPs:

• The best running shoe in the market.
• The #1 new pillow top mattress.
• Our new laptop offers 4GB of ram and a 300GB hard drive.
• The fastest production car on the planet.

So of these, which are the most effective? Probably none of them. Most consumers are not going to believe generic claims without them being backed up by facts. Anyone can make a claim that they are the best at something or #1 at another. These aren’t things customers will just take you at your word for. You need to back up your claims with proof rather than subjective statements, and you also need to ensure that your claims are unique.

• The best running shoe in the market.
  What makes it the best? You can’t really back this statement up because it sounds like someone’s opinion. What’s the best to one person could be ineffective to another.
• The #1 new pillow top mattress.
  Why should you believe this? Nothing qualifies this statement. What is it #1 in? Sales volume? Sales dollars? It’s not specific enough.
• Our new laptop offers 4GB of ram and a 300GB hard drive.
  Is this the only laptop on the market that does this? Are there no other products that have those features? If that’s the case (which it isn’t), make the customer understand that they can’t get these features anywhere else.
• The fastest production car on the planet.
  While this is a bold statement, it doesn’t give specific information that a customer might need. What is it the fastest at? 0-60? 1/4 mile? Top speed? What does the fastest mean? Again, your goal is to deliver a statement to the consumer that your new product is so unique there is no need to even consider buying from someone else.

Effective UVPs

In today’s market, a business will not be able to survive if it uses the same marketing as everyone else. Your product
needs to have a UVP that separates you from your competition. It needs to position it as the best and only
choice. Here are some positive examples:

• “The nighttime, coughing, aching, sniffling, stuffy head, fever, so you can rest medicine.” – Nyquil It tells you exactly what the product does in a way that implies they’re the only ones who cover all your problems.
• “Our New 15 Step Marketing System Sells Your Home In Less Than 30 Days at Full Market Value” – a fake real estate firm
  Tells people exactly what they can expect with the new service, using specific numbers. Everything is clearly
  spelled out, so there’s no guess work.
• “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” – Federal Express
  The UVP removes all doubt about what service they are supplying. It also gets more specific than simply saying they’ll get your package there on time. They are cutting the market down further, by specifying overnight.
• “Don’t pay a 350% markup to your local jeweler for poor quality diamonds. We guarantee your loose diamond will appraise for at least 200% of its purchase price, or we buy it back.” – a fake Jewelry company
  I know I’d shop there. Just buying and selling back the product at a profit. But you get my point. The details are what make this an appealing statement. You’re talking about specific values with customers; these are the points that they are going to remember.

Conclusion

Putting together a unique value proposition requires a considerable investment of time and effort. In the end it’s worth it because of the advantage you get over your competition. Using a solid UVP makes the job of marketing and selling a product that much easier.

Posted in Marketing, Product Launch Marketing