Let's be honest, particularly few enterprises are really distinctive, and if they are they inhabit a niche that no one else has thought worth exploiting. For most of us the consumer literally has a million possibilities. At the moment I'm searching to get a wood burning stove, a niche item if ever there was one, and a quick Google search turned up 13.two million hits.
So why select 1 above another?
Each sells a generic product, normally an identical item. The costs are substantially of a muchness, so how do they differentiate themselves.
I ask myself the question "what am I really buying?". Is it
- a lump of cast iron looking as although it came from the world of Queen Victoria?
- a way of reducing my fuel bills?
- a centre piece for my room plan?
- the experience of comfort in my old age?
It could reasonably be any one of these so let us turn the question around. What are the 13.two million attainable suppliers supplying?
Some are clearly supplying lumps of cast iron. They have a stripped down organisation delivering the bare minimum service for the stripped down bare minimum cost. That is their USP, their Exclusive Selling Proposition. They have settled on one of the 4 "p"s.
- Product, is their product in any way distinctive?
- Pricing, are they the least expensive
- Placement, are they geographically the best placed to supply you? or
- promotional, are they the most heavily advertised?
This is a gross over simplification of course, but it leads us to ask the suitable questions.
Going back to my search for a wood-burning stove, I want it essentially for the experience of comfort in my old age. I'm appear for a turn-crucial project: someone who will support me select the right stove, then take away my existing fire grate, make excellent the mess that will trigger, install my stove and line my chimney, and supply a genuine right after-sales service. The supplier that will do this, and check on the building regulations, is unlikely to be the least expensive supplier.
This is the crucial process is finding your USP - put your self into your customer's thoughts set. Your item is great but it is your customer's needs, not your own, that you ought to satisfy.
Appear along the high street and check out the supermarkets and check out the package they deliver. I can guess that
- 1 will be the cheapest
- 1 will be the most dependable delivering delivery services and so on
- 1 will cater for the busy working housewife
- one will focus on specialty foods.
Every will have identified its core clients and focussed on their desires. Each and every has a USP, every single is numerous.
