Marketing and your "USP"

Today we look at how to ensure your business has something unique and how to market your business to the customers you highlighted yesterday.

USPs - Your Unique Selling Proposition

When there are many companies wanting people to spend money on their business, one of the most important areas to to focus on something unique that sets you apart from your competitors.

This will set you apart rather than simply being a 'me too' company.

If you simply have the same offering then your potential customers will have difficulty in understanding why they should buy from you.

There are several areas where you can be unique. Have a look through these and decide where you will be.

Developing your pricing policy

Many people think that lowest price is the best but this is not always the case.

A low price can indicate low value or low quality.

Think about where you are positioning your services.

If your services are really a commodity (eg: baked beans..) then price may be a way forward.

However, there is ALWAYS a place in every market for a premium priced company.

Look at the crisp market.

For years, you could buy standard crisps or very cheap ones.

Then, in the UK anyway, Walkers came out with their 'sensations' range - and these have been extremely successful and the price is 50% higher than the market average.

Looking at the service you offer your customers

You can simply have the best customer service around.

If you take some of the retail outlets - look at how they stack up. Some (John Lewis in the UK) pride themselves on excellent customer services but also have market pricing alignment.

Service takes on many different aspects. eg:

next day delivery for free
knowledgeable staff
one to one customer/ staff relationships
speed of service delivery
instant online access to products
etc

Quality and premium products

Like the Walkers crisps example, a high quality premium product may make you stand out.

All markets should be able to with stand a high quality product, but try to assertain the demand for such a item.

EG: There is very little demand now for a premium quality short haul airline.

You DO need to make your service offering stand out - and clearly explain why customers should buy your over everyone else.

How to market your business

I'll cover marketing in brief here, but we'll be sending you free ways to market your business as well as an indepth look at what it is all about in our newsletters.

Marketing is simply identifying and satisfying customer needs.

Marketing communications is a by product of this analysis.

Yesterday you effectively undertook this by highlighting the customers you want and the products to sell to them.

In your business plan you'll need to put a marketing communications plan together.

By understanding who your customers are and where they live/ work - you'll be able to target your messages in the places that they're being looking at or passing by.

As you'll see in all the business planning preparation work, understanding WHO your customers are and the products you'll target to each group is the essential foundations to everything you'll do in business.

So have another look at yesterday's lesson for more.

Planning helps you understand your business. It can be frustrating when there are no customers about and you don't know why.

Planning helps you look at your own business and the businesses of others to get the best of everything.

All the best

Peter Hale
www.teneric.co.uk

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