How can your product stand out to customers when there are a lot of competitors out there? That’s where a unique value proposition or UVP can be a game changer.
Sticking out in a constantly evolving competitive landscape is hard. To have more customers buy your product, you need to highlight them.
Over here, we are trying to understand how UVP can bring in that change.
Let’s get down to business.
What is a Unique Value Proposition or UVP?
As the name goes, Unique Value Proposition is a phrase or string of words that quickly explains how your product is better than the others.
It reinforces the brand in the minds of your target customers and urges them to end their search for the right product.
A unique value proposition or UVP can be a statement or a lengthy description about the brand or the product that will explain the solution it delivers and the pain point it caters to, in short, it simply conveys what it does; to the customers.
A UVP should cater to the reason why a customer chooses your product over others and give them enough reason to make it a necessity.
How is UVP different from a Tagline or Mission Statement?
While all these three elements focus on bringing the uniqueness of your brand, they are inherently different from each other.
A mission statement is something that speaks of the goal of the company as a whole. While UVP speaks of the uniqueness it can bring to the table for that particular service or product.
A tagline is a short statement that speaks about the brand identity. It conveys the complete idea of the brand in a few catchy words.
Let’s pick Tesla and see its mission statement, tagline, and UVP:
Mission Statement: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
Tagline: Designed for Efficiency. Built for the Future
Unique Value Proposition: High-performance, innovative electric vehicles and energy solutions with cutting-edge technology, sustainability, and self-driving capabilities—delivering superior efficiency, safety, and an unparalleled driving experience.
Why is Unique Value Proposition (UVP) Important?
Having a unique value proposition for the brand can bring a lot of positives to the table. Let’s look into them:
Making Customers Notice
In most cases, whatever you are selling is already having a good amount of competitors. Why would a customer make a switch just because you exist in the market?
So, to make sure that your target audience purchases your product; you need to present them with a driving factor. This driving factor needs to be communicated to your audience through a unique value proposition.
You will be able to help your target customers to understand what extra you are offering them. You can communicate that the product or service does not solve one but more of their dilemmas.
Making Price Just a Number
A strong unique value proposition can help people to overlook the price of the product or service. Whatever you are offering needs to be explicitly mentioned in your UVP.
The usual notion is that if you want people to buy your product, it needs to be sold at low prices. If this was the case brands Apple, Gucci, etc. would cease to exist.
If the customers understand why your prices are over the top, then they will still make that purchase. So, a solid UVP can help in increasing sales and your profit margin.
What should a Good Unique Value Proposition have?
For crafting a strong UVP, the following key components need to be present:
- Clear and Concise: While UVP doesn’t require it to be short as a tagline, it is also not expected to be as descriptive as a mission statement. A few words to sentences can comprise a UVP. The point needs to be conveyed with clarity without much beating around the bush.
- A strong emotional appeal: A UVP devoid of any sentiment will fall flat. The unique value proposition should be able to strike a chord with the pain point of the customer.
- Quantifiable Benefits: Numbers are bound to catch the attention more easily than text. Let’s say you include the percentage of useful ingredients used in the product which will give it better credibility than other products in the market.
For example, we can take “Stripe Payments“. If we are to mention the obvious like it’s a payment gateway, it will not work. Instead, striking up a conversation about who it is for, and what exactly it brings to its audience is where a successful UVP thrives.
The UVP focuses on who it is targeted for, how it functions, and how it’s going to help you.
How to Write a Strong Unique Value Proposition?
Know Your Audience
Having a rock-solid knowledge of your audience is a necessity before crafting a UVP. Understand the basic demographics of the crowd you are selling the product to.
Even if you claim that you sell to a general audience, there will still be some elements that you will need to filter to get the right bracket of audience.
Get the Pain Points Right
Once you figure out the customer base, the next step is to pick the pain points they are facing.
Aligning the UVP addressing the exact dilemmas of the customers can garner their attention easily. A quick survey of your target customers can help understand what they are facing and the product they are looking out for.
Figuring out what the customer prefers, their needs, fears, etc. can help you craft a strong UVP.
Asking “So what” yourself
Funny, right? Bear with me, it will make sense.
Ask yourself “So what?” after you list down each feature that you’re offering. This will help you get rid of common features.
Say you are someone offering spa service.
I offer Spa Services.
“So what?”
I give it 6 days a week.
“So what?”
I give special Spa treatments for chemically treated hair. Now, this can make the cut and be part of your UVP.
Add points that will help you be picked from the pool of people who provide similar products or services.
Create a Vision Board
A vision board can help place different features and help you string them together with ease.
When you can project your ideas visually, it will bring in more understanding. Shortly after, you will see your UVP shaping up.
The vision board can have your customer profiles and the core benefits of your product.
Contain it in One Small Sentence
The clearer you are with your UVP, the easier it becomes for customers to absorb it.
Writing paragraphs altogether to speak about your product or service will bore your customers.
You can create a lead statement and have not-so-prominent features to follow up as additional sentences.
Mistakes to Avoid while Creating UVP
- Using generic language
- Being vague about the concept
- Not understanding what customer needs
- Not doing A/B testing and implementing the feedback, if done.
Conclusion
Getting an excellent unique value proposition for your brand or product or service is indeed a task. To make sure you ace it, it’s necessary to set the premise and then follow the points listed above religiously. Good luck creating your UVP!
FAQs
- What is a Unique Value Proposition (UVP)?
A Unique Value Proposition is how you convey the specific problem your product or service solves, its unique benefits, and why it’s different from anything else in the market.
- What makes a good UVP?
A good UVP is specific, clear, customer-focused, highlights unique benefits, and resonates with the target audience.
- How is a UVP different from a USP?
A Unique Value Proposition (UVP) focuses on the overall value a company offers, while a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) emphasizes a product’s unique feature.
- How can I test if my UVP is effective?
Test your UVP with A/B testing, customer feedback, conversion rate tracking, and analysis of user engagement metrics.
- Can a business have multiple UVPs?
A business should aim to have a core UVP. However, different products can have their own UVP.
