I came across a new term today, “USP.” It was just thrown into the middle of an article — without definition nor explanation — as though the author assumed you’d know what they were getting at. Common knowledge, right? Well, not to me!
Dutiful scholar that I am, I looked it up. The chief benefit of a college education is in learning how to teach yourself, right? (I still believe that. You don’t, but that’s for another day.)
So what does it mean? “USP” is your “Unique Selling Proposition.” It’s a marketing term that dates back to the 1940s, and as a guy who’s career careens dangerously close to the ad-man-world, I’m kicking myself for not running over it sooner.
The term is pretty self-explanatory once you know what it stands for: It’s your one-of-a-king thing, your product’s panache, that je-ne-sais-quoi that makes your stuff stand out from the competition.
What’ve you got that the other guys don’t? Should be an easy question, but if you don’t know the answer, you really need to take the day off from the grind and think about it.
So that’s what I did today, well, for a minute or two. And I’m thinking I should have a better answer than what I’ve come up with so far: Friendly guy! Reliable! Reasonably priced!
Truth is, I work in the middle of a vast, growing field. What once was a fun niche for the young autodidact — “One of ’em new website thingys for your business!” — is now a mere node in a tangled web of interconnected services: IT, design, marketing, customer relations, communications, point-of-sale, the hawking hucksters of cool, etc.
Which is good for me! There’s a bill-paying synergy that comes with evolving along with a growing industry, if you can handle the chaos.
But I think I should work a little more on that USP — something catchy, something snazzy — while I watch the chips fall as they may. Hey clients! Got something for me?
