USP's

What makes your company unique ? What is your Unique Selling Point ? Said another way, why should people buy from you. This speaks to the core of the offering you come to market with. It also distinguishes your offering from that of other companies.

Some are obvious - Dollarama, Walmart and Ryanair are all the lowest cost providers, and accordingly draw in audiences and consumers looking to save money as they go about their lives. Others go for premium and exclusive audiences, by producing good and services that are out of reach or unattainable by many - Ferrari, Louis Vuitton or Virgin Galactic sell well through the conceptualization of rarity and being out of reach. Margins are higher on a unit basis in the latter group, but usually the cost of production is as well, to help justify the higher costs.

Most organization are in the middle though, hoping to be selected because they can provide some value that is viewed as unique to themselves. In rare cases, companies have a marketplace all to themselves - Cirque du Soleil for example which just surpassed $1B in annual revenue invented it's space and is seemingly without much competition. (That's a blue ocean strategy according to W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne of INSEAD, but that's another topic). Mostly though, companies compete head-on with each other in the trenches, fighting market-share wars while trying to maintain profitably and revenue goals.

So, if we're head-on with our competition, how do we differentiate - or even more interestingly , do we need to. Ideally, there is something special about what we do - we're faster, more customizable, have higher service levels or even money back guarantees. Perhaps it's because we're ubiquitous. McDonald's is leveraging their location depth these days and starting to understand coffee is the way to get customers in the door - Can I get you a Big Mac with that Latte ?

If there's not something special about what we do, perhaps we're in a segment that is valuable in and of itself. They offer something we can't really do without. The computer hardware industry is like that I think. I'm not sure how the average consumer is supposed to see through the thousands of very very similar offerings from the likes of Dell, HP, etc. You could effectively configure the same machine on paper from any of a number of players, probably for similar price points. This represents the inverse of USP in a manner. Companies are soo alike, that they get a share of business just for being there. This principle is alive and well in many urban areas - fast food restaurants that are co-located, auto-malls and the like. Mobile telephone companies operate in a similar world - we're 'a viable alternative' or a 'me-too'.

So the next time you look for a company to buy from, decide if a 'me-too' is good enough to satisfy your need, or if you actually need something unique in whatever it is you are looking for. Me too is a busy little space where buyers often dictate prices, but its usually one size fits all.