![]() Visual perception processing is facilitated by Gestalt principles of grouping, such as connectedness, similarity, and proximity. But the biggest brands know that a single-minded proposition is always the most effective tool when it comes grabbing attention and carving out market share.Visual working memory (VWM) is essential for many cognitive processes yet it is notably limited in capacity. You can of course describe multiple benefits in secondary messaging, on your website and in conversations with clients. Anyway, a USP does not have to be something your competitor can’t or doesn’t do – it just needs to be something they aren’t talking about (see the famous Mad Men scene when Don Draper dreams up the ‘It’s toasted’ tagline for Lucky Strike).Īnother sticking point is when marketers are reluctant to identify a USP because it would mean pushing one feature or benefit over the other things their product may be able to do. But this is tantamount to admitting your product is boring – something any self-respecting marketer must never do. Sometimes b2b companies abandon the idea of promoting a USP altogether because they think their product or service is fundamentally the same as their competitors’. However, the USP can be problematic for b2b marketers. And as Kotler found, brands and marketers are finding new ways to be unique. Although the world has moved on from some of its applications in advertising, the need for brands to stand out in a crowded market by promoting a specific benefit that rivals can’t or don’t offer has arguably never been greater. The USP still plays an important role in brand marketing today. And what does Ries consider the best positioning campaign of all time? BMW exerting an unbreakable hold on the driving performance position with its famous slogan ‘the ultimate driving machine’. They said companies should therefore focus on occupying a specific position – and if necessary, dislodging another brand so they could take its place.įor many marketers, the ‘positioning statement’ effectively became a replacement for the USP during this period. ![]() This dynamic duo took a more scientific approach to brand strategy and marketing, arguing that consumers could only hold a small number of brand associations in their minds at once. The USP was still a go-to concept for marketing execs, but now it had a formidable challenger in the shape of positioning, an idea developed by the influential Al Ries and Jack Trout. An increasingly media-saturated culture meant brands were seeking greater efficiency with every campaign, and TV had become the dominant channel for reaching potential customers. In the 70s, strategy replaced creativity as the most powerful weapon wielded by brands and their agencies. He would encapsulate this benefit in a no-nonsense slogan (like the evergreen ‘Melts in your mouth, not in your hand’ for M&M’s) to hammer home the point.Īlthough often painted as a hard-nosed salesman or square in comparison to the creative mavericks who succeeded him, Reeves was a colourful character too – he wrote poetry and was kicked out of university for drunkenly crashing a friend’s car during Prohibition. Working at the Ted Bates agency in New York, he was known for campaigns that zeroed in a single, specific benefit of a product – and then repeated it until consumers could think of nothing else. ![]() However, this revolutionary period was preceded by another, less celebrated age, when an executive called Rosser Reeves ruled the roost. ![]() When they discuss advertising’s past, people often jump straight to the age of clever, creative print campaigns, the era dramatised by Mad Men and exemplified by the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency’s legendary work for Volkswagen. ![]()
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