Читать книгу Start & Run a Coffee Bar - Tom Matzen - Страница 51

USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition. The purpose of a USP is to convey to your customers the benefits of what you have to offer. While your business name may be unique, fitting, and memorable, it is usually quite difficult to motivate your customers to come to you just because of your business’s name. A USP is designed to give your customer the major reason to come to you over your competition.

For example, the tag line “Fresh hot pizza in 30 minutes or less” created a fortune for Domino’s because it clearly conveyed to potential customers what Domino’s had to offer over the rest of the competition. Note that Domino’s didn’t say “great pizza” or “mom’s special sauce” — it didn’t describe what it was offering. Instead, it chose to focus on what it could deliver (pardon the pun); it described the benefit to its customers. When choosing a USP, remember that people care about what’s in it for them. Convey to your customers what they get by using your products and services.

Study all the competition in your area and make a list of your competitors’ USPs, but do not necessarily use them as a guide. Most coffee bar owners do not have a powerful USP.

Keep in mind that you want to be different and unique. If you’re not the first in a category, you should create your own category to be number one in (e.g., roaster-retailing or free home deliveries).

While marketing slogans can be your USP, they aren’t always the same thing. A USP is a fundamental positioning statement that tells the customer why he or she should consider you over all other options. It sets a long-term standard for the business. A marketing slogan, on the other hand, is something used to catch attention and build interest through advertising, and, therefore, it will change frequently.

One final point. Once you have developed your USP, test it on your target market (don’t test it out on your mother or father if they don’t fit your customer profile). Spend an afternoon talking with your potential customers; stop them as they walk by your potential site or interview them in the lunchroom of the local college.

When conducting your interviews, don’t ask questions such as, “Which one [USP] do you like better?” or “Do you like this?” These types of questions are too vague and give you little information about your USP and target market. Most people you ask won’t understand that a USP should be designed with the benefits to the customer in mind, not the features of the business, and their feedback won’t be of much help to you. If you end up falling into the descriptive trap, you’ll end up with an ineffective USP that does little to help you establish market share.

Instead, ask this key question: “What does this sentence make you think of?” This is an open-ended question that encourages people to give their true opinion. If people say, “Oh, this makes me think of taking a package of freshly roasted coffee home to share with my friends,” you are on the right track.

Many USPs in the coffee business are boring, so have fun and be creative.