U

USP or Unique Selling Proposition A “unique selling proposition” can be understood to be the one aspect of your product or service that is diff erent from and better than products or services from your competitors. In Martin Mayer’s Madison Avenue U.S.A. we fi nd a discussion of this matter. He writes about Rosser Reeves, who helped develop the USP concept, as follows (1959, New York: Harper and Row, p. 49):

“We can’t sell a product,” Reeves says, “unless it’s a good product, and even then we can’t sell it unless we can fi nd the Unique Selling Proposition. ere are three rules for a USP. First, you need a defi nite proposition: buy this product and you’ll get this specifi c benefi t. Pick up any textbook on advertising and that’s what’s on page one-but everybody ignores it. en, second, it must be a unique proposition, one which the opposition cannot or does not off er. ird, the proposition must sell.”