The unique selling proposition separates you and your product from the competition. But in too many cases, there is little or no difference between one product and another.
But the product does not have to be different. You can claim something that both you and your competitors are doing.
Saving Schlitz
This example goes back about 100 years. Claude Hopkins, a legendary copywriter, got the Schlitz Beer account, but couldn’t come up with any hooks. All the brewers advertised that their beer was pure, but the statement did not sway the public.
Find the hook
He went to a brewing school to learn the science of brewing, but found no answer he went to the brewery. Here is his description of how he came up with a solution:
“I saw glass rooms where the beer was dripping on the pipes and I asked them why. They told me that those rooms were filled with filtered air, so that the beer would cool with purity. I saw large filters filled with wood pulp. They explained how it was It filtered the beer. They showed how they cleaned each pump and pipe twice a day to avoid contamination. How each bottle was cleaned four times with machinery.
I returned to the office in amazement. I said, ‘Why don’t you tell people these things? Why are you just trying to cry louder than everyone else because your beer is pure? Why don’t you say the reasons? ‘Why,’ they said, ‘the processes we use are the same as others use. No one can make good beer without them. ‘ ‘But’, I replied, ‘others have never told this story. Astonish everyone who passes by your brewery. It will start them all in print ‘”.
The results
He was right and that’s the story he told in the ads. Within a few months, Schlitz jumped from fifth place to a tie for first place.
Hopkins had created a USP, a real difference in the public eye, even though the brewery used the same process as other breweries. He said owners and managers are often too close to the problem to see it.
This is a situation that occurs in most advertising problems. The article is not unique. It does not contain great advantages. Perhaps countless people can make similar products. But tell us about the efforts you take to excel. List the factors and characteristics that others consider too common to claim. Your product will come to typify those excellences. “
Last long
Now Schlitz remained among the pioneers of American beers for more than 60 years. And an ad campaign helped bring the powerful brand down quickly. That campaign featured an angry-looking boxer who asked “do you want to ‘take my taste off?” The public hated what became known as the “drink Schlitz or I’ll kill you” campaign.
By one estimate, Schlitz lost 90% of its value between 1974 and 1982 when it was sold. Too bad Claude Hopkins wasn’t there. Maybe I could have found another good PVU for them.