The City School
Heads Conference 2009
Unique Selling Point
What’s your Unique Selling Proposition?
•
The Unique Selling Proposition, hereafter referred to as the USP, is what
makes you and your Product or Service, Unique
•
It is what sets you and your Business – or you as an Individual – apart
from your Competition, in our case - Competitor Schools
•
It can be an Actual Fact or a Perceived difference or Specialty
Every Business Needs One !!!
•
For example, We Educate children, Us and uncountable Schools, on the
Planet , do the same.
What makes Us different from Everybody else?
•
Our Marketing has to answer one Question
“ Why should I seek Admission in your School?”
•
The Problem most Schools have when planning their Marketing Strategy
is that they answer the first part of that Question – “Why should I seek
Admission?” without addressing the second part – “in your School ?”
•
Unless we are providing something that has never in the History of
Education been provided before – we need to Focus on the second
part of the question as our competition has increased
We need to differentiate ourselves from everybody else!!!
Our School needs a USP
•
Its our business’ Unique Promise to customers.
•
It should cut through miles of marketing red tape and categorically tell our
customers that
“ this is who we are and this is what we can do for you that
any other School cannot”
Advertising Jingle or catch - Phrase
•
Our USP may be expressed as a summary of what we do and how we do it
better or differently than others
•
Often a USP Scan be summed up in just a few words that become
something of an advertising Jingle or catch Phrase
•
No matter how we express it our USP should focus on how it benefits the
customer. Here are a few well known examples:
 Mr Burger: Juiciest Burger
They build on the fact that their burger is the juiciest burger in
town which is very true as McDonalds Pakistan, imports the
burger patty from South Africa in a frozen form where as Mr
Burger being a local brand uses fresh meat mince. It is well
known to everyone that fresh meat always makes a better meal.
 Surf Excel: Dagh to Achay Hote Hai!
For every mother/wife, it is very important that all her household
chores are carried out meticulously. Whenever she thinks of her
playing, she discourages play that involves dirtying their clothes.
Surf Excel claims that children should not be restricted from
playing in the sand, painting, using clay as it hinders their
development and anyways Surf Excel can remove ay kinds of
stains.
•
Therefore we as a school need to figure out or build on our USP which is in
some places known as
“The
City School – Leading the Nation in Education”
Target Audience
•
In trying to identify the Unique Selling Points, we need to think about the
target audience for our advert and the factors that our likely to be attractive
to them. It may be helpful to consider some of the following:
 unique Research opportunities for everything new happening in
education
 access to more modern and better research facilities than
elsewhere
 career progression opportunities unlikely to be offered by similar
posts
 greater flexibility in terms of working hours than other similar posts
 opportunities for innovation and creativity
 more variety of work than similar roles elsewhere
 a particularly positive and friendly working atmosphere
What's Unique about Us
•
When we are thinking of running a School, on the surface we are offering the same
thing more or less than that hundreds of other are offering.
How do we set ourselves apart?
•
Look at what we do and how we do it
•
Look at our current customers ( or those we wish to attract).
 What do you do? If you have a broad offering, can you focus on one
or two key services that are most in demand? List your specialties or
niche areas
 How do you do business? Is there something special, unusual, or
significant about the way you do business?
 Who are your customers? Look at the demographics – age,
interests, location (local, all overt the world).
 What do your customers want? Is it low-price, your personality, your
location, your reputation, or something else that attracts customers to
your business? List the benefits that customers derive from you
“there may be very little difference between your product and your
competitors’ –- but if you can’t find a way to communicate uniqueness
and connect it to a need of your target, you might as well quit fighting
your competition and sell out to them. –- Business Town.com”
•
Your Assignment – once you get back to your School
Answer the four questions, above, about your School. Pick out at least one
key point from your answers to each question.
Which one stands out in your mind?
Run your ideas past a few Trusted Friends, Staff members, Parental
body through a questionnaire, to find the one that best expresses what is
special about what you offer.
Now, take what's unique about your School and express it as a benefit to
your customer.