USP, RIP
30 May 2011
If I could choose to write my ultimate case study it would be based on the person who popularised the USP. It is the ultimate sales job! I don't know how they did it but the level of trust nearly everyone still seems to place on these three letters and the mythical concept they represent continues to absolutely and totally astound me.
For the uninitiated - and I know there are none but as your narrator I have to be sure - USP stands for ‘unique selling proposition'; a USP is the one thing that makes your service stick out from your competitors' and the one thing that'll make people want to buy it. Please note I say "one thing" and this is because, by definition, the inclusion of the word ‘unique' means USP cannot be plural despite many marketers' best efforts to make you think otherwise! The USP is also the start point for many professional firms' marketing discussions and the point from which many believe any marketing should be hatched.
This may work for breakfast cereal, PCs or raincoats but unfortunately for law firms the hunt to define their very own USP is little more than time wasted.
Let's have a look at some potential USPs. You practice law? I can assure you, you're not alone. You are a high street firm in Maidstone/Maidenhead/Maida Vale. You're not the only one. You have a 20 strong partnership? Chambers would suggest this is hardly unique. You have a strong track record in employment/family/IP/corporate finance? I have come across others. You base your service on being led by your clients and on sector specialisation? Just take a look at 50 law firms' ‘About Us' pages and you'll see such claims are popularist (if not ubiquitous) rather than unique!
I would love to say at this point that I have exaggerated for effect but I may not be as far from the truth as some readers would like me to be. I am sure that if you were to take the litmus test I've just suggested and compare the text from a few ‘About Us' pages on law firms' websites, the results would bear me out.
So what's the answer? To read the full article please click on the link below.
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