USP or Slogan: Which Is Which?

Photo by photosteve101 (Creative Commons)

I recently attended a small business workshop where discussion centered around developing a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) (also sometimes called "Unique Selling Point"). For those of you who don't know, a USP is what distinguishes your business or your craft from others offering the same products or services. paNASH Style's USP has always been "Advancing your image toward success in life and career!"

USPs are not just for business owners, but they are also for job seekers who must define their personal brand and for the recording artists I work with who must be able to articulate what makes them and their music different from all the other aspiring artists out there. There is a process I take my clients through to help them in determining their USP. From that, we are able to create an image around their USP and personal brand.

At the workshop, someone asked a great question: "What is the difference between a USP and a slogan?" The presenter did a good job of making the difference clear. He explained that a USP is a statement that summarizes the mission of the overall company or brand (click here to see the difference between branding and marketing, PR, and advertising), while a slogan is used for individual campaigns, such as a single or album release, promotion of a new service or product, a book release (i.e. the tagline of my book Advance Your Image is "Putting your best foot forward never goes out of style."), etc.

The speaker also explained that a USP is different from your elevator pitch (which I like to call your "impactful dialogue") in that, it's not something you announce to people aloud in introducing yourself, but instead it's something that eventually becomes an unspoken thing that you are already known for because your actions support your USP.

Hopefully this insight will help you have a better grasp on what a USP is and get you to thinking about your own if you don't already have one. If you need help going through the process of putting your brand into a USP, let us know. It's part of what we do!

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