C. Richard Weylman says in the Aug 2013 issue of Customer Relationship Management that his notion of a “unique value promise” should now replace the “outdated ‘unique selling proposition’ approach, which emphasizes product features, company attributes, and price.”
This part he’s got right.
Mr. Weylman is correct that marketers and managers must forget about touting their company’s attributes and their products’ features, and speak to the customer only about what she cares about emotionally: the brand’s promise of benefits, valuable outcomes, and experiences.
This part he’s got wrong.
Successful firms I’ve worked with have always defined their “Unique Selling Proposition” in the modern customer-centric, customer-values-centered way, and never defined it as product features and price. We wouldn’t have been keen to switch to Mr. Weylman’s jargon of “unique value promise”. We don’t need any more jargon confusing our budding marketers and salesmen.
His points are already covered by the modern concepts of the successful customer-centered brand. Enough with the new jargon to make our brands sound stronger. Let’s just make our brands actually perform strongly.
Do you agree? Please click “comment” and let’s talk about it.
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