Is the premise the same as the USP (unique selling point)?
You probably already know about the USP (unique selling point), or unique selling point (proposition). It’s an advertising concept that dates back many decades, but if you’re not familiar with it, here’s a quick explanation.
An advertising guy named Rosser Reeves published a book called Reality in Advertising back in 1961. It was in that book that he introduced his concept of the unique selling proposition.
Reeves said a USP (unique selling point) has three components:
- Each advertisement must make a proposition to the prospect. Each must say, “Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”
- The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot or does not, offer.
- The proposition must be so strong that it can pull over new customers to your offer.
Another way to think of the USP (unique selling point) is as a “remarkable benefit.”
In this day and age of fierce-competition, it’s difficult to offer features that no other competitor can. So now the modern practice of positioning is all about the space your messages occupy in the mind of your prospective customer and how well you match up with their worldviews.
This is what finding a strong premise is all about. Often, it simply comes down to telling a different story.
