How to paint the most important picture of your brand

What do you believe to be the most effective aspect of branding? More and more often these days there are brands that lack something fundamental at their heart: authenticity. But building up such a deep rooted attribute can be difficult. This is where focus on your unique selling point comes in. Here is a step by step overview of how you might build an effective USP. 

Knowing your audience

Understanding the people you're trying to connect with has to come first in the process. This means narrowing your focus rather than broadening it. Obviously you want everyone to buy your product, but try to imagine who will benefit from it most, and then try to define what it is they want. 

The dramatic question

Every story has what's known as a 'dramatic question': what does this person want, and how do they have trouble getting it? Your USP story is no different. You need to think about how your business can solve this problem. 

How do you come to the rescue?

Once you've identified the dramatic question, you need to think about why your company has something that other businesses can't offer. What is it about your service or product that makes it more important than that of rivals. 

Statement of intent

Now that you're narrowing down what it is a customer needs, and what you can supply, you can start thinking about a promise you can make to the customer: something like a statement of intent for the way you ideally do business. 

Draft up a short manifesto

Now that you have all of these ideas fleshed out, write them up into a half page or so and see what phrases and notions keep reoccurring. Be clear and try to make the language flow as much as possible - this is more the language of a presentation than a quick series of bullet points. 

Narrow it down

Now that you have your presentation of ideas, think about how you can reduce the message it contains into a single sentence, or even two or three key words. This is where you'll see your unique USP begin to appear: the picture of what your business has to offer.