Week 7: USP

It is key for marketers to understand that there are two categories of features every product/service has: points of parity, and points of differentiation. When you are trying to build credibility in a market, you focus on your points of parity, or what your product/service has in common with market leaders. When you are trying to build consumer loyalty and advocacy, however, you focus on points of differentiation, or what makes your product/service unique from competitors'.

Perhaps the biggest turning point in my advertising career (however short it is) was the day I realized that these two qualities are equally important when you build your career.

The day I realized this was the day I was interviewing for my first agency internship. The strategy director interviewing me asked me, "If you could give me one writing sample that shows how you think, what would you give me?" I was prepared for something like this, and had a small stack of papers I had written to prove my qualifications. The problem, though, was that he only asked for one. I had several that I had written for advertising projects, like research summaries and media plans, but, when I had to pick one, I chose an essay I had written in a creative writing class about a funeral I had visited. That strategy director made it very clear that that decision made all the difference.

Other candidates interviewed had either 1) been unprepared, or 2) given him something like I had considered-- a marketing research paper. My decision had won because my decision had immediately separated me from the rest of the candidates. (It also helped that he really like my essay.)

What I didn't realize at the time was that I had already proved my points of parity, that's how I got the interview. He had seen my resume and my job application questions, he knew I had met the qualifications needed to compete in this category. What he needed then was to know that I had an added value, a point of differentiation that separated my offer from the competitors in this category. Because I had something that proved my point of differentiation, I got the only strategy planner internship for that summer.

Now, as I'm preparing my career goals and plans moving forward, I know that I need to keep my Unique Selling Proposition in mind. The act of doing my job and building my resume will prove my competency in this space, but to be really successful I also need to prove what makes me different from any other planner of equivalent experience. Developing my personal differentiation is as important as developing my actual job skills.

I guess you could call it branding.

-Aaron