The Unique Selling Point

Posted by Faza on July 23, 2009 under Music business |

Having made some nasty remarks about Mike Masnick’s wonder-formula recently, I feel that I may have left those looking for helpful advice dangling. It was never my intention to simply criticise what others are proposing on this blog, so I feel I owe you some further elaboration on how we can use the mechanisms underlying Masnick’s idea. You should be aware of course that none of this is new and yet not a lot of people seem to be writing about it (I chalk that down to the new-media fetish). Back to basics, then.

The Marketing Mix quoted in my aforementioned post is a key part of Marketing 101 and I feel that aspiring artists could do with some knowledge on how to use it. The topic begs a number of posts (and possibly a better expert, since I am by no means a marketing major), so I’ll try to stick to manageable chunks. Today we will look at the question of the Product and specifically at one factor that can make or break it - especially in the context of music. The concept is called the Unique Selling Point (or Proposition).

Some reference may be in order first, so here’s what the collecitive wisdom of Wikipedia has to say on the subject. One thing worth noting is that the idea has been around since the 1940s (so, as we’ll later see, Masnick’s formula is indeed nothing new).

The idea is really very simple and very much a case of “just like it says on the tin”. The Unique Selling Point (or USP) is the reason why customers would want to buy our product, instead of our competitors’.

The first thing we should realise is that our USP is a selling point: it must be a feature that is sufficiently desireable to our customers that they will be prepared to pay for it. What do your fans want? Since we’re looking at the music business, it is a fair bet to say that your music is (and should be) your key selling point. I sometimes feel that this point isn’t sufficiently emphasised - if you aren’t playing music that people want to hear, no amount or marketing or net savvy will help you break as a musician. However, it would be unwise to assume that your music is your sole selling point. Music is a social sphere that goes beyond the mere question of organised sound - people get a lot more out of being music fans than a simple listening pleasure. Just what these factors are will depend on the genre of music you are active in and the scene you’re part of, so the only really helpful advice I can give is “know your fans”.

The second key issue about the USP is that it needs to be unique. Here’s where the Internet has made things messy. Before Napster, the artist (or rather her label) was very much in control of where people got her music. Copyright law ensured (and still does to some extent) the unique part. If you wanted to hear a given song whenever you felt like it, you bought the record. For the most part, it worked. What file-sharing changed was that your key selling point - your music - was no longer unique. Potential customers may choose to get your music from you (or through a source that pays you a share of revenue, such as iTunes) or they may get it from any number of completely unaffiliated sources via the magic of P2P (or Rapidshare). What’s worse, those unaffiliated sources are in a position to undercut your prices to a point where you are no longer compete - unlike them you have costs to cover - so their proposition is actually more attractive to the potential consumer. It sucks, but that’s the way it is.

What does this tell us? We should identify a number of selling points in our products and focus on highlighting those that are unique to our proposition. The celebrity nature of the music business is actually our friend here - signed copies, for example, are generally considered to have extra value among fans. What’s more, the value comes not so much from the presence of the signature, but from who actually put it there. Do not misunderstand, by this I simply mean the fact that copies and prints don’t cut it. If our autograph means something to our fans, then we are in a unique position to control where they get it from. It does not necessarily mean that we will be able to charge more for autographed copies, just that people who may have been hesitant to buy in the first place might be convinced to do so if they’re getting something they would not have gotten for free on the Net.

Another potential USP is the fact that something is a limited edition: there are only so many available and not one more. Like the autograph this is something that lies solely in our discretion - no one can alter the limits, nor crash our party, for the sole reason that if they did, the competing product they’d be offering would be lacking the exact thing that is the USP. Limiting a given edition also costs us nothing extra, in fact we are capping the production costs at a level that suits us. Despite all that, the very fact that it is a limited edition (and therefore collectible) may allow us to charge considerably more.

Note: It goes without saying that a limited edition should be substantially different from a normal one. This doesn’t mean that it needs to have a large amount of bonus value items (vinyl collectors will be aware of picture-discs or multi-colour editions, none of which actually add any value beyond collectability), however if a limited edition also has bonus items, the price we can charge can be much higher.

Thus far, we’ve been examining the concept of the USP in a very loosely defined context and it may not quite be clear just what you should be applying it to. Therefore, in conclusion, let me list some possible areas where you should consider this question:

• Yourself as artist/band - Every artist is unique of course, but some are more so than others. What is it that differentiates you from the other artists in your genre or scene? Is it something that potential fans consider valuable? To be honest, I never saw artists as being in direct competition with each other (unlike, say, toothpaste makers), but this is a good test to see if and how you stand apart from the crowd.
• Your recorded music - We’ve already looked at this issue in some depth, but just as a recap: what reasons do your fans have to buy your music from you, as opposed to downloading it for free off the Net? What could convince them to come to you? The upside to competing with piracy is that people will have no second thoughts about buying recordings with a perceived added value if they already obtained them through file-sharing - they’ve lost nothing and they only stand to gain.
• Your live shows - In many ways this is the toughest market of all and one where USP analysis may serve you best. When you go out to play live you are competing with everything that can possibly draw your audience away. Any other event scheduled for the same time, any interesting show on the telly, even a hard day at work can convince someone to skip your show. While the option of hearing your songs live will be a sufficient motivation for a number of fans, the best thing you can do is to create a unique and compelling show that will be considered a must see, at least among your fans. I cannot give you a formula, but just be aware that it has to differ from both the listening experience at home and from what competing acts have to offer.
• Other products - Anything you can think of that your fans can’t get elsewhere, anything that derives value from the fact that you’re the one doing it. Look around the net, talk to your fans, get creative.

If you’ve watched the Masnick presentations I wrote about previously, all this might have seemed suspiciously familiar. Yes, nine parts of Masnick’s Reason to Buy is in fact the Unique Selling Point. Now you know. As always, take what I have written as a matter for consideration, not as gospel. Think about how this applies to what you’re doing. Read up on the subject in a marketing textbook, if you’re so inclined. Don’t look for patent solutions, because there aren’t any, but rather turn to your fans and ask “What do they want, that only I can provide?” Good luck!