“Do you prefer boxers or briefs?”
It’s a bit of a personal question, and it can often tell you quite a lot about someone.
Not only that but the way someone answers that question can tell you even more.
The same is true when it comes to your company and your branding. Because what’s on the surface is rarely what compels a customer to pick your product or service over one of your competitors; it’s usually what you have going on underneath.
That’s why it’s important for you to know the message you’re sending with your unique selling point, and to capitalize on it as strongly as possible.
For example…
#1: What Impression Do You Give With Your Unique Selling Point?
The worst possible thing you can be when it comes to business is boring.
Just regular old tighty whiteys; sure, you’ll do the job, but no one is ever excited about you.
You’re a fallback position, for when there aren’t any other options.
Instead, you want your brand to have some zing to it.
Even if it’s something as simple as a Superman pattern on the same old underwear, that can get you noticed.
Are you strong? Adventurous? Refined? Sensual?
Your branding needs to reinforce your identity because that is going to be the identity your customers are looking to add to their own by making a purchase.
#2: What Features Do You Offer?
For some people, underwear is just underwear.
They find a kind they like and just stick with it until something changes their mind, or makes them realize they’ve been missing out. Which is where your unique selling point comes in.
So what do you offer that the competition doesn’t?
Are you more supportive in those sensitive areas?
Do you stretch to accommodate?
Are you specially designed in order to help people keep cool?
Do you help prevent chafing?
Whatever it is you do that your competition doesn’t do (or just doesn’t do as well) is something you need to drive home to help make your sale.
Because if your customers can’t get this anywhere else, then they’ll come to you.
#3: What Makes You Stand Out?
Picture those underwear ads you used to see in the newspaper.
You’d have two or three male models standing around in roughly the same set of underwear.
Each one might be a different color, but they’re pretty much the same in every other respect.
And if the ad was in black-and-white, you’d be hard pressed to really see any difference at all.
Being different and unique in a meaningful way is key to standing out in your market.
That’s why you need to look around and ask what your business is doing that no one else is.
Because it’s true, you might be a sporty set of supportive boxer briefs that come in race car red, but what if the same can be said of your competition as well?
In that case, you’ll need to bring something different to the market… like loosening up so that you can be the only set of patterned boxer shorts in a market saturated by briefs.
#4: Who Else Is Wearing You?
We’ve all seen celebrity endorsements for underwear before, perhaps most famously when Michael Jordan was the spokesman for Hanes and all of the various products they made.
However, when it comes to your product or your business, it’s the reviews and testimonies of real users that will help you clinch the victory.
It’s one thing to say that your underwear is the most comfortable, supportive option out there.
It’s something else for a dozen people who actually wear it day in and day out to make that claim.
So whenever you can, reach out to the people who actually use your product, and incorporate that feedback.
Often it’s the testimonials of the regular users that will sway other people to give you a try, even if your branding game is spot-on.
#5: Are You Offering What People Need?
Everyone needs underwear, there’s no denying that.
However, it’s important to ask if the people you’re trying to sell to actually need the kind of underwear you’re trying to pitch them.
The same is true when it comes to your unique selling point and the basis of your branding and marketing efforts.
Because no matter how unique your product is, or how refined your pitch, if it doesn’t mesh with your audience’s needs, then you simply aren’t going to be able to move that product.
Put another way, there are definitely advantages to high-end, supportive underwear worn to help athletes in training, and which will stand up under the rigors of a professional game.
But if your customers are looking for more of a loose and free boxer shorts kind of experience, then they just aren’t buying what you’re selling.
Keep that in mind when you craft your pitch, and make your marketing plan.
#6: Do You Have Room For Growth?
The types of underwear people have worn have changed drastically over the years, and that goes for men as well as for women.
The ability to remain flexible, and to change with expectations, opportunities and the market demand means that some brands are still around today, even if their original products are not something we would ever have associated with what they make today.
The same is true when it comes to your branding.
It’s important to have a strong identity, but you need to make sure you have the necessary room to make changes and course corrections as you go.
A brand is not a static thing that you set and forget.
It’s a living thing that needs to change with your company, your customers, and the market you’re in.
Otherwise, you might find that while you were once the brand everyone relied on, the times simply left you behind… like the corset.
For more information on how you can build the best possible brand while utilizing your unique selling point to its fullest possible extent, all you have to do is contact us today!
