Everybody who’s into marketing is “supposed to” know what a Unique Selling Proposition, a USP is. And I suppose most do.

But hardly anybody recognizes the true power of it. Allow me to illustrate:

Samsung was just ordered to pay Apple $1 billion dollars for infringing on Apple’s patents and unique designs.

Things like the way screens slide, how buttons bounce when they’re touched. Even rounded corners.

Unique designs & patents = Apple’s USP. If your phones and tablets are the only ones with those slick, friendly, intuitive features, the world really does beat a path to your door. A great USP is a multi-billion dollar asset.

If Apple did NOT build its USP of tangible, functional advantages, they could NEVER create a sensation the marketplace with mere sales copy, ads and clever storytelling. Apple smartly defends their USP with teeth and claws and teams of lawyers.

There is NO substitute for a great USP.

If you have a lame USP, the wolves are coming for you.

When you have a power USP, your ads write themselves. Competitors who can’t come up with their own USP follow suit and start imitating you.

Building a better USP is not $1,000 per hour work. It’s $10,000 per hour work!

Apple is constantly, relentlessly evolving its USP.

You must constantly, relentlessly evolve your USP.

Never stop.

Perry Marshall

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.