The Unique Selling Proposition

Reeves laid out the criteria of the USP in his book Reality in Advertising.

Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: 'Buy this product and you will get this specific benefit.'

The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be unique-either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising.

The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions; i.e., pull over new customers to your product.

Reeves believed that a campaign should last for the life of the product; that advertisers shouldn't change the campaign just to make the advertising different. He believed that the product should be different from the competitors, not the advertising. In an interview, he mentioned that the new advertising class, the 'artsy-craftsy' types think that advertising must sell the product, not the other way around. The new copywriters believe that all products are the same and it's the different advertising that sells. But Reeves emphasized that the advertisers must make the product interesting not make the advertising different. Reeves called this 'confusing the means with the end.' He believed that if the product is worth paying for then it is worth paying attention to (Higgins, 1989).