USPs are going to be the currency of survival in this economic downturn (if it ever arrives). Having high quality unique sales propositions or products and services will drive demand for your business and keep your prices at a profitable level.

Photographers without a unique product, are going to be forced to compete on price and in a recession this can be fatal.

U for USP

Unique products have a higher perceived value and a higher price tag as a result. This in turn drives up their profit margin. Remember, it costs exactly the same to make a print of a bad photograph as it does a great one. It also costs the same to put together a badly laid out wedding album as it does a well designed one. Great design and photographic excellence are both profit drivers.

When you define your USPs you need to ask yourself do they pass the ‘so what’ factor. If you can answer ‘so what’ to the USP statement it is not a USP. Here is a list of prospective USPs…

We are a husband and wife photographic team – So what! There are lots of them.
We are top award winning photographers – So what! There are literally hundreds if not thousands of photographers who can claim that.

We shoot all of our wedding pictures in a widescreen horizontal aspect ratio and present them one to a page in a panoramic book to look like a collection of stills from a movie – Now that’s a USP.

Our package includes the engagement shoot, the wedding shoot, the honeymoon shoot and a trash the dress shoot – And the honeymoon? that’s a USP.

Marketing can be driven by USPs alone. If your competitors don’t sell what you sell, then your customers have nowhere else to shop. The market is therefore exclusively yours. This relies on there being a ready supply of customers who are hungry for your unique products. Generating demand for a unique product line is another topic all together. You need to create a buzz, and word of mouth marketing is one of the best ways to do this without the need for expensive advertising.

The language of retail Be careful what words you use to describe your products. Avoid the excessively overused and subsequently devalued words like lifestyle, classic, candid, reportage, contemporary, natural, and relaxed. Just about every photography advert you see uses them. If your picture style is different to everyone else’s, stand out above the noise. If you can’t find the right word to describe your products or shoot style then make one up. Google and Ebay are made up words that have become self defining. So too is ‘Crocks’, they are not described as shoes, trainers, slippers they are simply known as Crocks. Look to the music world for further inspiration. Hip hop, acid jazz, and garage, are all made up words and phrases that have defined a style. Sometimes it pays to think big. Trash the dress is one example of a recent style genre to be conjured up.

Damien Lovegrove.