val·ue prop·o·si·tion
noun
1. (in marketing) an innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers.
If you Google “Value Proposition,” you'll soon discover that there are a lot of people who have attempted to define exactly what it is. And after reading through various examples on how to write an effective value proposition, you may also conclude that most writers have spent more time thinking about how to define it and not enough time developing actual value propositions.
I have a running list of the most egregious examples of academic-minded people running amok, but the hands-down winner goes to the Harvard Business Review. A recent article from that publication suggests using a mathematical concept called Combinatorics to determine your product’s value. I am serious. Even though it sounds like a curse from Harry Potter, it is a math concept that can be applied to marketing.
Math plus Marketing? Galloping Gargoyles! If you don’t believe it, see this link: https://hbr.org/2020/04/identify-your-value-proposition-with-this-mathematical-concept
In any case, my experience tells me that most business owners looking for a solid value proposition don’t need to apply a mathematical equation to produce good one. Business owners simply need to answer questions that they absolutely know the answers to. The questions are as follows:
1. What is your company selling?
2. What is the benefit of using your product?
3. Who is the target customer for your product or service?
4. What makes your offering different (or better) from competitors?
Once these questions are answered, you have a solid basis to begin writing out your unique value proposition. The only tricky part is that your value proposition must be succinct and thorough enough to capture the interest of the prospective customer in about ten seconds.
I was thinking about including examples, but there are many resources available to get the basic information (some good, some bad and sometimes down-right wacky). So I decided it would be better to walk through this exercise instead.
For the example, let’s answer these questions first.
1. What is your company selling?
A phone app that prompts healthcare workers to wash their hands when they enter a room
2. What is the benefit of using your product?
Healthcare providers can reduce number of preventable transmissions of disease
3. Who is the target customer for your product or service?
Healthcare facilities
4. What makes your offering different (or better) from competitors?
App can be installed on any smart phone
A quick result:
Wash-App
Reduce the number of infections in your hospital with your smartphone and the Wash-App
Not too bad for a Muggle, eh?