Topic: In Search of a Value Proposition — If you had just ten words with which to describe why people should buy your company’s products or service, what would you say? We recently released the audio recording of our clinic on this topic. You can listen to a recording of this clinic here: In Search Of A Value Proposition You probably remember the “elevator speech” concept from back when venture capital companies were pouring billions of dollars into Internet start-ups. And hopefully you heard about our own “Back of a Napkin” contest, in which we offered over $100,000 in services to the best new business idea. Whether spoken in an elevator or written on the back of a napkin, one of the key indicators of a strong value proposition is that it lends itself to being articulated simply, clearly and very briefly. But what is a value proposition? Why is it important to your business? How can you “find one” for your business? And can an existing company find a new value proposition? These are some of the questions we have set out to answer. Our research was motivated by two additional questions: Our primary academic question was this: What percentage of the Internet marketplace has a truly effective value proposition? It seems that many people try to “out-market” a poor value proposition. They use the heavy force of marketing to try to overcome the weak force of their value proposition. How does this affect competitive marketing on the Internet? Our primary practical question was this: How do you evaluate your own value proposition? This brief starts to answer these questions and helps you apply the findings to your own business. In previous reports, we have stressed the importance of a Unique Value Proposition (UVP), which is one of the most essential elements of a successful online business. A UVP is a succinct statement of the uniqueness of a business that sets it apart from all competitors. Without a UVP, a company risks becoming lost in a sea of similar businesses. The UVP statement will often contain quantitative statements about the uniqueness of a business. Precisely WHY should customers do business with you? Competitive analysis will help you develop your UVP and test the validity of the claims you make about your business. We covered online competitive analysis in a recent Follow

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