Page 30 - (DK) The Business Book

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IN CONTEXT
THE SECRET OF FOCUS
Differentiation
BUSINESS IS TO KEY DATES
1933 US economist Edward
Chamberlin’s Theory of
KNOW SOMETHING Monopolistic Competition
describes differentiation as
a means for a company to
THAT NOBODY charge more for its products or
services by distinguishing
them from the competition.
ELSE KNOWS 1940s The concept of the
Unique Selling Proposition
STAND OUT IN THE MARKET (USP) is put forward by Rosser
Reeves, advertising executive
at New York advertising
agency Ted Bates, Inc.

2003 US marketing professor
Philip Kotler outlines the need
for USPs to be superseded by
Emotional Selling Propositions
(ESPs) in his book Marketing
Insights from A to Z.

ew businesses enjoy the
privileges of monopoly
F power in their chosen
fields of operation. Most markets
are increasingly global, increasingly
crowded and, therefore, increasingly
competitive. In order to achieve
commercial success companies
need to do something different—as
Greek shipping magnate Aristotle
Onassis recommended, they need
to “know something that nobody
else knows” in order to stand out
from the competition.
Unique Selling Propositions
Faced with competition, the
strategy for most companies is to
differentiate. This involves offering