Creating a Unique Value Proposition for the UK Market: Understanding how to find the gaps and how to fill them
We asked Karen Green, author of newly published book Buyer-ology: Know your buyer, sell more and sell better to share her advice for international brands looking at the UK market. Here is what Karen has to say:
The UK market is one of the most challenging in the world for its highly evolved retail buying approach. It is not enough to have a great product range and strong branding. To succeed, you need to be able to identify and communicate the unique value you offer not only UK customers but the retailers as well. Building that unique value proposition and then adapting it to each retailer will ensure an easier sale and can make or break your success in the UK marketplace
There is a diverse range of exciting retail opportunities, with 96% of the market being dominated by 10 multiple grocers, with Tesco taking the majority share. Aldi and Lidl have been taking massive chunks of everyone’s pie though grabbing 2.2% points in last year (Kantar y/e 22/1/23. This is focusing the leading retailers on costs and profit as the customers face significant food inflation and the need to save money. However there is also a thriving premium and artisan marketplace with Planet Organic and Wholefoods dominating the London scene with independent food delis and farmshops adding opportunity for more luxury brands
How do you find the right gaps for your brand in this challenging environment?
There are three elements to success
Understanding your target market feasibility is key if you are going to succeed in the UK marketplace, not just so that you know who is going to buy your brand but more importantly, whether are they going to make you enough money.
The demographics, psychographics and reason for purchase are important in creating your customer avatar and it is worth investing in quantitative and qualitative market research to gain an accurate understanding of the market This gives you a fabulous basis for creating the right product offer, tailored packaging design and effective marketing communications.
And these elements will help reinforce the unique offer that justifies your space in the market place.
But it might not make you money!
I have seen many companies invest thousands of pounds to complete this part of the process without first assessing whether the target audience is big enough and can they afford to buy the products? The gap may be real but it might be real because no one wants, or is able to fill it, because it isn’t profitable or doesn’t have the magnitude to make it work.
So, the first step in the process that we work on with clients, is market feasibility – does the product have a great market gap that makes money and who is going to buy it!
Knowing your unique value proposition is the holy grail – once you know your marketplace, you can identify and tailor those elements of your brand that are relevant. The unique selling points for your brand in a multiple grocer might be very different to those in a café. If you take the example of Heinz tomato ketchup – they have small individual sachets for pubs and chip shops, squeezy bottles for home use and catering packs for mass consumption. Each presentation has taken the basic product and brand positioning and targeted different marketing channels and filled different customer needs through different product execution and packaging. But not only that, they have found the most profitable ways of supplying the ketchup to maximise each sales opportunity – hence creating not just the unique selling point but the value as well.
Building awareness is the final and equality critical part of the puzzle. If you are going to create value and fill the gaps in the market place, then you need to gain as many distribution points as possible. You need to build awareness of the product category, brand and company so that when you do make the call to reach out to sell, the heavy lifting has already been done. Or even better the buyer calls us!
I call this “the secret sauce of gaining a listing”. Research shows you have to reach someone 11 times before they act and ideally from four different places. So, before you start selling, create an effective trade marketing plan covering at least four sources through which the buyer can find you eg Linked in, PR, social media, exhibitions, awards. Identify your target buyer and analyse what they might be looking for and where they might hang out so that then you can target your marketing.
Sounds simple?
If not, if you would like to learn more, then check out my book Buyer-ology® – know your buyer, sell better and sell more, which shows you how to profile your buyers with my structured 3×3 Buyerology® matrix and create a successful value proposition that fills the market gaps and has you selling more and selling better.
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Instagram competition to win a copy T’s and C’s: The competition for five winners to each receive one free copy of Buyer-ology is run by Rochester PR Group. The competition is open to all adults except for employees of Rochester PR Group, however entrants MUST have a UK address for which the book can be posted to. Deadline to post a comment to enter is 12pm, Monday 3rd April 2023. The five winners will be selected at random and the decision of Rochester PR Group is final. Winners will be contacted via direct message on Instagram by 5pm, Tuesday 4th April to let them know they are a winner and to obtain the postal address to send the book to. If no reply is received by Tuesday 11th April, the prize will be offered to an alternative winner. The book will be posted to the address provided. The competition is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Instagram.