I don’t know Jason Fladlien. I’ve bought some of his products. He seems like a nice guy. He’s doing well as a copywriter and online marketing and I wish him every success.
But recently I read a report he wrote about how the concept of USP (Unique Sales Proposition) was no longer necessary.
That may or may not be true. I don’t believe so, but I’ll let others argue the generality.
But one of his arguments against the USP is simply not supported by the facts.
One of the best known USPs in history is Domino’s Pizza’s old “Your pizza delivered hot in 30 minutes or it’s free.”
Jason claims Domino’s got rid of that in 1994 because it was no longer working or no longer necessary. He believes it was a voluntary decision.
Not so. Not so at all.
It just so happens I have some “inside” information from friends of mine who work at Domino’s, and so I can tell you, Domino’s management would gladly cut off their right hands to have that USP back.
But they can’t afford it.
Sometime in the 1980s, someone was killed by a Domino’s delivery driver rushing to make that 30 minute deadline.
But the critical event was an accident in St Louis when a woman was badly injured by a Domino’s driver. The amount of her award for damages was not publicly released, but it was high — undoubtedly seven or eight figures.
That told Domino’s they could no longer afford the 30 minutes or it’s free guarantee. So they stopped it.
They didn’t do so voluntarily, but to keep every lawyer in the country from making them a target every time a delivery driver had even a fender bender. Their official policy for drivers now is to obey all traffic laws, including speed limits, no matter how far behind the orders may be.
Not too long ago they brought back a lame echo of it — “You have 30 minutes.”
That evoked the old 30 minutes or its free guarantee, fooling customers who don’t read the fine print (“This is not a guarantee . . .”)
What’s even more lame is during that period Domino’s pizza boxes were full of silly reasons why your pizza delivery might have taken over 30 minutes (“Your driver was abducted by aliens.”)
The funny part is, many people still believe the old 30 minutes or it’s free guarantee is still in effect. Drivers tell me they’ve often had customers refuse to pay when the delivery took over 30 minutes (or the customer just claimed it was over 30 minutes even if it wasn’t).
Maybe Jason was referring to how businesses should look for many ways to be better than their customers. That makes sense.
When he coined the term USP, Rosser (Melts in your mouth, not in your hands) Reeves was referring to television commercials. When you only had thirty seconds to drill your message into the head of someone waiting for Ed Sullivan to return to the screen, you had no time for a lot of bullet points.
Tags: Jason Fladlien, USP