The art of making your offer irresistible

Your value proposition must do more than describe, it must compel. A strong value proposition cuts through noise, clarifies your unique offer, and convinces customers why you're the right choice.

Whether you're shaping a brand, product, or service, getting this right is essential. But crafting a compelling proposition isn't guesswork - it's a strategic discipline that blends insight, clarity, and creativity.

Why value propositions matter more than ever

Whatever your field, most business leaders will agree that market conditions are tough right now. Prices are high, budgets are low, and competition is fierce.

A value proposition must work doubly hard to win customers' attention (amidst a world of distractions) and their commitment (in a global market).

But what is a value proposition? It's a statement that clearly defines the unique value of your offer, helping customers understand what it is and why they need it. Every product or service, every brand and every business should have a unique value proposition that speaks directly to the specific audience for that product/brand/business.

Effectively, the value proposition is a distillation of why the product/service/brand/business exists, the need it fills, and why it is the right entity for the job. If your value proposition isn't up to task, there's a good chance your strategy is also lacking.

So, it's critical to get it right. But it's not just a question of brainstorming key words and phrases, there's both art and science to value proposition development.

What a value proposition is - and isn't

Value proposition is one of those terms that can begin to feel like jargon when thrown around by consultants, so to avoid that let's try to look at value proposition design in the wild, and understand why creating a meaningful value proposition is so important.

To give a well-known example, the value proposition for Nike's running shoes would be different to the value proposition for Nike's basketball shoes, otherwise why make more than one type of athletic footwear?

The value proposition helps identify not just which audience, e.g. runners, basketball players, casual athletes, but also which moment these products are right for, e.g. training, competition, everyday wear, etc. The value proposition must suggest that there is a reason to buy this specific product, or risk it being overlooked, undifferentiated, and ultimately forgettable.

Nike Air Zoom (Running): Engineered for speed and distance. Lightweight cushioning that propels you forward mile after mile.

Nike LeBron (Basketball): Built for explosive power and court dominance. Maximum support and responsiveness for elite performance.

These value propositions differ from that of Nike the overarching brand, which must position itself around inspiration and achievement, "Just Do It" speaks to the athlete in everyone, not just professional sports. You can see this play out in their strategy, with campaigns focused on personal achievement, overcoming obstacles, and pushing boundaries.

Nike: Just Do It

This value proposition is different again to that of the parent company, which must establish itself as a strong investment and global brand leader, not just a shoe company.

Nike Inc.: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.

Value proposition often overlaps with concepts like brand purpose and promise. To help break this down, it is useful to look at another example of how a value proposition works at different levels within the same company. Consider 3M, a global science and technology company known for innovation across multiple sectors.

The organisation's overarching purpose is to solve problems and improve lives through science. By understanding the value that the organisation strives to deliver at a purpose level, it becomes strategically clearer about how that value translates at a brand promise level and with the creation of new products, services and business models. 3M's value proposition spans from industrial safety equipment to consumer products like Post-it Notes, each with distinct positioning while maintaining the core promise of innovation and reliability.

If your value proposition is well thought out, well-articulated and based in reality, delivery should be no problem. Unfortunately, many businesses find value proposition design challenging and end up relying too heavily on templates rather than giving enough time to intelligence.

Finding the sweet spot, creating a value proposition that is distinctive and relevant

When we look at value proposition design, we focus on the sweet spot, where customer needs, the competitor landscape and business capabilities intersect.

• Customer needs, what your audience wants, needs, values, or struggles with
• Competitor activity, what others in the market are doing well (and where they're not)
• Business capabilities, what you can credibly deliver and be known for

This insight-driven approach enables us to help you ensure your value proposition is both distinct and relevant, so you can make your customers a promise and keep it.

Understand your customer needs

Customer needs are often articulated in the form of jobs that need to be done. The classic example is that nobody wants to buy a drill; they want a hole.

The best marketing takes this want to the next level by imagining all the positive changes that hole can bring about, family photos on the wall, your dream outdoor dining area, a treehouse, etc. These are gains.

But many value propositions are based on pains, customer challenges your offer solves. For example, the printer always runs out of ink at the worst possible time. Enter: a new business model that sends ink directly to your door when your printer is running low.

Mapping these pains and gains is arguably the most important step towards identifying your value proposition.

Analyse your competitors thoroughly

Any space worth moving into is usually occupied, so competitor intelligence is critical to mapping out how you plan to differentiate your product/brand/business. Again, this should be a regular process, not a one-off, as new competitors enter the market and existing competitors change strategy. It's worth understanding not just who is out there, but what they do well, where they fall down and where are the gaps you can exploit.

Assess your own strengths and gaps

Last but of course not least is your own capabilities. What do you do well, and what could you be known for? Though this might seem like the easiest element to answer, sometimes it takes an outsider's perspective to identify and successfully articulate where your value lies.

Digging deeper into this analysis, we explore:

• Distinctiveness, capabilities that are valuable to the customer and unique to your business
• Category norms, core capabilities that every business must have to enter/play in the market
• Risk, Capabilities that valuable to the customer but owned by other competitors
• Battleground, Risky focus areas due to high competitor intensity

Real-world example: How Tesla differentiated itself in the automotive market

Tesla provides an excellent example of value proposition differentiation in a crowded market. When Tesla entered the automotive industry, they didn't just create another car company, they redefined what a car could be by focusing on electric vehicles, autonomous driving technology, and sustainable energy.

Tesla's value proposition wasn't about competing on traditional automotive metrics like horsepower or luxury features. Instead, they positioned themselves at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and performance. By mapping out what early adopters and environmentally conscious consumers truly valued, Tesla identified opportunities that traditional automakers had overlooked.

This strategic approach helped Tesla understand:

1. Customer perspectives and pain points
2. Competitor strengths and weaknesses
3. Opportunities for differentiation

Frameworks we use - and when we use them

Not every value proposition challenge is the same, that's why we draw on different frameworks depending on the context. When developing new products or offers, we often use models that assess desirability, viability, and feasibility, which helps answer:

• Do customers want it?
• Can we make money from it?
• Can we deliver it?

Similarly, using a value proposition canvas offers a useful lens for mapping out customer jobs, pains and gains.

These tools are powerful, we use them frequently, particularly for innovation or early-stage development.

For brand, business or established product-level value propositions, we often complement these tools with our 'sweet spot' approach, balancing customer needs, competitive gaps and internal capabilities.

Embedding the value proposition internally

While value proposition development must be grounded in customer insight, internal perspectives are just as important. Engaging stakeholders from across the business, sales, marketing, operations, HR, ensures you capture the full picture of what makes your offer credible and deliverable.

These teams often hold invaluable insight into what truly resonates with customers and to your in-house capabilities.

Just as importantly, early stakeholder involvement fosters alignment and ownership. If your employees don't understand or believe in your value proposition, neither will your customers. A successful value proposition isn't just well-articulated, it's 'lived' across the business.

Embedding it into culture means integrating it into onboarding, training, performance metrics, leadership messaging, and everyday language. When teams are aligned behind a shared understanding of the value you deliver and why it matters, they become its most powerful advocates, ensuring consistency, credibility, and long-term impact.

Why value proposition development matters

Value propositions are vital but complex. Getting them right requires deep insights and intelligence, careful articulation and strong stakeholder engagement.

That's why we focus on finding the sweet spot by combining customer, competitor and company capability analysis to help you encapsulate the 'why' and 'why me' of your offer.

Organisations across industries can cut through the noise with value propositions that are not only differentiated but actionable, anchored in reality, aligned with business capability, and resonant with customer needs.

By combining strategic rigor with careful execution, businesses can successfully develop value propositions that drive growth while maintaining brand strength and customer loyalty.