Customer Value Promise (CVP) Tool
Welcome to the CVP (Customer Value Promise) tool. This will identify the most powerful territory that you can move forward into developing a creative expression which can become the lynchpin of all your marketing. At the end of this exercises you’ll be in a much better position to come up with your own expression of the value you promise, but alternately your work here creates a great brief for a copywriter.
Step 1
LIST ALL THE BENEFITS YOU OFFER, AND CATEGORISE THEM
Enter the benefits you offer into the space on the left side. You can add as many as you wish. Don’t use wishful thinking, the only benefits that really matter are the ones you can prove! Then, categorise each benefit – select between emotional (how it makes your customer feel), economic (either in terms of what it costs or, better, the economic value it delivers) and functional/technical (product advantages).
Step 2
NOW DEFINE HOW UNUSUAL YOUR BENEFITS ARE
Now you’re ready to start taking differentiation into account. So you simply add a score to each of your benefits, 1 to 5 where 1 is universal – everybody has it, and 5 is unique to you. (And you better be able to prove that!). Of course, 5s are the most powerful benefits, but they’re also really rare. You’ll be starting to see useful patterns emerging.
Step 3
KEY DIFFERENTIATED BENEFITS (RANKED)
The benefits you should feature in your marketing are the ones with the highest differentiation score, and emotional benefits are the most powerful of all as they’re the ones that stick in peoples’ minds. Below we've shown only your most powerful benefits in order of importance. Benefits that didn't get a high differentiation score are not shown because they lack competitive impact.
By focusing on these, you’ll be able to create a simple value statement. See below the download button for tips about this.
BRINGING IT TO LIFE
Now you’ve focused on the most powerful aspects of your offering, you’re ready to articulate your proposition messaging! This is easy to do, and hard to do well. If you can, we recommend having a go yourself (working with your team, of course) and then letting a professional creative team build on your work. It’s probably best to break your group up and all have a go at this independently then bring your ideas together to compare and refine them.
How is a CVP message crafted?
There are four main elements to tackle: the attention-grabbing headline that you build around your winning benefit, the elevator pitch (it can help to see this as a sub headline), the key benefits list, and proof points. The headline is definitely the hardest bit! It should convey your winning benefit as memorably as possible. It can be creative and catchy, but it should be clear and concise first and foremost. And short!
Here’s a framework that will help you get rolling. Simply use this template to write a simple, fairly functional sentence:
We help: [YOUR IDEAL TARGET CUSTOMER]
To: [EXPERIENCE YOUR BEST BENEFIT]
By: [YOUR DIFFERENTIATED SOLUTION]
EXAMPLE: Let’s take an eco fashion brand
We help: eco-concerned 20-something women who are looking for value
To: look great with a clear conscience
By: commissioning top designers to use sustainably grown cotton
Adding the finishing touches
The statement you wrote above should be pretty compelling but it probably isn’t great copy. But what it will be is a great copy brief! The eco fashion brand above used its CVP statement to develop the very successful copy line: “Looking good doesn’t have to cost the earth”.
Without that clear CVP statement, the writer probably wouldn’t have come up with that copy line.
Good luck with your own brilliant CVP!