Improving My Value Proposition Statement?
“How can I improve my value proposition statement for a fruit and vegetables dehydrating business? It currently says ‘High quality shelf-stable nutritious ready to eat dried fruits with no sugar added’?”
You’ve got a good start, but this isn’t a value proposition statement quite yet. A VPS is, in essence, a quick statement describing the unique value that your business offers.¹ For example, Uber describes itself as “the smartest way to get around. One tap and a car comes directly to you. Your driver knows exactly where to go. And payment is completely cashless.”² Their customers immediately know that the service offers valuable convenience when compared to traditional taxi cabs who often require more than a simple tap to hail, may not meet you at your door, and possibly require cash payments.
In your original VPS, you stated that your company offers “High-quality, shelf-stable, nutritious, ready to eat dried fruits with no sugar added”, which is more of a product description than a value proposition. Your products are great, but what makes them valuable? Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy & Competitiveness recommends that you answer at least 3 important questions:³
- Which customers are you going to serve?
- Which needs are you going to meet?
- What relative price will provide acceptable value for customers and acceptable profitability for the customer?
What problem in particular are you solving? Are you serving all customers or just those who require dried fruits with long shelf-lives, high nutrition, or low sugar? Are you meeting a particular need for these customers? Through which channels are you selling this product to them? And are you selling at a premium, parity, or discount?
With these questions in mind, it is possible to write a value proposition statement that sounds more like “We offer a longer-lasting, equally nutritious alternative in the form of dried fruit. Our product is ready to eat at home or on the go. Always high-quality and never sugar-added, all at an affordable price.”
This statement immediately communicates the product’s value, showing its advantages over the alternative of fresh fruit while reassuring the customer that they won’t have to make any compromises.
I hope this was some useful advice, feel free to iterate on your statement with this new knowledge in mind. Good luck with your business.
Footnotes
[1] Value Proposition: Why Consumers Should Buy a Product or Use a Service
[2] Image on amazonaws.com
[3] Unique Value Proposition
