How to craft your brand’s core value proposition?

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What is a core value proposition?

The core value proposition is the primary advantage a product offers its customers. It’s what sets your product apart and solves the user’s problems faster and more effectively.

Now, it’s not just about the result. It also helps users in understanding the fundamental purpose of your brand.

If you boil it down, a value proposition is just a simple statement that answers one important question: Why should someone choose your product or service?

It’s more than just a tagline or a product description. It’s about the unique solution your business provides and the promise of value that customers can expect from you—again and again.

But here’s the thing: a value proposition isn’t just for your customers. Think of it as a proper guiding principle for your entire team.

It’s what aligns everything—your product, your marketing, your customer care, even your packaging. It makes sure that no matter how someone interacts with your brand, they experience the same consistent message and feeling.

To make it simple for you, think of the core value proposition as your elevator pitch in one sentence. It should essentially answer

👉🏻 Who your target audience are

👉🏻 What problem are they trying to solve?

👉🏻 What does your product offer that solves that particular problem?

👉🏻 Why is it better than the other alternatives in the market?

Your value proposition is the foundation. Nail it, and it makes every decision—whether it’s marketing, product, or customer service—so much easier.

So how to identify your brand’s core value proposition?

Before we get into crafting your brand’s core value proposition, there’s one thing you need to get crystal clear on: what is your brand is solving for?

And to figure that out, we need to dig into three things—your product, your market, and your users.

This step is all about laying the foundation.

By the time you’re done with this, you’ll have a solid understanding of your brand’s Job To Be Done (JTBD)—the one thing your brand must deliver to win your customers.

This clarity will make it so much easier to craft a value proposition that’s straightforward, clear, and super effective.

Step 1: Understand your product

Let’s start with the basics: your product.

See, a strong brand and a great product go hand in hand. Without a solid product, branding is basically just fluff. And without a meaningful brand, it becomes harder to scale a great product.

You’ll need to start by understanding what your product’s main offering is. For this, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

What are you really in the business of?

What problem is your product or service solving for the customer?

What are the key features and—more importantly—the key customer benefits?

Now remember, it’s important to focus on how your product is truly adding value to your customer’s life. That’s why we’re talking about customer benefits and not just benefits.

For example, let’s say you run a digital payment app. You might think, “Our app processes transactions faster” is a strong benefit. But think about what it means for the customer.

Here, the customer benefit is actually, “Our app saves customers time by completing transactions in under 30 seconds, so they can get back to doing what matters most to them.”

See the difference?

The first one talks about the product, but the second connects directly to the value it delivers to the customer’s life. Shifting your perspective—from product focused to customer focused—makes all the difference.

So, take some time out and answer the above questions to truly understand your product and what you're actually offering.

Step 2: Understand your market

Now that you’re clear on your product, let’s zoom out and look at where it fits in the market.

Understanding your position in the market is super important to know who your competition is & how you can stand out.

To understand this, start by plotting your business on the trust Vs. awareness map. Now here’s what that looks like 👇

The trust Vs. awareness map is a simple graph that helps you figure out the kind of market your business operates in and gives you clarity on what you should focus on to stand out from your competitors.

So, start by answering this question:

Which of these two scenarios best describes your business?

A: Are you a new product in an existing category? or B: Are you a new product in a new category? (basically a category creator)

Remember, that in both the cases, it is important to understand who your competitor is.

Scenario A: New product in an existing category

If you’re in an existing category, your competition is basically other businesses that are solving the same problem as you are.

So, how are you any different from your competitors?

Take a step back and analyse what your competitors are offering. What are they missing? Is there a specific pain point that they’re overlooking? Or is there something they’re not properly optimising for?

Your job here is simple: Identify what that gap is and make it crystal clear (basically articulate) how your product fills it better than anyone else.

This is where the need map comes in handy. In an existing category, you should focus on building trust because your customers already know the solution exists—they just need a reason to pick your brand over others.

Scenario B: New product in a new category

If you’re a category creator, it might feel like you have no competition—after all, you’re introducing something entirely new.

But here’s the thing: you do have a competitor.

Wait, what?

Yes, it’s the way your customers are currently solving the problem your product was built for.

Maybe they’re using something that wasn’t really designed for this purpose. Or they’ve come up with their own way to manage the issue. Or perhaps they’re not doing anything about it because they don’t even realise it’s a problem yet.

Your job here is to figure out how they’re handling things currently and then show them how your product is a smarter, simpler, or overall just a more effective option.

On the need map, being a category creator usually means focusing on building awareness first.

Why?

Because your customers might not even know a solution like yours exists—or that they need it. Your role here is to educate them, help them see the value, and to try & explain why your product matters in their life.

Once you’ve understood the competitive landscape or to put it simply, how your customers are solving their problem today, it’s time to figure out whether your product is a push or a pull product.

1. What is a push product?

A push product is when you have to step in and tell the customer, “Hey, you need this in your life!”

It’s when you have to create awareness and help people see the value of something they didn’t even know they needed.

For example, take MyMuse, a sexual wellness brand. See, sexual wellness is still a taboo topic in India, and most people aren’t even aware of the concept, let alone the need for it. That’s why MyMuse has to actively push the idea and educate their audience.

2. What is a pull product?

A pull product, on the other hand, is when customers are already looking for a solution that your product provides, and your job is to just make sure they find your product and choose it.

Take yoga bar, for example. It’s a healthy snack and breakfast cereal brand that taps into the existing demand for healthier food options.

See, people today are way more aware of the importance of eating healthy.

They’re out there, actively searching for better alternatives to sugary cereals or processed snacks. And that’s where Yoga Bar steps in. It positions itself as the go to option for healthier snacks, tapping into this demand and giving people exactly what they’re already looking for.

Step 3: Define your brand’s JTBD

Now that you understand your market, it’s time to figure out your brand’s Job To Be Done (JTBD).

But what exactly is a JTBD?

Think of it as the one thing your brand needs to solve for to win your customers.

Let’s look at some examples to understand how a bunch of brands crafted their JTBD based on the trust vs. awareness map.

1. Netflix

Back in 2016, when Netflix first launched in India, it was entering an existing category.

People knew about Netflix and there was high awareness but they didn’t see the need to pay for a subscription. Most customers didn’t feel it was relevant to their entertainment needs at the time.

Netflix’s JTBD was to establish value and relevance for Indian consumers and convince them why a subscription was worth it in the first place.

2. Even

Even is a subscription-based healthcare provider in the insurance category. It was a new player in the existing insurance category, which is already filled with big, old-school legacy brands.

But here’s the pain point: claiming insurance has always been a massive headache for people. It’s slow, confusing, and frustrating. So Even came in to fix this. They focused on making the process simple and stress free.

But the awareness for Even was low. People didn’t even know it existed.

So, their main JTBD was to establish trust and create preference by improving awareness across the customer base

3. MyMuse

MyMuse is a sexual wellness brand and, let’s be honest, this is a category creator.

In India, sexual wellness is still a taboo topic—most people don’t even talk about it, let alone think of buying products in this space. So MyMuse had a tough job.

They had to not only introduce the concept of sexual wellness but also make their customers feel comfortable buying it.

Hence, the JTBD of their brand was to educate people about sexual wellness, but also assure customers that they would be discrete in their packaging and shipping.

4. Kaagaz

Kaagaz is a document scanning app that competes in an existing category. People are already searching for document scanners, so it’s a pull product. However, most users didn’t know Kaagaz existed.

Kaagaz’s JTBD was to solve for brand awareness so that people searching for scanners could discover and choose their product.

5. ChatGPT

By now, everyone knows what ChatGPT is. It’s literally everywhere.

It’s a category creator, introducing something totally new and disruptive. Because of this, ChatGPT gained a lot of early adopters and built strong awareness almost instantly. But creating buzz isn’t enough.

Because it was so new and exciting, ChatGPT quickly became super popular, with lots of early adopters.

However, to succeed in the long run its JTBD is to solve for long term adoption and engagement.

6. Swiggy

Swiggy operates in a highly competitive food delivery space, where customers already have plenty of options. The challenge here isn’t awareness—most people already know about Swiggy. Instead, it’s about ensuring that when customers think of ordering food, Swiggy is their first choice.

So Swiggy’s JTBD is to focus on loyalty and top-of-mind recall, so customers consistently choose them over competitors.

See how we defined each of these brand’s JTBD based on their position in the market?

Now, take a moment to think about your brand. Where does it sit on the trust Vs. awareness map?

Once you’ve figured that out, ask yourself: What is the one thing my brand must solve to win my customers? That’s your JTBD.

And with that, you’re one step closer to crafting a value proposition for your brand.

Step 4: Understand your users

Finally, the last step before we start crafting your brand’s core value prop is understanding your users inside out.

Let’s start with the basics—your ICPs, or Ideal Customer Profiles.

What’s an ICP?

ICP stands for Ideal Customer Profile. It’s essentially a detailed description of the type of customer who will get the most value out of your product and who’s most likely to become a loyal customer.

These are the people who genuinely need what you’re offering, are willing to pay for it, and are likely to keep coming back for more.

By the way, if you’re new to this concept or don’t know how to build your ICPs, don’t worry. We’ve created some ICP templates that you can use to get started.

Now, if you’re operating a B2C business—check out this template

And if it’s a B2B business—check out this template

But let’s be clear—building an ICP is only half the job.

What really matters here is understanding the relationship your ICP has with your brand and the category you’re in.

By that we mean understanding:

How your ICP perceive your brand and the category you’re in

What are their values, their negotiables, non-negotiables and aspirations?

What are their goals?

Oh and by the way, user goals usually fall into these four categories: functional, personal, social and financial goals.

However, your user will have one primary goal, and that’s the goal you need to optimise for. Nail that, and you’ll be on the right track to building a strong CVP for your brand.

To wrap things up, here’s a quick recap

If you’ve made it this far, great job! We’re almost there.

Now, before we jump into crafting your brand’s core value proposition, let’s quickly recap what we’ve covered so far.

By now, you must have:

Understood your product: You’ve figured out what you’re really in the business of, identified the problems your product solves, and focused on the customer benefits your product offers

Understood your market and competition: You’ve plotted your business on the trust vs. awareness map and identified where you fall.

Defined your brand’s JTBD

Understood your users: You’ve built your ICPs and understood the relationship they have with your brand and how you can optimise for it.

With all of this in place, you’ve laid the groundwork for crafting a value proposition that’s truly aligned with your brand, market, and users.

Now, let’s move on to the final step: crafting your brand’s core value proposition.

Step 5: Craft your brand’s core value proposition

By now, you’ve already got a solid understanding of what a core value proposition is. But in case you need a quick refresher:

A value prop is a short statement that communicates why buyers should choose your product or service. It’s more than just a product description—it’s the specific solution your business provides and the promise of value your customers can expect from you, consistently.

It’s the basis of any communication that is being made to the customer across all touch points. And again, when we say communication, it’s not just about marketing—it spans across every function: product, packaging, marketing, customer care, and so much more.

Oh and also, it’s super important to understand that the value prop is not just a sentence or line that is seen, it’s what we want the customers to feel about the product or service.

And that is in totality.

But wait, what is that supposed to mean?

Take Nike, for example. Their value proposition is “customisable and performance or lifestyle sneakers with unique colours and materials”. Over time, Nike didn’t need to explicitly explain why they were better or different—it became part of their identity.

Again, if you take a look at their mission statement—it’s to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.

And of course, we all know their famous tag line. Just do it.

Notice how the value prop, mission statement, and tagline are all different?

The key here is to have all three to align your teams and maintain consistency across your organisation.

Now that you’ve understood the concept, let’s get started on crafting your brand’s core value proposition.

Here’s a simple template you can use to get started—

For a [target customer] who [needs or wants X], our [product] is of a particular [category] that [benefits or provides relief to pain].

With all the research we’ve done so far, we’re in a great position to fill in these blanks. Let’s try and apply this framework and build CVP’s for a couple of brands.

1. Zepto

Let’s craft Zepto’s value proposition step by step.

Who’s the target customer? Broadly, the mobile-first generation.

What are their need? Last-minute groceries.

What’s the product? Zepto.

What’s the category? Hyperlocal or home delivery services.

What is zepto’s core product offering? 10 minute delivery of groceries to their doorstep.

Now, let’s put it all together in the form of the template we discussed earlier.

For [today’s mobile-first generation] who [needs last-minute groceries], [Zepto] is [a home delivery service] that [ensures 10 minute delivery of groceries to their doorstep].

See how simple and effective that is? It’s clear, direct, and gets the point across.

2. Spotify

Let’s try another example.

Who’s the target customer? Music enthusiasts.

What’s their need? Mood based music listening without manual effort.

What’s the product? Spotify.

What’s the category? A music streaming platform.

What’s the benefit? Serves a personalised music experience without the hassle of manual curation

And per usual, when you put it all together, the final value proposition could look something like this:

For [every music enthusiast] who [wants personalised music for every mood or occasion], [Spotify] is [a music streaming platform] that [delivers a seamless, curated music experience without manual effort].

Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to craft your value proposition—it’s ultimately about what you want your customers to feel about your product.

Of course, there’s more than one way to write a value prop, but this framework is a straightforward and effective tool that forces you to think of all the steps that should be there in building a value prop.

Sure, creativity and inspiration matter, but still try and keep it simple because at the end of the day everyone in your team has to rally around it and stay aligned.

So, how do you write a strong core value proposition?

A good rule of thumb here is to focus on three elements that make a value proposition truly solid:

1. Clear language that focuses on one core customer need.

Yes, your product might solve multiple needs, and that’s totally fine. But the most impactful value props focus on addressing just one core need. We get that it’s not easy to narrow it down but it’s totally worth it.

2. A specific outcome for the customer.

Your value prop should clearly explain how your product solves the customer’s problem or improves their life.

3. Clear points of differentiation.

This is where you tell the customer why they should choose your product over the alternatives. Try and articulate clearly on what sets you apart.

Crafting a strong value prop isn’t something you can whip up in a few minutes—it takes time and iterations.

So don’t rush it. With this framework and everything we’ve covered so far, you’ll be able to craft a value prop for your brand that truly stands out.

Core value proposition