Marketers are constantly challenged to ensure their brand, their product, or their service is the one prospective customers will ultimately choose. Marketers have grown adept at leveraging advertising, PR, direct marketing campaigns and personal selling to make prospects aware and interested in the brand offer. However, more often than not, these marketing efforts fail to communicate the most important element of an appealing offer…what value it delivers to customers.
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
A Customer Value Proposition (CVP) is the total sum of benefits a customer will obtain from purchasing a particular brand’s product or service. A successfully constructed CVP can serve as a guiding beacon as well as the cornerstone for superior business performance.
When managers construct a CVP, they often make the mistake of listing out every benefit of their offer. Without a clear understanding of market requirements and challenges through detailed market research, suppliers can end up stressing points of difference that deliver relatively little value to the target customer.
Research shows that those suppliers able to build a captivating CVP on the few elements that matter most to target customers, normally enjoy increases in market share.
The most successful CVPs must pass the 3D Test:
- Desirable: The offer must meet the needs and challenges currently faced by the market
- Distinctive: It must be different from the benefits offered by other companies, and not easily replicable
- Defensible: It should be possible to prove with good evidence that the claims can be substantiated
A leading provider of professional training courses and test preparation materials commissioned B2B International to conduct a series of research studies among professional organizations to identify existing needs and frustrations related to training and educating their workforce. Rather than growing complacent in its leading position, the company wanted to understand what more could be done to deliver value to such organizations.
B2B International carried out over 100 depth telephone interviews with learning and development managers, department directors and executive-level decision makers in the US and the UK. The research revealed a strong desire to foster a closer relationship with a well-respected training provider in order to manage and streamline department- and organization-wide training programs from the ground up.
Armed with these insights, the company is in the process of developing a new range of consultancy services that will assist organizations in the planning, management, and delivery of professional development to their workforce. Through this close, consultative partnership, the company will strengthen its point of differentiation and continue to deliver high value to its customers.