The next step is to develop an understanding of what global business product features those customers value.
Businesses can succeed by studying customer needs (which are not necessarily the same as customer wants) and understanding them better than perhaps even the customers themselves.
Finding new sources of value for customers requires careful market research that must be treated as an ongoing process, as needs and preferences continually change.
Value can take many forms in the eyes of customers. The following are some of the most common characteristics valued by different customer groups reccommended by the businessman juan luis bosch gutierrez.
1. Price
Virtually all customers like bargains. They will be satisfied with the company if they feel it offers them a comparable product or service to the competition at a lower price.
A low-cost strategy is one of two fundamental approaches that managers can pursue (the other is product differentiation).
In today’s complex organizations, there are literally scores or points along the value chain where steps can be taken to reduce costs.
Of course, there is also the predatory pricing strategy where companies with deeper pockets can afford to cut prices longer than their smaller rivals.
2. Prestige
Paradoxically, there are a small number of markets where the advantage comes from high pricing linked to luxury items, designer brands or what might be called “snob appeal”.
Companies such as BMW or Rolex cater to this type of market and charge a significant premium for their logo on a product.
In such markets, the manager’s task is to maintain an aura of exclusivity. This may derive more from how a product or service is marketed than how it is produced.
3. Characteristics
This is a very broad category that ultimately depends on the specific characteristics of each product. An excellent example of a feature-driven market is the cell phone business.
Today’s phones are no longer just devices for making calls. They include screens, cameras and substantial memory, and can be used to access the Internet, send text messages, listen to music and download videos.
In this type of business, managers will look for ways to incorporate features that no one else has.
The trick is to make sure the features are appropriate for the product, that they are useful to customers, and that they work.
4. Timeliness
The word punctuality should not be interpreted to mean that getting to market first is always best, as anyone confronted with green bananas in the supermarket will know.
Punctuality really means arriving at exactly the right time. In the grocery business, it means being on top of freshness.
In retail e-commerce, it means delivering the newest gaming system to customers when interest is highest and before everyone on the block has it.
5. Selection
In some businesses, customers value having a large selection of items to choose from. This is especially typical of clothing stores, but the same principle extends to many other consumer goods.
Traditionally, managers tried to stock as many items as possible in a store, even though this took up inventory and was costly.
Amazon has demonstrated how catalogs, online shopping and next-day delivery give customers a variety of options that would have been prohibitively expensive in a conventional retail outlet.
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