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Value Innovation
Appleton Greene & Co Global – Rethinking Marketing: Customers First, Brands Second
Getting closer to customers is a high priority executive/senior management agenda, because without customers there is no business. Yet, because most companies are inward focused, brands come first, customers second. It should be the other way around. It should all begin with the customer, because brands are created to serve and fulfill customer needs. Today’s companies have powerful technologies for understanding and interacting with customers in unique ways. They can and should use these technologies for building customer connections and relationships. In today’s connected and digital world, this requires “Rethinking Marketing and Value Innovation.” In real terms this means moving away from pushing individual products and mass transactions, to fulfilling customers’ evolving and changing needs through building long-term customer relationships. The marketing as a department orientation must give way to marketing as an organization-wide obsession with serving the customer orientation. Rather than organizing around brands, companies should organize their customer-focused functions of creating, delivering, and innovating customer value around customer groups and market segments. These changes will bring the company closer to its customers and benefit the firm’s top and bottom line. Companies that serve customers better have lower customer acquisition and retention costs. Companies that serve customers better also experience higher profitability. Appleton Greene & Co Global
Appleton Greene & Co Global – Winning Customers: Role of Customer Value
All companies want to grow, and grow profitably. The surest way to grow is by winning a larger pool of profitable customers. How is the key question? There is one and only one reason why customers choose to do business with a company. And that’s because they get better value than they would elsewhere, for the money they are willing to spend. Customer needs, wants, and desires are constantly changing, as the environment in which customers live in and fulfill their needs is constantly changing. Consequently, investing in customer value and value innovation, namely, creating, delivering, nurturing, renovating, and innovating customer value is the smartest investment companies can make, because winning customers is one of the most important determinants of the future health and financial wellbeing of a company.
Appleton Greene & Co Global – Retaining Customers: Compelling Customer Experiences Play A Primary Role
Acquiring and retaining customers is vital for profitable growth. But here’s the rub, customer acquisition is significantly more expensive than customer retention. Conversely, retained customers are significantly more profitable than new customers. So what’s the optimal strategy? It’s co-creating, designing, and delivering compelling customer experiences through value innovation. Here’s why. Companies can always acquire customers by promising to deliver value in the future. But the only way they can retain customers is by delivering customer value, or in other words, by engineering and delivering compelling customer experiences. Customers who have memorable experiences are more likely to be more loyal, more profitable, generate a larger volume of positive word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations, all of which adds up to higher long-term growth and profitability.
Appleton Greene & Co Global – Customer-Centricity: Leveraging The Two Sides of Value
All companies also want to establish better relationships with their customers. The surest way to achieve both goals is by providing relevant and compelling value to customers, because the single most important reason why customers choose to do business with a company is customer value – what they receive in exchange for what they are willing to pay. But the value customers get from a company is only one side of it. The second side is the value the customer represents to the company. Even though all customers are important, some are more important and valuable than others, because they have been with the company longer, are more loyal, and therefore make a higher contribution to a company’s profitability. Customer-centricity involves balancing the two sides of value. Companies not only focus on their portfolio of products and services, they also focus on their portfolio of customers. It is governed and guided by metrics like customer equity (CE), and customer life-time value (CLV). CE and CLV provide companies with a dynamic forward looking framework that balances the two sides of value. The two metrics also helps guide investments in value innovation so firms may serve their more valuable customers more effectively.
Appleton Greene & Co Global – Developing A Compelling Value Proposition
All companies, no matter how big and how successful, need to provide customers a compelling reason to do business with them. This compelling reason, called the value proposition, comprises of three parts, a functional part, an economic part, and an emotional part. The functional part attempts to differentiate the product/service by drawing attention to features and the functional aspects of the product/service. The economic part attempts to convince the customer that the product/service they are getting is better value for money by focusing on the total benefits of the offering, like ease of use, convenience, and greater reliability, and not just its monetary cost. Emotional reasons attempt to build connections with customers, by appealing to values, like self-image, esteem, and security. Most companies usually pay the requisite homage to functional and economic reasons, but downplay emotional reasons, which hurts them. The tried and tested aphorism is, convince by reason but sell by emotion. Focusing on value and value innovation enables companies to ensure they cover all three bases of value proposition, and provide customers a comprehensive reason to do business with them. Compelling value propositions help companies outperform competition on both acquisition and retention of customers.
Appleton Greene & Co Global – Sharpening Target Market Selection And Positioning
The backbone of a company’s marketing strategy is target market selection and positioning of a company’s offerings to that target market. Aligning target market needs and customer value helps a company ensure a strong fit between what the customer wants and what the company has to offer. Since customer needs are constantly evolving and changing, companies are advised to constantly monitor this fit. Investing in customer value innovation ensures that this fit remains relevant and current. Companies are also urged to constantly be on the lookout for new target markets and ask themselves if they should serve these new and emerging markets. Sharpening the focus concerning which target markets to serve in turn helps companies develop a strong positioning for their offerings relative to competitors’ offerings. Precision in target market selection and positioning improves a company’s performance on virtually all key performance variables, like sales, market share, customer satisfaction and profitability. For the reason that customers would rather buy a product that uniquely and specifically addresses their needs, rather than one that only approximately addresses their needs.
Dr. Bhalla Ph.D. MBA BA Accredited Senior Consultant (ASC) – Appleton Greene & Co Global
Dr Bhalla is an approved Senior Consultant at Appleton Greene and he has experience in marketing, management and globalization. He has achieved a Doctor of Philosophy, a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts. He has industry experience within the following sectors: Technology; Healthcare; Banking & Financial Services; Education and Entertainment. He has had commercial experience within the following countries: United States of America; India; Singapore; Germany and South Africa, or more specifically within the following cities: Washington DC; New York NY; San Francisco CA; Singapore and Johannesburg. His personal achievements include: facilitated customer-centric transformation; initiated soulful leadership practices; championed customer value innovation; launched strategic consulting services center and led high-performance global teams. His service skills incorporate: value innovation; soulful leadership; customer experience; strategic branding and co-creating innovation.
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20 Consulting Service Examples
There are currently some 650 Accredited Consulting Services (ACS) provided by Appleton Greene worldwide. Here are 20 examples.
01. Business Administration
02. Business Development
03. Business Optimization
04. Crisis Management
05. Customer Development
06. Energy Management
07. Entrepreneurial Leadership
08. Investment Consulting
09. Marketing Optimization
10. Marketing Transformation
11. Process Excellence
12. Product Management
13. Risk Analysis
14. Soulful Leadership
15. Sustainable Development
16. Transitional Growth
17. Value Innovation
18. Retirement Planning
19. Change Strategy
20. Product Lifecycle
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