What does value mean for your customer?

I think this is one of the most misunderstood concepts in marketing – what exactly is ‘good value’?

The first answer to this is that value DOES NOT EQUAL cheap / inexpensive / lowest price. Unfortunately thats what many people think.

To answer this question you need to know your customer and know what value means to them.  What’s valuable to me might be completely meaningless to someone else. The best way to illustrate this is by example.

The owner of a brand new BMW 4WD might think they have got really good value buying the car they have because it gives them everything they need and want and it was exactly the price they thought they should pay for it – even though to someone else that might just be the most extravagant purchase they could not even consider because they can’t see the value in spending that much on a car.

A mum who goes to her local cafe with 3 year old twins might think this place offers her great value even though the muffins are $7 because every time she goes in there they bring out the colouring in equipment that keeps them happy for 5 minutes while she finishes her coffee.  Where her dad might walk in to the same cafe and think that price is outrageous for one muffin!

Someone who has a racing club membership that allows them to go to all the big racing carnival events as well as anything in between might think that the $600 they pay for this each year is grey value because of the joy they get out of he time they spent there – they wouldn’t give it up for anything!  Their friends who are into surfing and would only ever go to the biggest race meeting of the year to have a drink with their friends might think that is way too much money for a membership and would never see the value in it.

An entrepreneur who pays a business coach $10,000 to take her through the first six months of launching her business might think this is worth every single cent because she knows that in the end this is going to be the best money she has spent; this could be the difference between doing OK and kicking serious butt in her business, but her boyfriend might think this is totally not worth it because he just doesn’t understand the value in having a business coach.

A husband who buys his wife a $10,000 eternity ring might think this is great value because the gratitude and love he gets in return for this from his beautiful wife is where the value is for him but his mates might think that’s hilarious he spent so much money! I could be dreaming about this one maybe this is not such a great example… 😉

You can see that this list is never-ending, what I am trying to show you is that value is all about perception.  Your customers perception of what value is for them.  And perception is reality so it is HUGELY important that you have a really clear understanding of what value is for your customers.

And if you don’t know ask them – please!

I hope this post adds some value to your marketing.

Kate