A Model Developed by Noriaki Kano - Assignment Example

Kano Model, a model developed by Dr Noriaki Kano in the 1980s describes three attributes of a product which include the threshold, performance, and excitement. These are attributes that customers expect to be in existence in a product, increasing a customer’s enjoyment of the product or service. According to the article, the main purpose of the Kano Model is to increase the customer’s happiness by improving the quality of the product or service provided. Every business organization has to put into consideration the features of any product before releasing it to the market.

For the successful implementation of the Kano model, several steps have to be completed. Fitting in all the features and attributes of a product is the first step. Then the organization should classify the features as either threshold, performance, or excitement attributes.
The Kano model is very significant as it helps an organization in identifying customer needs, defining purposes that have necessities as well as carrying out an analysis of the competitive products in the market. Essential tools for the success of the Kano technique include customer involvement, value analysis, prioritizing matrices, and ensuring the quality of the products.
IV. KEY LEARNING POINTS

Definition of the Kano model- it is a model designed to improve the happiness of an organization’s customers through decisions aimed at improving the quality of products and services.
Importance of the Kano model- its main importance is providing high-quality products to the customers, which leads to high customer satisfaction. The Kano model also helps in identifying factors that lead to customer dissatisfaction.
Categories of the Kano technique include threshold attributes, considered the most important attributes, Excitement Attributes that necessarily catapult the customers’ level of satisfaction, and Performance Attributes that aim at improving customer satisfaction.

V. RELEVANT STATEMENTS TO THE SESSION

The main advantage of the Kano model is that it opens and widens the reasoning of business organizations, putting more emphasis on the features of the product which improves customer satisfaction.
Kano's model stresses customer judgment of a product or service in the market.
The original developer of the model was Dr Noriaki Kano in the 1980s, where he raised claims that for a product to capture customers it must have three attributes including threshold, performance, and excitement attributes.
Steps involved in the successful implementation of the Kano technique include settling on the most essential features of a product or service that customers deem as crucial in satisfying their needs. The next step involves classifying the identified features as either threshold, performance, or excitement attributes respectively.
Other performance and non-relevant attributes require trimming to develop fully the threshold attributes.

VI. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

According to the article, the Kano theory aims at improving the customer’s level of satisfaction. As such, all business organizations aims at providing the best quality product or services to the people geared at winning their loyalty. Defined are steps that organizations have to abide by and follow so that they can successfully meet their intended goals. Further, the article discusses the most essential attribute responsible for high customer satisfaction. These attributes include performance attributes, Excitement Attributes, and threshold attributes. While every organization struggles to please customers, several factors feature. Customers do not buy a product and remain loyal simply because of the product’s quality. Pricing is a characteristic that an organization should ensure that it pleases the customers. Organizations that provide discounts and promotions do so with the understanding of the importance of reasonable pricing. Companies involved in this form of strategy increase their sales volume, which translates to high revenues. However, some customers attribute quality to high pricing. As such, if an organization prices its products highly, the likelihood of its revenues remaining high is low. Nonetheless, such a strategy needs to place its biggest bet on the type of customers that it targets. High-end customers pay for quality, while low-end customers purchase commodities they can afford.

VII. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

While developing products for our small cake business, we had to consider the Kano model and its benefits to us as a group. Being new in the market, we anticipated to meet with high levels of competition from the already existing members. However, as business-oriented entrepreneurs equipped with the skills and knowledge of successfully running a business enterprise, we felt that we could give it a shot. The Kano model was very essential in capturing our intended market, which is the campus students. By deciding on the features of the cakes and cookies that we were to supply to the students, we successfully managed to meet the needs of the customers. Later, we classified these attributes as threshold attributes, excitement, or performance attributes. This plan enabled us to provide the best quality cakes and cookies on campus, beating even the already established companies in their own business.

VIII. LEARNING REFLECTIONS

Personally, the Kano model of customer satisfaction has increased how I make my decisions. Prior planning of the products to provide to the customers helps a business organization in winning customer loyalty. Read More