Customer-perceived value - Essay Example

Assignment: Marketing perceived value is a marketing and branding concept that correlates a linkbetween the product and whether customers believe it can satisfy their needs. It is clear when a company develops and attempts to sell its products, customers react how to respond to these messages. Without a doubt, companies invest millions of dollars and time researching and understanding the customer demographics so as to understand their respective markets. Customers mostly do not make a judgment of costs and values objectively or accurately, rather they react according to their perceived value of the given product (Gale & Wood, 1994) Thus marketers should really work hard so as not only to attract customers, but also retain them by providing the maximum customer perceived value. For instance, Nike which is a well-known brand, endorsed Michael Jordan who is a professional NBA player and came up with a unique line of shoes known as Air Jordan(s).Thus Nike seems to know all too well the importance of developing customer-perceived value that is strong. Eventually all the publicity about the unique line of Air Jordans together with limited edition of Jordans, are all consumer-perceived. Thus such a product is perceived to be having more benefits than the one offered by its competitors making consumers more willing to pay the hiked price so as to get it (Gale & Wood, 1994). 2. Total customer satisfaction is the ability of a product or a service to satisfy the needs of a customer. It is clear that when a business taxes expands or grows more market share than its competitors, the company should focus on the needs of satisfying the customer. Moreover, ensuring that the customers’ needs are met should be a fundamental goal of any business. Customer satisfaction is thus a term constantly used in marketing and is a measure of how services and products that a company supplies meets or surpasses customer expectations. It is mostly taken as major performance indicator in business and mostly is an aspect of a Balanced Scorecard. Customer satisfaction is taken as a main differentiator in competitive marketplace where companies are in competition for customers and has progressively become a core aspect of business strategy. It is therefore very important for enterprises to efficiently deal with customer satisfaction. For businesses to carry out this, they therefore require representative and reliable procedures of satisfaction. Customer satisfaction usually gives a leading pointer of customer purchase loyalty and intentions. This therefore makes data pertaining customer satisfaction to be amongst the most commonly collected pointers of market perceptions, making their principal use twofold (Harsh, 2012). 3. Brands perform various aspects for an organization. First and foremost, they facilitate an organization’s quest to penetrate consumer markets. Brands define or break the fashion industry because brands help to organize inventory and accounting records. Moreover, customers are intricate about brands because it defines their personality. A legal function that brand offer is that a brand name can be protected through registered trademarks. Moreover, brands allow organizations to safeguard manufacturing processes which can be protected through patents. Without a doubt, these intellectual property rights ensure that the firm can safely invest in the brand and reap the benefits of a valuable asset (Kotler & Armstrong, 1991). Another great feature that brands can do for organizations is to create brand loyalty. Brand loyalty provides security and forecasting demand for the firm. More importantly, it creates barriers to entry that make it difficult for other firms to enter the market. Brands also identify the manufacturer or source of a product thus allowing customers either organizations or individuals to assign roles to specific distributor or manufacturer. Customers are therefore able to learn about various brands via past experiences with the given product as well as its marketing program. Consumers are therefore able to discover which brands gratify their desires and the ones that do not. Thus as the lives of customers become complex, time-starved and rushed, the capability of a brand to make simpler decision making and reduction of risk becomes invaluable. 4. Brand equity can be defined as an expression of the strength or value of a brand. At times it is also referred to as brand power, brand resonance or some other terms. Brand equity can be measured in financial terms or by procedures that are customer based. It is possible to measure brand equity for service and product brands in addition to corporate brands. Research of sound brands equity usually informs strategies regarding brand positioning and also steers communications development. Apart from that, it also offers a framework in which to correctly gauge the performance of a company’s most valuable assets: its brands. The two approaches to this concept include an indirect and direct approach. The first approach assesses potential sources of brand equity by identifying and tracking consumer brand knowledge structures. The second approach assesses the actual analysis of brand knowledge on consumer response. This response allows organizations to see purchasing patterns and build upon brand equity. For instance, young demographics are more likely to buy Abercrombie and Fitch rather than shopping from SAKS (Kotler & Armstrong, 1991). 5. Loyal brand community support comprises of positioning by ensuring that demographics are understood and penetrate the market share. Moreover, understanding both the emotional and the rational key indicators behind their purchasing powers, and reinforcing those choices at all customer touch-points is key. Building a loyal brand community support means increasing customer awareness. The best way to increase awareness among your target audience is to truly understand their customer demographics. Understanding customer demographics for small business and geographical locations are key for small businesses because they have to compete with bigger firms. The challenge for a smaller firm is to penetrate a very small niche of goods and services so as to compete against bigger firms, which gives them a competitive edge. World over, no one wants to have a brand that is mediocre. Thus small businesses should take the necessary steps so that they can become dominant. In the world of small business thus, you either die or grow-there is no middle ground and in most instances the firm that wins the consumers’ heart takes it all, exiting this game and leaving the other competitors struggling for small market share. For small businesses to develop a good position amongst competitors and in the market place, they have to understand 3 main ingredients for coming up with a retail marketing strategy that is strong; relevance, category leadership and growth potential (Kotler & Armstrong, 1991). The first strategy is about the small business’s brand promise to the consumers. Thus everything for the small business (including their adverts), must build value for their customers. Anything that deviates from this weakens their relevance in the life of the consumer. Thus the moment a consumer no longer sees value in a brand’s promise, its relevance dies making the customer to do business with the competition. For instance, this is the fate that befell K-Mart as Walmart positioned itself, becoming more relevant by providing what consumers needed (deep inventory), the time when consumers wanted it (open 24 hours) and at the price the consumer wanted to pay. The second strategy that small businesses should take is capitalizing on growth potential. This basically means that a powerful brand assists consumers achieve growth. Finally, small businesses should go for category leadership by building market dominance by constantly conversing with your customers, partners and associates. Thus at every point in the chain, they endeavor to add value, standing apart from competitors (Kotler & Armstrong, 1991). References Gale, B. T., & Wood, R. C. (1994). Managing customer value: creating quality and service that customers can see. New York: Free Press Harsh, V. (2012). Services Marketing:Text and Cases,2/e. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley(India) Pvt.Ltd. Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (1991). Principles of marketing (5th Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. What Is Customer Perceived Value?. (n.d.). Small Business. Retrieved May 17, 2014, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/customer-perceived-value-23692.html Read More