Читать книгу Value Merchants - Nirmalya Kumar - Страница 20

Various definitions of customer value have been offered by different authors. Considering them suggests the varying conceptualizations underlying this concept and the differences in what it means. The definitions also suggest some of the difficulties in actually assessing customer value.¹

According to Bradley Gale, “Customer value is market-perceived quality adjusted for the relative price of your product.” Perhaps reflecting their interest in pricing, Robert Dolan and Hermann Simon state that “perceived value is the maximum price the customer will pay.” Gerald Smith contends that “Value = the benefits the customer receives relative to the price paid.” Finally, Thomas Nagle and Reed Holden state, “In common usage, the term value refers to the total savings or satisfaction that the customer receives from the product.”²

So, what is customer value? Adjusted market-perceived quality, maximum price, benefits relative to price, totals savings, or, even, satisfaction received? Each of these constituent components takes our understanding of the concept in a different direction. Given that customers are happier paying a lower price, there appears to be tension between customer value as maximum price or satisfaction received. Yet the individuals providing these definitions do not go into much detail about what their definition means, nor do they discuss the conceptualizations of customer value that their definitions suggest.

Another problematic aspect about customer value that has not been addressed is how disparate constituent elements defining value might be combined. As an instance of this, consider benefits mentioned in the preceding definition from Smith. To make this tangible, consider two benefits for titanium dioxide, which is a pigment that whitens, brightens, and opacifies (as an ingredient in coatings). Each benefit is an improvement over a previous industry standard. Dispersability improves by reducing (from thirty minutes to ten minutes) the time required to reach 7 Hegman fineness units in a Cowles high-speed disperser. The second benefit, gloss, improves from 78 to 86 60° gloss units. How, specifically, a customer manager would combine Hegman fineness units and 60° gloss units is not at all clear. This example is typical of business markets where benefits—desirable changes in performance—are expressed in precisely defined scientific, engineering, and cost-accounting terms.

We find a number of elements in definitions of customer value: benefits, benefits expressed in monetary terms, costs, costs expressed in monetary terms, and price. What is lacking is a consideration of the commensurability of measurement units, which is essential to arrive at a meaning for customer value. Just as when one learns to combine fractions in school, one must first find a common denominator, convert the respective numerators to their units on this common denominator, and then combine them to reach an answer. So it would appear to be necessary in conceptualizing customer value, too. Of the five elements just given, however, only three have direct commensurability: benefits expressed in monetary terms, costs expressed in monetary terms, and price.