By Affiliate Ida Cheinman, Substance151
Leading brands are increasingly making a shift from touting features and benefits to demonstrating the deeper value of their products, services and company as a whole – especially through customer experience. This means that messages about exceptional products/service, quality and price are no longer enough. These traditional standards of the marketing mix are merely cost of entry today. In the Ideal Economy, companies must find ways to create deeper value in order to thrive.
This month, we’re sharing the trends in branding and marketing that are related to value design. See our full article: What’s Your Value? Leveraging 2012 Marketing Trends: Increasing Perceived Value Through Brand Experience.
What’s clear is that the overarching shift to value design (giving the customer a deeper experience) is not only here to stay but also extremely relevant for all businesses. What’s more is that marketing communications based on the old paradigm will only continue to put companies smack in the middle of the competitive pool, struggling to find their difference or, worse, discounting their price. The key to understanding the relevance and reasons to take action on the new value-based marketing trends is twofold:
- Recognize how closely value design is connected to creating exceptional customer relationships – something the business community has long recognized as essential to success.
- Determine the intrinsic benefits to the company of creating deeper perceived value for the customer.
Additionally, there are two key questions that must be answered for value design to truly make sense as a marketing strategy:
- In an economy that has forced cut back after cut back, how can companies give their customers more? Or, more simply, what does “more” mean?
- How does enhanced value relate to the tactical aspects of marketing such as brand identity, content marketing, websites and other strategic and tactical tools?
For our list of the critical value design branding and marketing trends for 2012, as well as the answer to these questions, read the full article: What’s Your Value? Leveraging 2012 Marketing Trends: Increasing Perceived Value Through Brand Experience