Customer Value and Benefits

The role of the customer is central because the customer is a cocreator of value. As such, marketing is a process of doing things in interaction with the customer. Value is perceived and determined by the consumer on the basis of value in use. Consequently, firms cannot add value but can only offer value propositions.“Goods are distribution mechanisms for service provision”

Value occurs in interaction with resources. Satisfying the unmet needs of the masses through well defined and affordable products and services is an important trend in contemporary marketing. Satisfying the unmet needs of the masses through well defined and affordable products and services is an important trend in contemporary marketing.

Holbrook identifies eight types of customer value: efficiency (output to input ratios or output less input), excellence  (quality), status (fashion), esteem  (materialism), play (fun), aesthetics (beauty), ethics (justice, virtue, and morality), and spirituality (rapture and ecstasy).

Due to the extensive array of products and services offered by Vodafone, its value proposition includes all the categories mentioned above except ‘Ethics’ and with its various innovative corporate responsibility initiatives, ‘Ethics’ will soon be part of Vodafone’s value propositions.

Looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s clear that as a service provider Vodafone satisfies all the needs except the very basic ones like physiological needs and the very extreme ones like transcendence and self actualization. Vodafone satisfies the very basic need like safety and belonging and love by helping their consumers stay in touch with not just their loved ones but also their peers and colleagues and even enables them to contact the relevant authorities via various platforms in case of any emergencies. As we go higher up the pyramid, Vodafone also satisfies the needs for ‘Esteem’ and ‘Aesthetics’  due to its array of extremely innovative products and services and its unique positioning in the market as a provider of premium products and services. A very few service providers of any category can claim to be doing the same as Vodafone is doing for all its consumers.
In the next entry, we will focus on the consumer decision making process.     

Introduction to Marketing and the Product/Service

                 As this blog is about understanding various aspects of marketing from the perspective of a particular product’s or service’s marketing, lets first learn a few things about markets and marketing in brief and then understand marketing from my chose product/service’s marketing perspective.

                A market is essentially nothing but the sum-total of all the potential customers. Although many kinds of markets existed before the industrial revolution began in the 18^th century, it was the advent of mass production in the era of the industrial revolution which started creating new demands and at the same time also kept stoking demands for the staple products. Thus, industrial revolution played a very crucial role in creating new demands and thus creating new markets.

 ‘To the market’ era

                Initially as the supply and productive capabilities were scarce, the primary objective of marketing was just taking things to the market. Hence, in essence it was merely the performance of all business activities that directed the flow of the goods and services from producers to consumers. The markets along with the concepts of marketing continued to evolve and starting from the mid 1940’s and early 1950’s, marketing was much more than just about just taking things to the market.

‘Marketing to’ era

                Instead of making customers do what suited the business, it became more about designing products and services which suited the demands and needs of the consumer. The objective of marketing in this era was not just fulfilling existing demands but also stimulate and create new demands. Thus marketing became defined as a decision making on product, prices, channels, advertising, selling and location, all of which were aimed at marketing to customers to get them to purchase the products and be satisfied consumers.

‘Marketing with’ era

                 Eventually marketing became an adaptive process, in societies and organizations, of collaborating to communicate, create, provide and sustain value for customers and meeting the needs of diverse stakeholders. Consumer became an ‘Endogenous’ part and a partner in the product development process instead of merely being an ‘Exogenous’ part of the same. Competitive advantage was started being strongly linked to co-creating unique value with customers.

Now that we have learned the evolution of marketing in brief, lets focus on a particular product/service and learn all the aspects of contemporary marketing from the perspective of that particular product/service. My product/service is Vodafone India Limited’s SIM cards and voice, messaging and internets services. Vodafone India Limited, formerly Vodafone Essar Limited, is the second largest player in telecom operator in India after Airtel, with a market share of 22.95%.It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has approximately 160 million customers as of December 2013. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with good presence in the metros.

                In addition to the core voice, messaging and internet(2G & 3G) services, Vodafone India also provides a lot of value added services like Entertainment & Lifestyle(Caller tunes, Music, Astrology, Movies and TV, Dating and Sports related Apps and services), News and Finance, Healthcare, Social Networking and caller management services.

                Vodafone also launched it’s MPesa service in India. M-Pesa is a mobile-phone based money transfer and micro-financing service. M-Pesa allows users with a national ID card or passport to deposit, withdraw, and transfer money easily with a mobile device. It’s one of the many factors which gives Vodafone it’s edge over the competitors in the market and differentiates it from the same.

                In the next entry, we will focus on the concept of customer value and how my chosen product/service benefits the consumers and adds value to their lives.