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.