One of the earliest considerations in your marketing plan should be your customer value proposition (CVP). That is identifying what your customers’ value most about the products and services you are offering. Building a customer value proposition is therefore a key component of any marketing strategy.
A customer chooses to buy a product or service for a price against which they perceive there to be a number of benefits. Products which are highly valued demand a higher price, and products with little value will therefore only sell at a lower price.
A common mistake when building a customer value proposition is overloading your offer. The problem with this approach is that your customers can become confused. The most effective customer value propositions contain only a small number of key benefits.
So, how do you test whether the benefits of your offer will be highly valued by your customers? The answer is the 3D test. If your benefits pass the test, you can be sure that your customer value proposition is on the right track.
How effective is your CVP? Use the graphic below to test your benefits against the 3D test. If you find the test useful, please feel free to share this post!
In addition to applying the 3D test, it can also be useful to use research to more rigorously identify the components of a CVP that are likely to have most relevance with customers. For instance, the value proposition canvas framework can be a very useful means of structuring primary research with your target audience.
To find out more about developing a customer value proposition, click the link below to read our article on the subject.