Respond to the items below.
- Explain customer-perceived value.
- Explain total customer satisfaction.
- What valuable functions can brands perform for a firm?
- Given that the power of a brand resides in the minds of consumers and how it changes their response to marketing, there are two basic approaches to measuring brand equity. Briefly, describe each of these approaches.
- Incorporating the concepts discussed in this assignment, answer the following: How does a loyal brand community support the positioning and branding of a small business? Provide an example to support your explanation.
Marketing Management BM350
Assignment 04,
Marketing Questions
Explain customer-perceived value.
The perceived customer value is primarily a concept that relates to marketing as well as branding and primarily reveals that the success or failure of a product heavily relies on the idea whether the customers find it able to satisfy their needs. This idea means that when a new product is introduced into the market, the customers determine the different ways they will react and conceive the new brand (Eggert & Ulaga, 2002). Organizations will, therefore, spend abundant time determining how the customers think, feel, as well as react to their product as this determines the success or failure of the product. To understand the concept of customer perceived value, it is essential for an institution and other individuals to familiarize themselves with the term value positioning.
Value positioning is a comparison made between the benefits generated from the product offers its customers relative to the price the customers have to pay to obtain the commodity. Companies have, however, the ability to influence their value positioning either by producing a long-term type of advertisement that keeps on reminding the customers they draw from the money they spend on the product. The companies can also opt to provide their products at a relatively lower price that keeps the company operational and has the ability to impress the customers. The customers will in this case have the mentality that the benefits generated from the product outweigh the cost of purchasing it (Yang & Peterson, 2004). As a result, the company is able to boost the customer perception value since they find the product benefits to outweigh the associated cost.
Explain total customer satisfaction.
Total customer satisfaction is achieved by institutions when they are in a position to repeatedly satisfy the needs of their various customers in the market. Total customer satisfaction is an evaluation of the way the products generated by a company and supplied to the consumers are able to beat customer expectations. The idea of total customer satisfaction entails that the company has to strive as much as possible to satisfy its customers with the brand it offers the consumers. The company has to strive to make its brand more appealing to the customer and in this case the brand since the impacts of the brand are higher compared to products. The company manager in this case has to keep a holistic view of the environment scanning for new ideas that make the brand more satisfactory and appealing to the consumers.
Total customer satisfaction starts off from the moment the customer makes up his or her mind to purchase the company product. At this junction, the customer is unaware of the brand to purchase. The ultimate decision on the brand to opt for will be influenced by many factors with the primary ones being the nature of the customer, his or her lifestyle, behaviors portrayed by the consumer, as well as the lifestyle lived by the consumer (Ghodeswar, 2008). Customers’ expectations that significantly affect total customer satisfaction are very tricky to manage as they are influenced by many factors with the common ones being the consumer’s past experiences, his or her expectations, as well as the influence of the family members as well as friends. The manager must keep a close eye when managing customer expectations as too high expectations will result in disappointment while on the other hand too low expectations drives the customers away to the company competitors.
What valuable functions can brands perform for a firm?
Brands also have the ability to carry out highly valuable functions for the given farm and these include simplifying the overall process of product handling as well as tracing. They also play a fundamental role in organizing the company’s records and also in organizing the firm’s inventory. A brand can also provide the particular company valid legal protection for the company’s unique product aspects.
Given that the power of a brand resides in the minds of consumers and how it changes their response to marketing, there are two basic approaches to measuring brand equity. Briefly, describe each of these approaches.
Brand equity emerges as a result of variations in customer response and in case no variations are present, the brand name of the given product remains a commodity and competition on the brand will highly rely on the price set by the company. The various variations in response are associated with the knowledge held by the consumers on the brand, the various feelings they hold, perceptions, as well as their overall beliefs. The brands will, therefore, produce unique, favorable, as well as very strong associations with the given customers (Ghodeswar, 2008). Brand equity is portrayed in various ways with the commonest ones being preferences, preferences, as well as the various behaviors revealed by the company towards the market aspects of the given brand. As a result, stronger brands significantly result in generating higher revenues as well as incomes for the company.
Incorporating the concepts discussed in this assignment, answer the following: How does a loyal brand community support the positioning and branding of a small business? Provide an example to support your explanation.
Having a loyal brand community doesn’t mean that these customers are satisfied with the goods and services alone but mean that the customers are satisfied with the brand as well. This brand loyalty will significantly help in the positioning of the small business as they help it grow since a loyal customer cannot at any occasion think of purchasing goods from competitors. For example, loyal Coca-Cola fans and customers who have being there throughout growing the company cannot at any instance think of buying beverage from Pepsi (Ghodeswar, 2008). This strong loyalty is what raises the company to the top of the industry as these customers provide a direct and ready market that keep the company operating at all times.
This loyal brand will keep the company name in the market for centuries and will help grow it as the loyal consumers tend to draw more customers as other people will want to find out what keeps the loyal customers loyal. This will increase company customers ranking the company at a higher position in the market and also grow the company brand. To obtain these loyal communities, a small business that is new in the industry will need to position its products in the market such that they remain unique and outstanding. It is the uniqueness of this product that will draw more and more customers to try the brand over the competitors. Once the customers get a taste of the product, they develop the urge to come back for more and to choose the company product over the competitors on a long-term basis.
These loyal communities keep the business operational and grow its brand among the locals and eventually on a global basis. The good reviews, large pool of customers coming back are what grow a local company into a higher position in the production ranking. The customers are what determine the position held by a company in the market with companies with more fans like Coca-Cola continuing to dominate the company (Yang & Peterson, 2004). For a small business in beverage to penetrate in this industry that is dominated by these companies, it needs to give the customers more than their current product is offering. There must be something compelling to enable these customers to opt for the new product.
References
Yang, Z., & Peterson, R. T. (2004). Customer perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty: The role of switching costs. Psychology & Marketing, 21(10), 799-822.
Eggert, A., & Ulaga, W. (2002). Customer perceived value: a substitute for satisfaction in business markets?. Journal of Business & industrial marketing, 17(2/3), 107-118.
Ghodeswar, B. M. (2008). Building brand identity in competitive markets: a conceptual model. Journal of product & brand management, 17(1), 4-12.
