Business owners and marketers need to understand who their customer is, what they’re trying to achieve and how their product or service helps.
They also need to adapt their business model as customer behaviour changes.
Blockbuster was in the ‘video rental’ business. Had they been in the ‘helping our customers to enjoy their favourite films’ business, things might have turned out differently.
Netflix, by contrast, used to deliver DVDs to customers by post. When the internet became fast enough to support video streaming, they followed their customers online.
A great way to zero in on your customer and their goals is to define your value proposition.
A value proposition captures...
- Who your customers are
- What they want
- How you help them
- What makes you unique
It’s not a strapline or a slogan and it isn’t customer-facing. It is, however, crucial and ought to underpin everything you do.
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In this quick exercise, we’ll show you how to create a value proposition that will help you zero in on what your customers really want.
What you’ll need
10 minutes and a pen and paper.
Creating your value proposition
Let’s kick things off with an example. Take a look at the table below.
|
For |
Your customer. |
|
Who want |
Their goal. |
|
Our |
Your business or service. |
|
Is |
What makes it unique or special. |
|
Which means |
How it helps the customer meet their goal and any other important benefits. |
Here’s the same table using Netflix as an example.
|
For |
Film and TV lovers |
|
Who want |
Want to watch TV shows and films at home and on the move |
|
Our |
Online entertainment platform |
|
Is |
A massive variety of curated and original programming and one of the world’s best ‘what to watch next’ algorithms |
|
Which means |
You can watch unlimited entertainment wherever you are for a fixed monthly fee |
Here’s the same table with some instructions to help you fill out each of the fields.
|
For |
Your customer. |
|
Who want |
Your customer’s goal. |
|
Our |
Your business or service. |
|
Is |
What makes it unique or special. |
|
Which means |
How it helps customers achieve their goals as well as any key benefits. |
The value proposition should reflect the entire business, not just marketing. To make sure yours is representative, ask several people to complete this exercise and then come together to discuss your results.
Value propositions may look simple but capturing what your customers are looking for and how you help is harder than it looks.
Some people get around this by being broad and trying to appeal to as many people as possible. Avoid doing this.
The more focused your value proposition is, the more useful it will be.
