Value proposition
What is a Value Proposition?
A value proposition refers to the value a company promises to deliver to customers should they choose to buy their product. A value proposition is part of a company's overall marketing strategy. The value proposition provides a declaration of intent or a statement that introduces a company's brand to consumers by telling them what the company stands for, how it operates, and why it deserves their business.
A value proposition can be presented as a business or marketing statement that a company uses to summarize why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. This statement, if worded compellingly, convinces a potential consumer that one particular product or service the company offers will add more value or better solve a problem for them than other similar offerings will.
Importance of a Value Proposition
The development of a value proposition is a vital part of a company’s business strategy. Since the proposition provides a company with a method to influence the decision-making of customers, it is frequently displayed on the company’s marketing materials, such as a website.
The value proposition is a powerful tool to drive sales and build a customer base. Additionally, a perfect and compelling value proposition can advance the effectiveness of the company’s marketing strategies. Generally, it is regarded as the most effective and wide-reaching marketing activity.
How to Create a Value Proposition
As we’ve already determined, the perfectly tailored value proposition can become a huge success factor for a company. However, the creation of a powerful proposition is a challenging yet rewarding task for every business. Below, we have listed some tips that will help you to create an effective one:
1. Know your customers
Before creating your value proposition, you must analyze the market and potential customers. Identify your target customers and target market segment to understand their desired benefits.
Source
2. Understand your costs and benefits
Identify and assess the benefits delivered by your company and its products or services, along with the costs incurred to provide them. It is important to do this because the value to your customers is essentially the difference between the benefits and costs of your product or service.
Source
3. Don’t forget about your competitors
After the analysis of target customers and your own company, evaluate the competitive landscape in the market. Determine the strengths and weaknesses of your major competitors and identify ways you can differentiate your business from them.
Source
4. Be clear and concise
Don’t forget that an effective value proposition is clear and concise. Your target customers must quickly grasp the message you want to convey. It should not exceed two or three sentences.
Source
5. Design is king! 👑
Make your proposition visible and appealing on all marketing materials (e.g., website, flyers, social media, price boards, etc..). Remember that if you have created a powerful value proposition, but no one can see it, the effect of the proposition will be zero!
Source
Requirements of a Value Proposition
A company's value proposition communicates the number one reason why a product or service is best suited for a customer segment. Therefore, it should always be displayed prominently on a company's website and in other consumer touch points. It also must be intuitive, so that a customer can read or hear the value proposition and understand the delivered value without needing further explanation.
Value propositions that stand out tend to make use of a particular structure. A successful value proposition typically has a strong, clear headline that communicates the delivered benefit to the consumer. The headline should be a single memorable sentence, phrase, or even a tagline. It frequently incorporates catchy slogans that become part of successful advertising campaigns.
Often a subheadline will be provided underneath the main headline, expanding on the explanation of delivered value and giving a specific example of why the product or service is superior to others the consumer has in mind. The subheading can be a short paragraph and is typically between two and three sentences long. The subheading is a way to highlight the key features or benefits of the products and often benefits from the inclusion of bullet points or another means of highlighting standout details.
This kind of structure allows consumers to scan the value proposition quickly and pick up on product features. Added visuals increase the ease of communication between business and consumer. In order to craft a strong value proposition, companies will often conduct market research to determine which messages resonate the best with their customers.
Read more
Value is a word that has nearly lost its meaning. This five-letter word has been overused and abused by brands across every messaging statement, across every website page, across every sales email. The way we do business has changed and our messaging must change as well.
Brands that truly offer value to their customers — and communicate that value in a meaningful way — are the ones that will weather economic storms. Brands that demonstrate how they are uniquely positioned to meet buyer needs are the ones that will be noticed while their competitors are overlooked.
So now is the time to do something about your unique value proposition. That starts by understanding its definition, the necessary elements, and how other experts and brands are executing them in a meaningful way.
Read full article (recommended)
Pop quiz: do you know your brand purpose from your value prop? Many organizations can articulate the value proposition that they offer to their customers, yet struggle to define an underlying brand purpose. Still more use the two terms interchangeably. In fact, a brand’s purpose and its value proposition are two distinct elements that serve radically different functions when applied to a brand’s overall strategy and philosophy.
Read full article (recommended)
Knowing how to create a compelling value proposition is challenging. Often people quickly come up with a slogan or tagline rather than creating a simple to understand value proposition immediately gets traction with a potential customer. One quick way to gain inspiration for your own value proposition is to understand what some of the brands and businesses do.
Read full article (recommended)
If you really care about your customers, really want to understand them, then the value proposition canvas is a tool that will transform how you innovate and market your business.
The Value Proposition Canvas was developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur to complement the Business Model Canvas. One of the biggest problems when designing a buiness model is how to create value – often people struggle with this.
That’s where the Value Proposition Canvas book comes in. It makes creating a value proposition easier, plus it is packed full of useful tips, advice and resources.
In a nutshell, the value proposition canvas is a transformative approach to understanding value and designing products or services that customers want.
Read full article (recommended)
Precisely define your customer profiles
Identify your customer's major Jobs-to-be-done, the pains they face when trying to accomplish their Jobs-to-be-done and the gains they perceive by getting their jobs done.
Visualize the value you create
Define the most important components of your offering, how you relieve pain and create gains for your customers.
Achieve Product-Market fit
Adjust your Value Proposition based on the insights you gained from customer evidence and achieve Product-Market fit.
the-value-proposition-canvas-1.pdfDownload the Value Proposition Canvas. Try and fill it in with the given suggestions and let's see what comes out of it!
Want to know more about the Value Proposition Canvas?
Would you even enroll in a short course to know more about the value proposition?
Sounds great! Click on the button below to learn more.
