Heavyset

Author’s note: This is the third in a series of several posts on the much-discussed notion of ‘creating customer value’, culled from what was originally an extraordinarily long post and separated into more focused topics. The first, exploring customer value through the lens of VORP, can be found here. The second, focused on the diminishing value of abundant content, is here.

Tom Fishburne, Sr. Marketing Director at Method, highlighted the soap brands’ efforts to create value for consumers via efforts to translate planet health to personal health. His thorough and thoughtful presentation on this model is below:

There’s much to laud here, and yet we’re no closer to the answer to the question, namely: In a world of abundant choice, what price do consumers place on the value that has been created for them?

Actually, I’m certain that Tom knows with great precision the extra cost a Method customer is willing to pay for an environmentally-friendly hand soap. Tom knows to the penny his VORP (Value over Replacement Product). And, I suspect, Tom knows that it’s low. Very low.

Consider the content that is created, and oft-lauded as having created value, for consumers under the umbrella of branded entertainment.

Subservient Chicken is compelling. It’s still a great deal of fun. It has been viewed by millions.¹

Would you pay $0.25 to use the site? I suspect not.

Would you pay $1.00 to watch the Cadbury Gorilla ad on YouTube?

It would be difficult to imagine any commodity that exists in such abundance as branded entertainment – from the aforementioned chocolate spot to Cheerioke. Still, though, microsites are launched every day under the auspices of ‘created value’ – a commodity of such low VORP as to be completely dispensible.

The distinction to be made, and the distinction Tom’s presentation hints at, is that far-greater perceived value is created when baked into the product (as opposed to spread like manure around the product or service).

Perceived value, which I suggest is quite different from value created, can get a consumer to pay a little bit more for an environmentally-friendly handsoap, but I’m skeptical that it could compel a consumer to spend the same amount more to enjoy content about that handsoap.

This begs, then, the following question:

Might much of the time and energy spent ‘creating value’ for consumers be better spent in product development than in marketing? Can brands create measurable ‘value’ through communications?

Would love your thoughts.

1. To be fair, I’ve not heard any of the fine folks at The Barbarian Group or CP+B once assert that the site ‘creates value’. [↩]

Related posts:

1. The diminishing value of abundant content
2. VORP and Creating Customer Value
3. Access via Extraction?
4. Really Small Formats, Really Big Brands
5. Freddie Laker on The Paradox of Marketing