Are you adding value or just adding chrome?
Ever since the first time was uttered the phrase “new and improved,” marketers have been all over the idea of adding value.
Software companies release upgraded versions. Smart phones add more capabilities. Packaged good manufacturers continually tout new flavors/colors/sizes. Your cable or satellite provider adds new networks, HD channels and On Demand options at a blistering pace. In other words, we’ve come to view product development as something that’s never finished.
The pressure to add value has intensified in light of expanded competition, not only within your immediate category but in related categories that also compete for consumer resources. (Example: an entertainment venue not only competes with other entertainment venues, it also competes with anything that vies for a consumer’s discretionary time).
“Adding value” has become ubiquitous, and is something that is pretty much expected in commerce today. If you just released Version 2.0, Version 2.1 better not be far behind.
But the question is, how many of these “improvements” actually enhance a customer’s experience with the product or service, and how many are simply “change for change sake?”
“Adding value” is best defined as “engineering more into your product or service to help you customer have a better experience while using it.”
The benefits of adding true user value are many, including building a reputation for innovation, enhancing customer loyalty, giving customers a reason to upgrade, and in many cases, justifying a price increase. It is important to note, however, that to qualify as “added value,” enhancements and additions must be seen as being “of use” to the customer. Arbitrarily adding functionality that doesn’t improve a customer’s experience might justify the “new and improved” snipe on your packaging, but will likely garner a collective “meh” from your customers.
What’s really needed then, is a filter. And quite simply, nothing is better than “Does this improvement add to an improved experience by the user?”
One industry that has done a great job at adding value has been the auto industry. Take a look at what your new car dollar bought back in, say 1959, as opposed to today. In ’59 you could buy a new Chevrolet Bel-Air for around $2,600 ($19,500 in today’s dollars). While it bought you some nifty styling and tail fins to die for, it also bought you a car with no airbags, no restraint systems, no anti-lock brakes, no air conditioning, no 100,000 mile warranty, and no radio (those were extra). For roughly that same money today, you can get a new Chevy Malibu with all those features, plus gas mileage that’s more than doubled, improved performance and a lifespan three times the 50-60,000 miles of the ’59.
To visually demonstrate this, we present this video produced by the National Highway Safety Administration showing the effects of a head-on collision between the 1959 Chevy Bel-Air and the 2009 Chevy Malibu.
In fairness to the ’59 however, it did boast a boat load of chrome.
Posted by Mickey
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