Competing on Value : Bridging
the gap between brand and customer value
Simon Knox, Stan Maklan
ISBN: 0273631055 (Hardback
There has been a fundamental
change in the purchasing motivation and behavior of customers and the methods by which
companies meet these new customer expectations.
Companies are re-examining
their fundamental assumptions about the way in which they define and deliver value to
their customers.
Marketing and brand
strategies successfully deployed in the 1980s and 1990s are no longer sufficient to ensure
continued profitable growth, customer loyalty and competitive advantage. Today, global
competition offers everyone a meaningful choice of equally competent suppliers. The
sharp-end of creating customer value lies with the organization's ability to:
- customize
products and services
- direct
complex supply chains on behalf of customers
- provide
pre-sales advice and post-sales service
- maximize
customer convenience
- work
effectively within alliances on behalf of customers.
The UOVP - Unique
Organisation Value PropositionTM is an important new methodology providing a practical
approach which enables senior management to define and deliver customer value in a world
where traditional products and brands often fail to do so.
The UOVP integrates an
organization's value-adding processes into a powerful combination of reputation,
performance, customer and product portfolio and a network of third-party relationships.
Creating this differentiated combination, on the basis of delivering real value, enables
an organization to:
- create
profitable long-term customer relationships
- integrate
and direct the organization towards customer value
- lead
unbeatable alliances
- generate
breakthrough innovation.
In short, to prosper by
Competing on Value.
Simon Knox is a Professor of
Brand Marketing at the Cranfield School of Management and a consultant to a number of
multinational companies including McDonald's, Levi Strauss, DiverseyLever and the Ocean
Group.
Before joining Cranfield,
Simon worked for Unilever in a number of senior marketing roles in both detergents and
foods. He writes extensively on brand equity issues and customer purchasing styles.
Stan Maklan is a Principal
Consultant with CSC Computer Sciences, one of the world's largest IT and management
consulting firms, and is a regular contributor to international conferences and seminars.
He has been a director at
operating companies for Unilever and Burson-Marsteller, international leaders in consumer
goods and public relations respectively, as well as a marketing manager for Cable &
Wireless (telecommunications). Stan ran his own consultancy specializing in
business-to-business marketing before joining CSC.
He was awarded honors for
academic excellence when he obtained a Masters of Business Administration from the
University of Western Ontario (Canada) and has a Bachelor of Science (Economics) from the
Université de Montréal.