OK, through your Value Chain analysis you've found that an essential part in your assembly directions was stopped. The yellow paper that discussed Step 13 in tricycle assembly was deleted; the attendant outcome was a huge up-spike in Helpline calls from frustrated customers inquiring about Step 13.
Your service-- restore the yellow. You discuss this to management, and it's approved. It takes a while-- after all; you've still got the entire current stock in the shops. There's also a quicker way to disperse that leaflet. You can email it directly to the clients that contact to the 1-800 Helpline. Plus, you can post a link to it on your website. The frequency of Helpline calls won't decrease immediately, you can aid in lowering the duration of the calls.
Initially glimpse, you might think the above answer to Step 13 shows an example of a timeless "product packaging" option. Remember, Package is "your face to the client". The appropriate bundle strengthens your Brand in the customer's mind. There is more to it than that.
See you would not have actually understood the issue existed at all if you had not sought input from Helpline and Shipping personnel in your look for a much better understanding of how your company value chain intersects your client worth chain.
In his timeless Competitive Advantage Michael Porter points out two kinds of purchaser requirements:
use criteria = what your product does for your client
signaling requirements = how your customer thinks or feels about what the item provides for them
Unaided, Step 13 in your assembly process isn't easy. However, when the customer checks out the fast guidelines on the yellow sheet and understands how to appropriately place the range bolt, then it's a breeze.
Many marketers think about signaling requirements and utilize requirements as living in various silos. A minimum of they must, because that's the way their marketing appears. It's as if they never ever talk with their consumers about how they really utilize their products.
In truth, signaling requirements can enhance use criteria and assist to place you in an extremely effective position, specifically versus a rival that has a superior product.
Imagine that your # 1 rival in the Trike organization has no Step 13 in their assembly. To an individual not trained in marketing, it may appear that this is a benefit the rival will utilize to crush you.
Successfully, you "out-signal" your competitor's engineering advantage and negate it.
Can you constantly do this? Naturally not. But, inside the mind of the customer, we typically operate at a closer parity with our competitors than we believe.
It's our task as marketers to ensure we do everything we can to indicate to the consumer that our product is, in fact, performing for them as much as their product packaging supplies expectations, not ours.
And a Value Chain analysis is a fantastic tool to insure that takes place