Your Business Plan probably uses the words ‘provide high perceived value’ somewhere.
‘Perceived’ by who – you, your customer, your customer’s neighbor?
Details, right?
Truth is, claiming ‘perceived value’ is a cop-out when used vaguely in a business plan. All products that sell have some perceived value – otherwise no one would cough up the cash to make a purchase. ”High perceived value” could indicate your product is worth a premium price (things a lot of owners like) or is priced low compared to its value (things owners hate) or is fabulous and priced completely unrealistically (Things customers and sales folk hate).
How many plans actually get approved with a value statement like, “Provide the lowest cost for the fewest features at the lowest quality that our customer will accept.”
There are a number of companies successfully taking advantage of this strategy, but how many managers would admit to it? Usually claiming we will provide high quality and customer value wins in the plan, but real life interfears. If you are targeting a budget strapped group that only needs one tenth of what you are offering – then give them what the need for the lowest price possible. Write your value statement to admit what you are doing.
Value needs to always be measured by target usefulness. If extra features make the box harder to open and fill, then the box becomes less useful to those who would buy it. A finely tuned feature set makes marketing communication easier, cuts overall production costs and focuses all areas of development on justifying any feature addition over time.
