Column 10 · Service, Value, and Experience · Era 4, Orientation and Relationships (1990s)
Customer Value
Outputs: performance · Landmark · Cluster IV, Customer and Brand Assets
Description
Woodruff defined customer value as a customer's perceived preference for and evaluation of product attributes, attribute performances, and consequences in use, organized in a means-end hierarchy, and proposed customer value determination as a source of competitive advantage.
Managerial Implications
Customers value products as means to consequences and goals in use, not for attributes themselves. Learn the hierarchy: what attributes customers want, what results those attributes produce in use, and what goals those results serve. Competitive advantage comes from delivering superior value at the consequence and goal levels, which requires talking with customers about their work and lives, not only about your product.