UX Diary #6 — Value Proposition
Everyone has a couple wow! moments. I clearly remember that I had a huge wow! moment when I first met with a thing called UX Design — It was a rainy day at Istanbul and we were creating our eighth unsuccesful app with my partner, back at 2016.
When I was working as a digital marketer for startups I also ate a couple slices from Business Development Pizza at the same time and my first meeting with UX design created that lightning on my mind: This sounds familiar. It has pieces from marketing and business development.
Today, I evaluate UX Design as a set of intersections of business development and marketing. And if you are an UI/UX Designer, then UI Design joins the math as a new cluster.
Now, I’m trying to convert my UX Design informations to systematic UX knowledge via UX Diary. And this is the sixth part of UX Diary — The Value Proposition. If you just met with UX Diary you can click here to start UX Diary from the beginning.
A business is a value delivery system. *
And Value Proposition explains that why a customer should buy from you.
A Value Proposition is a promise of value to be delivered, communicated and acknowledged. It is also a belief from the customer about how value will be delivered, experienced and acquired.
A Value Proposition is the place were your company’s product intersects with your costumers’ desires. It’s the magic fit between what you make and why people buy it.
The What is a reductive process in the early stages of the design process that maps out the key aspects of a product: what it is, who is it for and when/where it will be used.
The Why helps the team visualize everything the product could be, before narrowing down and creating consensus about what the product will be.
Creating a value proposition is a part of business strategy. Strategy is based on a differentiated customer value proposition. Satisfying customers is the source of sustainable value proposition.
Developing a value proposition is based on a review and analysis of benefits, costs and value that on organization can deliver to it’s customers, prospective customers and other constituent groups within and outside the organization. It is also a positioning of value, where Value=Benefits-Cost.
Consumers are always looking around for the best possible deal at the best quality and howthere products or services will contribute to their success. The Value Proposition is a cretive statement that depicts the unique selling point. Without this statement, you lose an opportunity to tell customers why they should pick you over competitors.
The Value Proposition is to differetiate the brand from competitors.
Before studying an example Value Proposition, let’s have a quick check about the title that clears Value Proposition’s stages: The Value Cycle.
Value Cycle
Value Proposition is by definition what the company offer differs from its competitors and explains why the customers buy from the company.
Value Propositions defines the relationship between: the performance attributes of products or services, the fullfilment of the needs of particular customers and total cost.
Value Proposition must be studied through its entire value life cycle.
1 — Value Creation
A set of interdependent activities that add value for the customers to the company products and services.
The stage of value creation is the essential point of any business.
2 — Value Appropriation
Value appropriation means the stage which companies develop, improve and faciliate their customers’ buying experience. An example for this Amazon’s one-click-buying which allows customers to make a purchase using one click.
3 — Value Consumption
This is core to value proposition. At this stage, customers see and feel the value through the actual use of product or service.
Value is maximized when value proposition’s aspects match the customers needs.
4 — Value Renewal
In some cases, it is possible to renew value during or after its consumption when value is used up, becomes old, is dysfunctional or when its expires. You can renew the value by adding new features.
5 — Value Transfer
There is a possibility that a customer transfers the acquired value after its consumption.
Building A Value Proposition
Value Proposition is the number one thing that determines whether visitor will bother exploring your website or not.
Don’t let people do the hard thinking about your offerings. It’s your job to express core values of your product the simplest possible way.
This can be so powerful that the best information extracted from Value Proposition statement can convince visitor will click right away on CTA button.
Grandma’s Recipe — 3 Ingredients
I met with this cool recipe when I was reading Viktor Goliaš’ Value Proposition.
{Action 1} + {Action 2} — Most useful and easily imaginable activities accesible as available functions of your product.
(Benefit) — Which positive outcome desired by customer will these activities ensure.
Let’s see this formula on a couple examples:
Twitter’s Value Proposition: Start a conversation (Action 1) and explore your interests (Action 2) and be in the know (Benefit).
Pinterest: Join Pinterest to find and save the things that inspire you.
Try it! Apply this formula for your current client, right now.
I will apply this formula for some of my current clients:
Coopers’ Whisky Club — One of my current clients as a digital marketer: Join whisky origin conversations and explore new whiskies via tasting notes from a community which is full of whisky experts.
This was a little long sentence, isn’t it? Let’s try to make it perfect. I will try this formula for a different client which I’m providing business development services — Elele Ceramic.
Elele Ceramic is selling uniquely designed ceramic coffee mugs to its customers. Actually, it is my girlfriend’s brand. So, I’m not only serving as a business developer. I’m serving for her as a part time cook and full time supporter. According to my Value Proposition study for her brand, Elele Ceramic’s main value is to make people smile on their drinking experiences with deliver uniquely designed ceramic mugs.
Elele Ceramic — Drink your coffee with a special mug and touch an artistic thing for a better day start.
Marketers Tech — Which I’m working as a UI/UX Designer: Collect, classify and visualize data for better marketing knowledge. This is the Value Proposition sentence that I’m using at the brand’s landing page and there is a CTA button calling ‘Request A Demo’.
Your turn! Try it for you current client and see the result.
Value Proposition Canvas
Another method for to build Value Proposition is Peter J Thomson’s VP Canvas.
A Value Proposition Canvas is a chart that maps the key things that make up your product and why people buy it. There are many different value proposition canvases. Any canvas that helps you understand your customer, your offer and how the two fit together.
Features — A feature is a factual description of how your product works. The features are the functioning attributes of your product.
Benefits — A benefit is what your product does for the customer. The benefits are the ways that the features make your customer’s life easier by increasing pleasure or decreasing pain.
Experience — The product experience is the way that owning your product makes the customer feel. It’s the sum total of the combined features and benefits.
Wants — The emotional drivers of decision making are things that we want to be, do or have. Our wants are usually conscious thoughts about how we’d like to improve our lives.
Needs — The customer’s needs are the rational things that the customer needs to get done. Interestingly, needs are not always conscious. Customers can have needs that they may not know about yet. Designers call these “latent needs”.
Fears — The dark side of making a decision is that it often carries a fear of giving up optionality. Fear of making a mistake, fear of missing out, fear of loss and dozens of other related fears. Fears can be a strong driver of purchasing behaviour and can be the hidden source of wants and needs. Customer fears are often the secret reason that no one is buying your widget. For any product there is a secret “pain of switching”. Even if your product is better than the competition, it might not be a big enough improvement to overcome the inertia of the status quo.
Substitutes — Some companies claim that they have no direct competitors. The substitutes on the canvas aren’t just the obvious competitors, instead look for the existing behaviours and coping mechanisms.
Conclusion
- Analyze and identify the market segments or spesific customers or target individiuals
- Analyze and define the value experience
- Define the offerings
- Assess the benefits
- Analyze the alternatives and differentiation
- Back it all up with relevant proof
- Find and define the value
On the next step of UX Diary, I will share a case study which is including the all six steps of UX Diary we dive deep together till now. After that, we will keep going exploring UX subdisciplines via UX Diary. You can click here to follow me to don’t miss UX Diary.
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