Competing on Value: Bridging the gap between brand and customer value (FT) [Hardcover]

Simon.Dr. Knox (Author), Stan. Maklan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1998 | Series: FT

Where brands have traditionally been associated with individual product lines, the authors assert that the concept of the brand needs to both reflect and be carried by the whole organization. Today, customer value is created in a context of long term partnerships formed to achieve customized solutions, process reengineering, risk sharing, and supply chain optimization.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

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 1980's and 1990's 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 Organization Value Proposition™ —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.

"The authors vividly understand the key components of customer behavior today. Their voices are clear, powerful and compelling. The richness of their insights will add value for years to come."

—Larry Hochman, Director of People & Culture, Air Miles

"As companies focus more and more on their core competencies, the need for reliable strategic suppliers and partners is paramount. The UOVP principle embraces very elegantly today's approach to differentiation in the marketplace. Competing on Value is an enlightening and informative read, a must for all marketers."

—Matthew Wallis, General Manager Europe, Motorola Computer Group

About the Author

Steve 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 has line management experience in North America, Britain and Sweden as well as experience running his own consultancy specializing in business-to-business marketing.

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 University of Montreal.

Dr. Simon Knox is a Professor of Brand Marketing at the Cranfield School of Management, a leading European business school. Dr. Knox is also a consultant to a number of multinational companies, including McDonald's, Levi Strauss, DiverseyLever, and the Ocean Group. Prior to joining Cranfield, Simon worked for Unilever in a number of senior marketing roles in both detergents and foods. He publishes extensively on brand equity issues and customer purchasing styles.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall (March 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0273631055
• ISBN-13: 978-0273631057
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,317,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Marketing discovers BPR very late, October 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Competing on Value: Bridging the gap between brand and customer value (FT) (Hardcover)

The key thrust behind the authors work is that business models developed for the old economy do not work in the new. Unsurprisingly, they propose that organisations look at their own inherent processes to the way they deliver customer value and make sure that they are aligned with what customer's want.

This viewpoint could be interesting in a book about Business Process Reengineering as it rarely applied to marketing but as a stand alone work it has few merits. The book is very academic in the language used and there are few 'real' world examples or explanations given.

If you are a college student interested in seeing how BPR developed in the early 90's then this book may be worth a read.

If you are hoping to gain insight in how organisation actually compete on customer value then I would strongly suggest you look elsewhere