Essay Sample on Value Consciousness: A Key to Customer Satisfaction

Any customer that purchases anything needs to be assured that the perceived value of the good matches the price. Value consciousness is the concept that customers are people whose main interest in a good is the value of the good. Value consciousness is thus something that organizations should be acknowledged always. Indeed, almost every organization offering products and services intends to make their products in the best interest of the customers. The concept affects behavioral characteristics of customers, their shopping orientation, and sales and trade deals in the very end. Companies need to be always assured that the decisions made by customers to buy their products are not just vague. They are, however, conscious decisions that are influenced by the characteristics of the products they offer. Value consciousness also affects how a service is provided by an organization since it must work towards making its brand value to customers to give them a competitive advantage over their competitors. Therefore, this research paper will evaluate value consciousness with special interests towards Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks coffee.

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Value consciousness has long been denoted as having a great impact on the way corporations are managed. The entry of an organization in the business space is aimed at creating a brand that can assure customers that the value of the good sold by the company is flawless. This makes companies invest so much in branding themselves mainly because they understand that the way they create their brand affects the way that customers value their items. Dey (2013) states, "A brand is so named following the distinctive ownership mark left by a scorching hot iron on the rump of cattle." The author seeks to show that a brand is named to show how distinctive it is in the market. The distinction is aimed at affecting the views of customers on the necessity of the brand (Dey, 2013). It provides customers with a satisfying and complete understanding of why the business has been formed and why they need to join it.

While the thought of value consciousness may be used to bring out ideas about the pricing of goods and services, the concept behind it goes way deeper than the pricing mechanisms. It stretches to the extents of trying to understand whether the price of an item meets the value it offers. Organizations consistently dwell in making brands that are respectable because they understand that the value of an item is based on its quality. Here, the misrepresentation of high price matches high quality can be grasped (Dey, 2013). It is, however, not always the case that high prices of products mean the products have a high quality and neither does it mean that low prices equal low quality hence before pricing comes in, the quality must match that of the customers. Therefore, quality is the sole basis of value consciousness.

When an organization chose its line of production or the services it offers, the heads of that organizations need first to evaluate the specific details about their product or service line. For instance, when an organization settles for brewing coffee, it should update the minor details of coffee customers. These details are the peculiar tastes that the coffee customers need, the way the coffee should be served, and the environments in which their coffee should be served (Brooks, 2012). The metrics of the service that is offered to the customers of coffee need to be based on such basics. Viewing from this perspective, it is evident that the price of the coffee does not have a great effect on how customers value the coffee. Therefore, the quality of the coffee and the environment in which it is offered means much to customers.

Just like in the coffee brewing industry, every organization, regardless of the industry in which a business operates, faces myriad competitors. The reason as to why businesses should be aware of value consciousness is because it goes a long way to dictating the quality of service they offer to their customers. It also affects the way that they fair on in the largely competitive consumer market. When an organization focuses on being at a competitive advantage, it must ensure that it keeps its present customers, and it works much towards attracting others (Parnell, 2016). This can, however, not be done without a consideration of what the market values. Specific industries have made scores of investments in the past towards ensuring that they meet the needs of the market. Therefore, by exploring the needs of the market, an organization understands how competent it is in the market.

According to Rajan & Chandrasekaran (2015), there is such an instrumental need for organizations to create networks that they value. This is based on the fact that value networks are based on value consciousness. The conceptual reason for the creation of value networks is that they allow organizations to determine the roles that need to play while establishing their customer base, the risks, and rewards that are projected. There is an interactive combination of information, machines, and people that arise from value networks (Rajan & Chandrasekaran, 2015). This combination transforms the output that organizations relay to customers. It makes the companies present themselves to customers as valuable and give them a reason to believe in them.

One would deem it necessary to understand how value consciousness relates to how an organization provides services. This specific detail can be evaluated in the sense that it affects the leadership of the organization and business positioning as well as determines the way services are offered, and customer relationships are established. Thus, all these together are affected by value consciousness in different ways that need intricate exploration.

The provision of services is first affected by the leadership of the facility. The leadership of an organization is the first thing that determines how an organization presents itself to customers. Some of the reason why an organization should be careful while erecting top leadership is that the top leadership of the organization represents the interests of the organization, their beliefs, and their practices. The leadership of an organization even to visitors looks like the face of the organization. It resembles the ideas of the organization and its corporate principles (Rakesh & Khare, 2012). Therefore, when an organization understands what their customers value in the product they offer, it will be forced to appoint a leadership that reflects the best interests of the customers for the top leadership position. This top leadership affects the way that services are offered to the customers and hence it is beneficial for an organization to be aware that their choice of top leadership is quintessential to the valuation of the products offered by the company.

Value consciousness also relates to the provision of services in the aspect of business positioning. Business positioning is a marketing concept that is most of the times affected by the views of the customers considering a specific item or product that is offered by the company. It is a marketing approach that primarily determines the delivery of services to customers in some way. Positioning illustrates what an enterprise should do to market its products to its clients. Thus, in positioning, the department of marketing develops an image of the commodity centered on the views of the intended audience. The image includes the promotion approach, the price, place, and product of the service. It emerges that positioning is such an intricate mechanism that affects value consciousness which means that the two are interdependent. Business positioning determines the way that the business offers its services to its customers and the way the customers view the product.

Other than business positioning, value consciousness affects the way an organization offers services to its customers. Models of service delivery are different from one organization to the other. An organization may choose to have a direct relationship with their customers, or they may choose to have an indirect relationship. The choice of the approach to use, however, is deeply embedded in the value consciousness of the customers. In cases where the quality and the outlook of the product offered is dependent on the direct relationship between customers and the organization, the organization may then choose to act that way (Pillai & Kumar, 2012). This can be seen, for instance, in the idea that apparel companies like Nike love to have retailers while coffee shops like Starbuck open branches all around because their brand is dependent on how they relate with customers directly.

All these factors in business all boil down to ensuring the convenience of the customers. Without ensuring customer convenience, an organization is set to lose its original customers and the new market that it expects to get. What an organization, therefore, delves in, while trying to understand value consciousness is to see how it can work towards making sure that it delivers to the expectations of the customers. Value consciousness means allowing customers to be bosses. Their responses are treated with the ultimate care that they deserve and that they are also viewed as intricate determinants of the internal organizational processes. Therefore, companies that are value-conscious in most cases tend to have a customer response forum where clients are given a chance to respond to the quality of service they receive and how they are satisfied.

Establishing a competitive advantage in its line of operation is the sole goal of every organization. Several factors determine how an organization gains a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is, however, misinterpreted as being the best in everything while it is not. It is about setting certain standards that are peculiar, yet loved by customers that make them find a reason to buy products from an organization. The basic factors, such as price and quantity, may not come to play here (Dey, 2013). What is more considered in competitive advantage are the minor details. This includes the know-how in the provision of services, the processes followed while offering the services, the organizational culture of the specific organization, the management of the organization to manage risks that emanate from its business operations and the quality of products.

Conclusion

Conversely, to understand how to value consciousness affects corporations, it would be effective to view Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. The two organizations work in the same food service industry where their main commodity is coffee. In a world where Coffee has become a norm for many people, it behooves the two organizations to work towards ensuring that they meet the needs of their customers. The habit of considering coffee necessary in cases of meetups or the evening after work has spread around the globe. It is common to hear people plan for a date at Starbucks in the evening or hear others planning to have coffee over the weekend in a Dunkin Donuts somewhere in a mall (Lavoie, 2015). The two organizations are, therefore, fair competitors in the provision of coffee to their customers.

Starbucks is a coffee chain that was started some decades ago in Seattle. The coffee chain over time has explored different brew methods of coffee and gave their customers different tastes of coffee, ranging from Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato, Espresso, and many other brands. The establishment of the organization was not just to offer coffee alone but to give their customers a serene environment where they can relate as they take some finely brewed coffee. Upon noting the different tastes that their customers loved, the organization stated making brands of the same coffee. They extended their coffe...