Explore the new standard for driving growth by managing your brand value

Christina Bowles: Hello, and welcome to the second episode of Rhe Modern Marketers Toolkit Webinar Series. Thank you all for joining today's session.

 

Today we'll be focused on brand value and how to build preference by maximizing your brand's perceived bang for the buck

 

Before I pass it over to Chris, David and Steve. Just a couple of things to mention.

 

If you have questions throughout the session, please drop them in the Q&A. Function at the bottom of your zoom. They will be answered at the end of our Q&A portion. There will also be 4 polls throughout the session today. So please keep an eye on those prompts during the session. And without further ado, I'm going to pass it over to Chris, senior partner in Lippincott marketing customer strategy practice. Who will take it from here.

 

Chris Ciompi: Thanks, Christina.

 

Hello, everyone, and welcome. I thought I'd do quick introductions for the team on the webinar today. So I'm Chris Ciompi. And, as Christina said, I'm a senior partner here. I'm part of the strategy practice and focused on marketing and customer strategy. I'm joined by my colleague, David Pianin, who is a partner in the same strategy, practice and focus on marketing and customer strategy.

 

And we are very happy to be joined by Steve Henig, who is, as it says, here, the former chief customer, officer of Wakefern food. I thought I might just say a few things about Wakefern in case anyone isn't familiar with that. So it's the largest retailer owned cooperative in the United States. It includes more than 350 retail supermarkets including, and not limited to brands like ShopRite, and also Fairway Market for anyone else who's a fan from New York City like I am.

 

So welcome, Steve. Thank you so much for joining us. And David, let's go to the next page, please.

 

So hard not to start something like this about price and value with Mr. Buffett. You just you just kinda gotta do it. So this is what he says. Price is what you pay and values what you get. And I did just a quick little research about, you know.

 

Price feels like it's been in the news a lot lately, and it certainly has. Because of inflation. And, in fact, according to Google Trends, it hasn't been in the news this much since the last time. Inflation was like this. There's some kind of correlation going on there, which was the 1980s, so there's just so much discussion going on right now about prices due to inflation.

 

And today, we're gonna focus partially on that. But we're really gonna focus on this idea of value. Right? That value is as it says. Here, what you get. That's what consumers are thinking about when they are purchasing any kind of product or service.

 

So next line, please, David, let's do our first poll.

 

We just wanted to know about the folks who are here. Right? Does your organization track the value that customers feel they're getting from your brand? And while you guys are filling that out, I thought, Steve, I might throw it to you. How do you think about value?

 

Steve Henig: Yeah. So value, it's certainly evolved the over the past 20 years, and it's no longer as a retailer about what you pay for a bottle of dish detergent. There's so many other ways to offer value. Things like, what's your food service program, you know. Do you cut meat, do you offer e-commerce services? And quite honestly, do you have a good digital experience that allows you to engage with that retailer brand in a meaningful way, and have it be an easy experience without needing any additional help. And so I think all organizations really have to be very thoughtful about it. You know what are key value drivers for their customers, and how can you accentuate that experience and not be so universally focused on how to drive your prices down further and further.

 

Chris: Got it. So again, price, just part of the equation. Great. Let's see those poll results. How does it turn out for us?

 

So some unknown here, that's interesting. But the largest answer being, yes, that there is a tracking going on here for value. Okay, great. So let's keep going, please, David.

 

So I thought I'd just do a little bit about Lippincott in case any of you who are on are not fully familiar. So we are a global creative consultancy. And as it says, there we create, grow and transform brands. Next slide, please, David.

 

And I thought, instead of just reading you the slides, that I might give you a little bit of my impression here. Cause I've only been with Lippincott for about 7 months.

 

And I can tell you the thing that I've seen has made it different to me, that has made it special to me is that underneath this kind of brand transformation that we work on, there is so much rigor. Anytime I ask someone why we're saying what we're saying, they have an answer. And then I ask them, Why is that the answer? And then they know why that is. And then I ask again, Why is that? And you can keep going and keep drilling down, and everything is based, in fact and research.

 

And as a former CMO. that is exactly the kind of partner that I would have wanted to be working with. So anyway, I'm thrilled to be obviously here on the team and to be here speaking with you guys today about brands and value. Let's keep going, please, David.

 

So a little bit about everything we do. I would root this slide. It's a lot of capabilities on here, and whatever audience you're trying to address, we can help you address it. Whether it's your shareholders who want more growth from you, whether it's your customers who need a different kind of experience than the one that you're delivering today.

 

Whether it's prospects that you hope to be your customers, and you need more demand to be generated from them, or whether it's your employees, and you need to amp up the kind of employee experience that your company is giving. Those are the kind of things that we work on audiences that are important to you.

 

Next slide, please, David.

 

So this is the second in our webinar series of 4. As we said, it's about brand value. If you miss the one on brand meeting that one is available for replay, and we'll send that out and part of as part of our thank you. And the next one will be coming up after summer. So it's about brand power.

 

Next slide, please, David.

 

And today, back to today, we're going to focus on brand value, we're going to go through some of the strategies that you can use to maximize the value that customers are perceiving from your brand.

 

And then we will get into the end at into Q&A. As Christina said at the beginning, please use the Q&A. Function. We'll be tracking the questions as they come in, and we'll answer those at the end. So, David, please over to you.

 

David Pianin: Sure. Yeah, thanks, Chris. So Chris talked earlier about the rigor and insight that underpins all of our thinking here at Lippincott, and when it comes to our perspective on brand value, that's no different. And so everything that we're gonna talk about today is really inspired by an informed by fairly robust research that we've done. So. We've surveyed over a hundred 1,000 consumers over 5 years to diagnose how over 800 different brands are perceived along dimensions like value, which we'll talk about, but also many other brand metrics and dimensions that help us at Lippincott keep a pulse on which brands are strong and weak, and what it takes to become what we call a Go-to Brand.

 

And so when it comes to thinking about brand value the equation, the framework is actually on the surface, quite simple at Lippincott. When we say brand value, what we really mean is how much bang people get for the buck as you choose a brand to buy or to use, or to work with. How much benefit do you feel you get in that interaction from the cost you're asked to pay.

 

And as we peel this onion a little bit further, we'll start with the bang. How do we define the benefit that people get from interacting with one particular brand. And for us, it's really zoning in on 2 particular dimensions. Yes, of course, you get the product or service that the brand offers. But, more importantly, for us, you get a degree of emotional connection, the degree to which people will say, I love this brand a benefit that I get from any brand interaction is the sense that that Brand relates to me. That sense of seeing my identity shared back this sense of belonging and attachment that we all want in the best of interactions with brands. The other element that we consider when thinking about the bang you get from a brand. Interaction is what we call progress. The degree to which a brand has helped me do something that I couldn't do before. If I can get a task accomplished elsewhere, I should just go elsewhere. What is it unique about this interaction that's helped me advance towards my particular goals when you combine this degree of emotional connection and progress, you get what we call the bang the benefit of interacting with one particular brand. That's the top of the equation.

 

The bottom of the equation. What's really interesting is when you think about that bang metric, there's actually quite a difference in how brands perform the degree of bang that users of a brand get think of airlines in particular, a really interesting category for a number of reasons, and you can see the range of bang that brands in this category are delivering. When you think about Hawaiian Airlines or Southwest Airlines. Clearly, there's a degree of emotional connection and progress that those brands are enabling. That aren't that others aren't. When you think about Hawaiian Airlines as an example.

 

For example, they've got an award-winning in-flight magazine. They've got island-inspired meals. When you think about Southwest Airlines, a brand we've been proud to have partnered with for a number of years, the personality that shows up in every interaction, from what's written on the bag of peanuts to what's on the side of the plane speaks wonders about what that brand stands for beyond just being a silver tube that flies you from A to B, and so it's quite a revealing metric. When you think about what explains the difference in the benefits that people feel they get from any individual brand.

 

Now, the other side of this equation, of course, is the cost. What is it that a brand is asking you to pay for that upside for that degree of connection and progress? And the way that we measure cost is the degree to which people feel the brand costs more than similar brands that they could choose from in the category. And what's important to note here is that this is perceived costs. It's not actual cost sometimes, and this happens often, the perception of cost is actually quite different than actual cost. And you see that show up when again you look more closely at Airlines. Now, there's quite a difference in how expensive people who fly these airline brands feel that they are relative to others so United, Delta, American, the major national players are perceived to be more expensive than others. But look at Southwest. Look at Jetblue, perceived to be quite affordable and inexpensive, especially compared to low-cost airlines like Spirit and Frontier.

 

The perception of cost is partly amplified by the stories brands tell about themselves. The notion of Southwest emphasizing transparency and bags flying free helps to elevate their reputation of Southwest as being a more affordable airline even if, at times, it might not be as low cost as a spirit or a frontier offer as an example.

 

And so that's the buck side of the equation fairly intuitive for us. What starts to become really interesting and powerful is when you look at dividing the bang by the buck, take the top bar, and divide it by the bonnet bar. And what you reveal is what we call the value ratio. How much bang you get for the buck in in interaction with brands, and again staying in our airline category. We must all have the travel bug thinking about some summer plans focusing on airlines. You start to see some really interesting differences in these players. Southwest has a value ratio of 14.2, which is incredibly impressive. In fact, it ranks number 3 out of nearly 300 brands that we've evaluated just last year on this metric. 

 

And it sets the brand quite a distance from the lowest, performing brand united with a value ratio of just 2. And so as a flyer, when you look at the airline brands that are out there, of course, in our equations as we think about which brand to choose, the expected bang for the buck is certainly part of what's driving our choice, and you could see the advantage that the brands on the left have relative to the brands on the right.

 

And this isn't just a difference that exists within airlines brands when you look across category, you see a pretty dramatic difference in the top-performing brand and the bottom-performing brand when it comes to value ratio. So we already talked about airlines, and how Southwest is meaningfully above United when it comes for bang for the buck. When you look at finance and Charles Schwab, they are meaningfully higher than the lowest value ratio brand in the financial category. Think about the low cost index funds that Schwab provides access to, but also the impressive digital mobile apps that you can use when you're trading. It's not just a cost play. It's the benefit that you get when you think of fashion. Hanes is known not only for offering affordable clothing, but also durability and their iconic. Make yourself comfortable. Campaign that people can relate to that contributes to its value. Ratio and Amazon goes without saying. It's a bit of an elephant in the room when it comes to a brand that screams value. And so this is certainly a metric where brands can separate themselves from others in the category, and position themselves as the brand to come to when you're looking for more bang for the buck, which to Chris and Steve pointed out earlier with inflation on the rise. That's certainly becoming only more top of mind for most shoppers.

 

And this is something that you can control. When you think about a brand's value ratio, it's not something that happens to you. It's something that marketers and brand builders can influence and improve over time. Just look at ShopRite and its change in value. Ratio going back to 2019, the enormous leap that it experienced between 2019 and 2020 and steady improvements in the in the Bang ratio as it looked forward. And so wanna turn it to

 

Steve, talk a little bit about what ShopRite was able to do, and more broadly, how the value ratio can be controlled and influenced by very deliberate steps that brands can take over time.

 

Steve: Yeah, sure. So you know, it is incredible. When you think about what has happened with grocery pricing since 2,019, I think the run rate is about 43% inflation, which is just a staggering number. And I think, yeah, as retailers started, you know, think about what's happening. They need to have other ways to communicate value besides that bottle of dish detergent right? And so I think most retailers have really started to recognize that I really need to pay close attention to the food service offerings that we have. 80% of customers don't know what's for dinner at 4 o'clock and when you look at the most recent numbers from the US Census Bureau, 53% of food dollars are coming from restaurants today. And so, you know, I think retailers are really starting to think through what's the Food Service offering that I can deliver. And this has a continuum that covers a lot of different ground. You could be really upscale with tremendous offerings, and we've seen lots of retailers out there like Wegmans who do that? And then you just look at the food service, offering that that wow was put into place. And how they've delivered it, I think what starts with what's valuable to your customer? What's the level of quality product that they're looking for. How you package it up and branded and make it easy for the customer to find it in your store and really develop that branding platform that allows you to. You know, pick up the items that you want. And then I think you have to also think through retailers get stuck thinking about the product and not always about the service that wraps around it. So how easy is it to get in and out of your store? Is there a separate entrance? Is there separate parking? Have you thought about third-party providers like DoorDash and others to facilitate pick-up and delivery for you? Can you? And do your apps allow customers to pay ahead to make it easy for them to pick up?

 

And then thinking through not just the protein, but also thinking through. Are there beverages? Are there? Desserts? Are their sides to really think through each of those pieces of the whole meal solution to deliver for your customer? And I think that's how retailers are really starting to think about food service. Because there's no doubt customers are looking for those food service offerings because they're not gonna cook every day.

 

And you know, as retailers continue to wrestle with this idea around value. Home brands for the past 10 years has certainly experienced a step change in how retailers

 

Think about on brands. It's the brand that's offered. It's the packaging about you know the look and of the product quality, and to communicate what that quality actually delivers. That's really, really important. But I think more broadly, I think you're starting to see retailers really start to behave like consumer package goods companies. They're thinking about. What's my portfolio?

 

Do I offer all those products that customers need? There's a job to be done. And do I have a product that satisfies that offering for them?

 

And as retailers continue to work through that, they are sitting in a spot where they have significant first-party data because of all the transactions that occur in a supermarket. So what you're starting to see is retailers, not just look at their portfolio and say, Am I effective? And do I have offerings? But they're also starting to see trends in their data where they can then start to really think through. Hey, you know, these flavors are selling very quickly, or these are doing incredibly well, or I'm seeing a real uptick in my business. And what you're now starting to see is retailers start to innovate and develop products that national brand doesn't have. So maybe faster on natural and organic, maybe faster on new and unique flavors. And that's where retailers can start to separate themselves with those unique offerings that don't always have to be the cheapest item.

 

But just unique offerings that exist. Out in your retail space. And you're starting to see retailers move very quickly down natural organic gluten Vegan more premium offers, and even some retailers who are dusting off some of their value offers. And so I think for companies. There's lots of ways to deliver. Value the items they offer in your store. The services like food service can really help differentiate you in the marketplace.

 

David: Thanks, Steve. Yeah. Super helpful to hear some tangible examples of how brands can both improve. Yes, cost perceptions, but also at the same time the benefit that customers are getting from the brand, all in service of improving the value ratio.

 

And now that we're all hungry, hearing Steve talk about some fantastic examples within the food category. Let's stick to that. A little pop quiz to see how everyone's been tracking along. What you're looking at here are a variety of restaurant brands and a variety of different value ratios, and the question is, which of those restaurant brands do we think has the highest value ratio which brand is for this. To the left, among those that are shown.

 

We'll open it up for a quick poll and see how many can guess correctly

 

Any of your favorites on this list? Chris.

 

Chris: I mean, is it blasphemy for an Italian to say, Olive Garden? But I do like it. And I have to say my 6 year old twins, they really like it. They know that there's going to be something that they really want to eat at the Olive Garden, so I see some value there.

 

David: Yeah.

 

Chris: Happy 6 year olds.

 

David: The value meal, and the happy meal is certainly something that McDonald’s has relied on. So maybe they're the ones that are seen as offering the biggest bang for the buck. Let's close the poll and see what everybody else thinks

 

On the on the line. It looks like a lot of people were thinking along the lines of the happy meal and the value meal with McDonald’s expected to be the brand offering the biggest bang for the buck. Let's see if everybody was right with one click.

 

It looks like Chris. Your favorite Olive Garden is taking the lead. It's interesting to see the difference, you know, and some of these are intuitive, some might be surprising. McDonald’s being one of the surprises. You know, Olive Garden has always been a brand that talked about the never-ending soups out and breadsticks, and also not only just focusing on how much you get, but transporting people to a different place when they come to Olive Garden, whether it as authentic as it might feel to some, or playful to others. It's certainly very deliberate approaches that they've taken to produce a value ratio much higher than the others. Benihana, not surprising to see a value ratio where they are, the theatrical table side performances and the fun that we all have going to Benihana’s partly what explains that top purple bar being so high a lot of benefit from going to that entertainment experience, but it comes with a cost. And so you can see a value ratio closer to one for us is a sign that you're in a little bit more of a premium category, at least relative to the other brands that you're sitting alongside.

 

So let's keep going. I'm glad everybody is tracking so far on how we're thinking about measuring brand value. The question, then, is, how to manage it. How can we think about what type of value ratio is right for your particular brand. Maybe you do want to be more like a Benihana, where the goal is not to make the value ratio as high as Southwest, but rather to offer a lot of benefit for a lot of cost, and to be a bit more of a premium player. Or maybe your strategy is elsewhere. And so let's offer a few thoughts on how brands can think about finding the right value ratio for them and changing it over time and for us managing your value. Ratio starts by understanding the circumstances of the audiences that you're focused on attracting a lot of times. The foundation is really understanding, of course, who your audience is. And so for orientation, what you're looking at here are each of the brands that we studied just last year a gray dot equals a brand, and they're plotted from bottom to top, based on how financially confident users of that brand are so. Brands towards the top have users that are more worried financially. Brands towards the bottom have users that are more confident, and a few examples, I think, help bring that to life, Klarna a growing brand that many on this slide might have used is a brand focused on offering flexible payment plans that help people buy products from over 20,000 different outlets. And so naturally, the users who gravitate towards Klarna on average, tend to be a bit more worried financially and maybe benefit more from the financial flexibility that Klarna offers, take a brand towards the bottom of this list. E*Trade. A leader in the self-directed investment. Space naturally E*Trade users tend to be a bit more financially confident. They might have some of the discretionary income to invest, and because of that their audience tends to look a little bit different.

 

The benefit of starting here is that it? Once you cross it with value. Ratio starts to reveal particular segments of brands and strategies for each one of those segments. So what we've started to do, left to right is take those same brands. Each dot again continues to represent one individual brand and plot them from on the left. Lower value, ratios less bang for the buck, and on the right higher value ratios. You get more bang for the buck and the 4 quadrants start to pinpoint specific types of brands and opportunities for each one of those brands that we'll spend some time going into.

 

And so to start, let's look at brands in the top right? And as a reminder, these are brands that by nature of where they live in this chart tend to all have high value ratios. These are brands perceived as offering lots of bang for the buck, and they're also brands that are on average, serving customers that tend to be more worried financially.

 

And these are brands that are actually in quite a strong position because they're serving worried customers with a lot of value, and as an example of a brand that lives in that quadrant, take Walmart, save money, live better. It's a brand that we're all familiar with have likely stepped into.

 

And what you've seen them do over the years is introduce their Walmart+ program, and when we worked with Walmart+ to help them imagine the benefits to include in this loyalty program. It was very much in service of helping people feel like they're getting even more out of their relationship with Walmart. How can they pack the right benefits in that program to help people feel like they're saving money and living better.

 

And the strategy for brands in this quadrant is exactly along those lines. How can you continue to reinforce the value that people get from choosing you because these are people that are increasingly fixated on finding value. They're on average a bit more worried, and they appreciate value from the brands that they choose. Even more than other users.

 

Now this is different than the other quadrant that we'll go to in the lower right.

 

These are brands that, like Walmart, are seen as offering a lot of bang for the buck. Their value ratios are quite high, but what's different about these brands is that they on average serve customers that are more financially confident. They are more secure in their financial circumstances. And then an example of brands in this quadrant is E*Trade. We talked a little bit about E*Trade. A leader in the self-directed investment space and the strategy for brands in this quadrant is to offer enhanced benefits that customers might be willing and interested in buying. These are again customers that are more financially confident, and so they might be willing to get up sold into a higher level of service or product. These brands are seen as offering a lot of value, but perhaps there's a chance to go up market and transition those users into higher paid solutions that offer even more benefit. And so look at what E*Trade's doing through its relationship with Morgan Stanley, allowing self directed at investors to get access to financial advisors or to the insight into the support from Morgan Stanley's wealth management solutions. And so that's certainly an opportunity to take, on average more financially confident investors and giving them a pathway to move into a more premium level of service, because those customers might have the means and interest in doing so.

 

Continuing to take a tour through this framework. The top left quadrant is a bit different than the others that we've talked about so far right now we're moving towards the left of this chart, meaning that these are brands that on average have a lower value ratio less bang for their buck. They're not seen as giving quite as much value to their customers. And they're also serving customers that, like Walmart on average, tend to be more worried. Now this is a dangerous combination to be serving more worried customers with a brand that's not seen as offering tremendous value, and the strategy here is to as quickly as possible. Try to stop the bleeding, to try to position yourself as improving the value that you're seen as offering given that you're more worried customers are certainly looking for that from you, and an example of a brand that lives in this quadrant is Outback Steakhouse on average. Outback is a brand that's again not seen as offering quite a lot for what it's charging. It's not like in all of garden brands. The other end of that spectrum, and on average, the diners who are going to outback tend to be a bit more worried. And so that dangerous combination shows up in Outback recently announcing the shutdown of a number of their locations and their CFO. Recently talking about the importance of trying to bring more value for what they're charging to diners, and how that's the approach they're taking to stop the bleeding. And that's exactly what all the brands in this quadrant can be focused on doing. How do you protect yourself from serving these worried customers by giving them more bang for their buck, giving the dangerous situation many of these brands find themselves in.

 

And then the last quadrant here in the lower left another interesting set of brands again, like Outback and other brands on the left. These are brands that on average, have a relatively low value ratio, meaning not a ton of bang for the buck, but these brands, on average, are serving fairly confident customers. And so an example of a brand in this quadrant is likely a brand that lives in many of the pockets of those on this webinar right now, which is Apple, and the strategy for brands in this quadrant is to continue protecting and reinforcing a relative premium position. When you saw Apple announced, it's Apple Vision Pro headset for $3,500 versus the Meta Quest headset, which is in the market for just $500. You can continue to see Apple taking the high road, continuing to reinforce its premium positioning and the low value ratio isn't the bad thing in this context. That simply means that Apple's offering a lot of benefit for a lot of cost that results in a value ratio closer to one which, for a brand like apple, is likely where it wants to be. And on average it's serving customers who are willing to pay that level of premium. And so it's a quadrant where you strategically need to continue defending that premium position so hopefully that that provides some fairly pinpoint strategies on how a brand can operate, depending on the confidence of the customer that they're serving, and the amount of value that the brand is seen is offering. And so again another pop, quiz. Don't worry. You won't be judged or graded, but curious to hear how everyone's been following along. The question here is, take the 4 brands listed above Xfinity, BJ's Airbnb and Peloton, which of those 4 brands do, we think lives in the top right quadrant, meaning which of those brands on average, is seen as offering lots of bang for their buck high value. And on average they're serving more worried customers, that sweet spot combination. Think of a Walmart type strategy that we talked about earlier. Take a guess at which of those 4 brands lives in the top, right and strategically, should be focused on continuing to reinforce the value they're bringing to more financially worried customers.

 

The results are in. The highest likely vote is for BJ's. It looks like a few of you also felt like Air B+B could be in that position. Let's see what the answer is.

 

Most of you are rights that might have been a layup in the question wanted to make sure you're tracking. BJ's is the place you can go to get 65 rolls of toilet paper for an affordable price. It doesn't fit in my New York City apartment. But if I had this space I would certainly go to BJ's. It's the type of brand that has continued to be a high bang for the buck brand, and continues to help people that might be a little more worried financially. And so BJ's fits that need well, Airbnb is an interesting brand. It's in the lower right in our data set, which means that it's also seen as offering a lot of bang for the buck.

 

But it's attracting a pretty diverse set of users. Some people, I'm sure, are more financially worried. But on average, the people who use Airbnb tend to be more confident financially. And so, the strategy for brands like Airbnb is to offer additional value-added services that these users might be willing to pay for. And so it's no surprise to see Airbnb start to offer really imaginative places to stay. You might have just seen their icon tier of locations where you can kind of live in the clouds. Given the up house, or you can stay in the barber, the Barbie Dream House, or you can take Airbnb experiences and they're making their set of offers much more holistic.

 

Let's provide options for people willing to pay for it a chance to spend more money and more time with Airbnb, which is what brands in that lower right quadrant should exactly be focused on.

 

So now a quick poll, another one, just to get a sense from all of you. Which strategy do you feel best? Describes your brand? Are you a brand in the top? Right, like BJ's, which is seen and wants to be seen as offering a lot of bang for their buck for more worried customers. Are you a brand more like Airbnb? Lots of bang for their buck, but should be focused on providing paths for people to move into more premium services. Are you a brand like Outback? The dangerous situation in the top left Strategy 3, where you might be serving more worried customers and need to improve your value. Ratio. Are you more a brand like apple in the lower left strategy 4, where lower, more premium value, perhaps, and serving fairly confident customers. And maybe you're not sure. And that's also entirely okay.

 

Let's see what you all think. Looks like the highest percentages is not being sure, and that makes a lot of sense just given that this is a pulse that perhaps many brands don't keep their finger on in terms of exactly the perceived value of your brands and the financial confidence or worry of users that you that you're serving the rest seem pretty evenly divided for us. I think it just reinforces the importance of getting a sense, for where you live in this framework, and what it might mean for deliberate steps. You can take along the way. I'm curious, Steve, to maybe hear from you a bit on how you thought about where you would live in in a quadrant like this.

 

Steve: Yeah, I well, I think it's interesting, right? The poll was fascinating to me how evenly dispersed it was, and I think maybe it anchors back to quite honestly, how we started with Chris's question about you know who's collecting this data on value and understanding where their customers are. And I actually think that is probably one of the most powerful unlocks is to really start to understand from your customers perspective what value looks like and really dig deep on the data. Understand? What are the offerings that I need to bring to the table. And in a world today, where even on Airbnb. They cover a wide swath of people who have different economic possibilities. And I think understanding for those subsections.

 

What's important, how you surface those offers, how you continue to dig through about how you make sure that they know what's available that fits their key driver for a purchase for that weekend, or for that week, is pretty important. And I just really love this idea of just continuing to try and get deeper with the value proposition for your customer. And it's gonna move over time, right? Based on the economic cycle. How people are feeling about the economy where else their dollars are going. And so you know this idea that the customer static is is great fallacy, that you're gonna need to augment those offerings over time, and you see great retailers. They start to think about you know geographically, how do I change my offerings? That might be a different retail format with a different pricing and value structure, or maybe how they open up or contract different parts of their offering for their brand in different economic communities. One that's well off versus one that's economically challenged might determine how you know the products that you put into that store. Certainly, you know, make it smaller or larger. And you know, I saw a retailer very recently. Wonderful organization they put in a seafood department that would rival anything that I've seen across the country because they had a great demographic higher income folks who like to cook and they and they were able to make that unique. They didn't fundamentally change their brand, but that their service offering in that store was truly amazing to see and clearly differentiated them from everybody else in the market. And so it doesn't need to be a lot. Sometimes it can just be a small piece of your service offering that can make you different enough from everybody else.

 

David: I love that. Yeah, thanks, Steve, for the tangible examples. And I see some questions starting to trickle in as well, which will certainly open it up to you, cause I'm sure others have some questions or thoughts on how this framework can work for them, and we'll open that QA. Up in in just a minute, a few closing thoughts on some lessons to remember from what we talked about today, the first point that we emphasize that I hope everyone walks away thinking about is that value can be measured. The perceived value, the perceived bang for their buck that any brand earns today can be tracked and better understood. And there's insight from understanding where you live on that framework. And, secondly, value can be misaligned to the audiences that you're trying to serve. You talked. We talked about Outback as an example.

 

How can you think about the degree to which the bang for their buck, of your brand meets the needs of the audiences that you're trying to serve and be very deliberate in how you might make that alignment tighter.

 

And then, lastly, value is not something that happens to you. It's something that you have control over to the point Steve was just making. It could be small steps that go a long way in increasing the degree of connection and progress that that customers feel they get from you.

 

And it could certainly be influenced over time in the near term in in the long term. So ask yourself, how can we establish a deeper emotional connection with your customers? How can you enable progress in their lives? And how can you influence the perceived cost of your brand to make that that ratio more effective for you.

 

And so with that background, it would be great to open it up to any questions that you all might have from soaking this in.

 

And I can start with one question that that came in already and a few others. I'm sure we'll follow. The question was, just to track what strategy describes your intended strategy versus where you might actually be today. And I think that's an important question, because it speaks to the point that in that quadrant framework you might live in a quadrant that you don't intend to live in, and so, where you intend to be, might be different than reality. And what we wanna emphasize is that you do have control to some degree over which of those quadrants you live in, you can change the audiences that you're attracting and focused on winning.

 

And you can also change the bang you're seen as giving for the buck through steps that Steve had talked about. And so for us, step one is understanding where you are in that framework, in where you want to be, and then step 2 would be really prioritizing initiatives to close that gap and get closer to where your desired positioning is. And there's many ways you can do that through experience, design to brand positioning to make sure that folks, your customers, see you in the way that you want to be seen.

 

I see another question for Steve. If you can talk a little bit more about using first party data to your advantage related to perceived value and cost.

 

Steve: Yeah, sure. So I think you know. First, if you if you're an organization that has the luxury of a significant amount of first-party data, it allows you to see in real-time. You know what's happening with transactions. How customers purchasing is changing over time. And just something as simple as you know. If you're a retailer. All of a sudden as I would say customer started to signal about 18 months ago that inflation was becoming an issue for them. They were thinking about buying more items that were on sale. They were moving into own brands they were pivoting into smaller pack items. So, starting to understand in your first-party data what the customers already telling you may afford you to the opportunity to think about. Do I need to change, what does my promotional cadence look like? How do I communicate my brand out as I'm using marketing, collateral material about how I can demonstrate value. And so I think it's that first party data really allows you to start get gathering some insights as to how they're feeling based on their actions. And I think that is a really powerful way to connect the 2, and then to start thinking about, how do I need to adjust as to what's happening in the world today?

 

Chris: That's really interesting, Steve. There's something about, there's things that people say, but maybe more powerful is what they actually do.

 

And if you are one of those brands that's on the line of worried or not worried in terms of financial confidence.

 

Steve: Yep.

 

Chris: Your audience could shift, maybe within one of these high pressure inflation environments right from. If you were above the line set but close suddenly you might be below the line.

 

Steve: Absolutely. And you know, this is you know, this is generational. What is happening in the economy today from an inflation standpoint. I mean, you literally have to go back, you know, a whole generation to see it. And so I think the other thing that people need to recognize is some stuff happened a couple of years ago. You can rely on some of your partners to help you identify this stuff. Some of this stuff. There's not even people in your building who've lived through this. And so I think, continue and try to leverage and understand what's happening, cause there's not a good blueprint for how to manage through this today? Because it's been so long since it's happened again. And so I think you have to really pay close attention to what the customer says is valuable to them over time.

 

Chris: Got it. Great

 

David, another one for you.

 

Any examples that you can think of from all those little dots that you showed us on that 2 by 2 of a brand that changed its value. Ratio well.

 

David: Yeah, you know, we often work with brands in service of helping them improve that top bar quite a bit to improve the meeting that they're seen as delivering in there. I won't name names, but there's been several clients we're proud to have worked with recently, where, through redesigning of their experience through repositioning of what they stand for. We've seen some pretty substantial changes to the degree of emotional connection that their users feel they get from working with them. and the amount of progress they're enabling through new experiences, new products, new services. People are able to do things they otherwise couldn't do before we had worked with them, and that has helped in a meaningful way.

 

Change the value ratio of those brands because there's more bang for the same buck, so to speak. We also have worked with brands to help them shift the perception of cost for that brand by helping to emphasize what you get for that money, and by helping to stand for something that emphasizes the fairness and transparency of the of what they're charging.

 

Chris: Got it. Thank you.

 

Steve, another one for you. What do you think was the most important part of the shopping experience related to perceived value?

 

Steve: You know, that's a that's a fantastic question. If you think about value you know, and it's never just one thing that drives value right. But I think you have to almost anchor back to what's the job to be done? And you think about, you know, the space that I worked in. It's ultimately people taking care of their families, food for their families, for either a wonderful experience or the day to day. Just make sure that family is properly nourished, and when you start with that, you start to realize these are nonsexy things, so sorry for, you know, spoiler alert ahead of time. But you know, being in stock is really important. 

 

Having the right variety for the menu that you saw online to be able to buy that special vinegar or that special olive oil is really important. And I think one of the last things that's really amazing is this idea of you. Wanna remove any place that flows the customer down right? And so that overuse term right this friction. But how do you use your digital applications to help people find items in store to get the service offerings they need without waiting online.

 

And I think the last piece is really this idea around checkout, you know, at customers it's been 25 years customers have talked about. They just want to be able to give you their money and get out. They don't want to wait online. And so you're seeing a lot of companies now start to invest in this you know, being able to just walk out and you've seen just countless retailers who are talking about it. So I think again, it goes back to understand the data, what's important job to be done?

 

And what are the 2, 3, or 4 things that I can augment? And I think, realizing that this is a journey. All of these things take time to put into place, to build critical mass before to become customer facing, and then for them to give you credit that makes you different from the vertical that you trade in. And I also think it's really important to be very focused and realize that this is a long journey to continue to deliver value to your customer.

 

Chris: Got it. Thank you. David, another one for you. So for brands that have different audience segments like small businesses and large businesses or enterprises. How do you think about potentially having different value ratios or not?

 

David: Yeah, it's a great question, and one that we get often. It's difficult in situations where in one category you're in, or for one audience that you're serving. You are essentially selling a more affordable product and your value ratio might be a bit higher, and you're seen as the high value brand, where, in another category, or for a different audience, you're in a more premium position in the challenge that that puts brands in is that they're spread quite broad in terms of what they're trying to stand for, and the credibility on one side is undermined by their efforts on the other side. How can you possibly tell me that?

 

You have such a premium? High-quality offer on one side, but on the other side, I can see, is selling a low-cost kind of value-oriented play. And you can't square those 2 things together very easily. And so sometimes what we see clients do is to create sub brands to allow themselves to flex in a different way in a different price point. You see, that often happens in Telcos, where Verizon, as an example, will have some sub-brands that allow them to go downstream and offer more kind of low-cost offer while protecting the equity of the Verizon brand, and in other cases brands manage to span across both of those price points with the effective positioning and storytelling around. Why it is that some offers are different from others, and they use tearing systems to explain the difference. And there's a bit of a good, better, best story that emerges in strategies like that. So there's many tactics brands can use when they're faced with the reality of some of their portfolio or some of their audiences being more value-oriented and some more premium-oriented.

 

Chris: Got it. Thank you. In some ways a difficult problem, but a good problem to have. You're appealing to more and more audiences and more and more pools of money. So one final question here, we have talked a lot today about B2C brands. It's been a bit B2C focused anything, David. Word to the wise for B2B folks.

 

David: Yeah, it applies in exactly the same way, you know. Ultimately it's tempting to think about business purchase decisions as being more rational. Longer term, a different type of consideration set, and a lot of that I think we found to be true in our research. But also, what's true is the bang for the buck is something that businesses are also considering very top of mind when choosing the right partner to work with, and so just as for B2C brands, B2B brands can understand the value ratio that they're seen as offering and how cost, conscious their potential clients are likely to be. And so the same framework, the same methods, apply in the B2B context versus B2C, which we've been focused on a little bit more in this conversation.

 

Chris: Got it. Thank you very much. Listen. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, David. And thank you to everyone who attended. We will be sending out a recording replay of the webinar after it is ready. So please share far and wide. That would be amazing if you could do that if you enjoyed your time here and

 

Get in touch. If you want to talk about bang for your buck. We're a bit nerdy, and we're always happy to talk about it. So we'll see you in September. Thanks, everybody.