Value Proposition: the success foundations

There are many kinds of entrepreneurship projects. Some are born when we create something new and unique, others are just incremental improvements of something that exists in the market and there are even others that will offer an existing product or service. Regardless of the entrepreneurship you are developing you cannot assure it is aimed to be successful or even to fail for itself. There is an element every entrepreneur should develop when he is structuring his business: the value proposition.

The value proposition is a unique mixture of products, services, benefits and aggregated values that has my market offer and makes me different of my competitors. Regardless if our product is unique or if it already exists in the market we must assure that according to the point of view of our consumer we are offering something that is valuable for him and he is willing to pay for it. When businesses are unable to achieve this is when they fail.

It might occur that a businessman is offering an excellent new product but maybe fail if he cannot offer a unique value for his client. In this way many times the failure of a business is not a problem of the product or service but the way in which it is marketed or sold. Even if it is a good product and we know the benefits of using it that doesn’t means that the client will perceive this benefits. That is the reason why we have to strive and invest in order for him to perceive them.

In the same way as when the product is new in the market, a product that already exist might face the same difficulties if we are unable to show added values in our brand that will make the client change to our product. Before the IPod was launched other companies sold other multimedia players, such as the brand Diamond Multimedia. The success of the IPod was founded in the added values that the client was able to perceive. With connection to ITunes they where able to offer the client a seamless music experience. Even if on the first years ITunes was not responsible of big profits it complemented the experience of the consumer, in order to prefer IPod instead of other brand.

Remember that the value proposition must focus on the client/consumer. This is why you might use tools such as focus groups in order to validate if he perceives the value you are trying to offer and if he will pay for this added value. He is going to pay only if the added value is grater than the value of his money.

Finally remember that it is not enough to determine the value proposition you will offer but to align the company departments that are in charged to offer this values. For example if one of your value propositions is that the product will be delivered within 24 hours, the production and delivery departments must be aligned in order to be able to offer this value.

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