30 Elements of Value

My colleagues and I have been studying consumers for many years. After literally hundreds of studies, about three years ago we consolidated our findings and were able to identify 24 ‘elements of value’ — but we suspected there were more. So, in 2015, we did some new qualitative research — talking directly to consumers about the products they were buying.

As people spoke about why they made a particular purchase, we kept asking questions, trying to get at the fundamentals. If someone told us their bank was ‘convenient’, we didn’t accept that answer: We would probe further by asking, ‘What does convenience mean to you?’ The consumer would then delve deeper, and say things like, ‘Well, it’s nearby, so it saves me a lot of time and effort’. We did this repeatedly, across all the different statements consumers made, to get at the most granular elements of value. We ultimately did some quantitative research as well — but it all began with these deep customer insights.”

 

Source: http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/Connect/Rotman-MAG/Idea-Exchange/Spring2017-Eric-Almquist