The concept of creating customer value involves the process of creating highly satisfied customers who stay loyal to the company and continue to purchase more products and services. In order to achieve this, organisations have to engage in efficient and modern marketing activities. According to Salehi et al. (2012), marketing has two primary methods, which include the traditional marketing methods and the e-marketing or digital marketing methods. The traditional marketing involves the promoting that has been used by companies for years and may include tools such print media advertisements, television adverts, billboards, flayers among others. As compared to traditional marketing, the digital marketing involves the utilisation of the modern facilities and technologies to attract and create values for the customers. The recent advancements in technology have created a digital age comprised of a growth in information computer, and other digital technologies, which have had a major influence on the ways businesses bring value to their customers. The digital age has presented marketers with new ways of learning and tracing the customers, and in turn producing products and services that meet the specific needs of the customers.
According to Golub et al. (2000), understanding what the customers value, enables the business to divide its potential customers into segments of buyers who desire more or less the same product or service benefits and are willing to pay more or less the same amount of money for these services. With this information in hand, an organisation can then embark in utilising digital marketing to create value for its customers. According to Edelman (2010), one of the main ways an organisation can create value for the customers, using digital marketing involves the use of technology to improve customer service. Digital channels such as social media platforms are the leading marketing tools in the modern age, which have helped in heightening consumer expectations and standards. Companies that use these platforms have the opportunity to focus on the wellbeing and happiness of their customers by responding to customer issues, queries, and even directing new customers to the company website. Customers can utilise social media platforms such as Facebook to transform customer care services problems into opportunities to impress their buyers with a sheer speed of responding to their queries.
Secondly, companies can rely on digital marketing to create value for customers through the personalisation of the customer experience. According to Cassidy (2015), customers are continuously relying on the internet to interact with the brands through either search of a product or service online, receiving a marketing email, or using their phone to find retails vouchers. This experience can be unified b digital marketing channels and prevent the leakage of opportunity. In order to achieve this, businesses need to capture more online traffic, engage their customers effectively, and strengthening the brand after sales services. Edelman continues to assert that organisation needs to include links to their online services and products that go deep into specific places to assist the customers to learn more about the products. The retailer sites need to show the same products with the similar images, vivid descriptions, and inventory readiness. Most importantly, these pictures and descriptions need to be reliable in order to guarantee a unique customer experience. In addition to this, companies can create a unique customer experience by designing appealing websites that look attractive on any device and include services such as interactive product displays as well as vibrant customisation which allows the business to deliver an experience more aligned with the customer preferences (Edelman 2010).
Digital marketing can also help an organisation in delivering value through value-added services. According to Armstrong et al. (2014), when businesses offer value-added services to their consumers, they are more likely to cultivate a healthy customer loyalty. This can be achieved by using technology such as mobile applications to provide the customers with services such as an augmented reality feature to give the customers a virtual preview of the products and services offered and thereby allow for a digital test of sorts.
Refining the customer experience or service online is the game in the utilisation of digital marketing to deliver customer value. According to Harvard Business Review, HBR (2016), in order to deliver this experience and service, businesses require data from various networks, combined to give the company a vivid picture of the consumer journey. HBR continues to assert that the most successful business relies on analytics in order to comprehend the ways the business creates demand and the value of customer experience they offer. Additionally, organisations that understand the significance of creating and delivering customer value utilise refined analytics in a manner that offers perceptions that reveal customer experience to the entire organisation. According to HBR, every department with a given businesses touches the customer at some point and therefore, customer buying data defines which type of product or service has the highest sales, so the company knows where to increase production. Furthermore, the organisation knows where the finance department can forecast earnings based on the purchase patterns. Companies successful in the creation of customer value understand that measurement and analytics can be imperative in improving customer experience. Therefore, once a business initiates data collection and analysis of the customer data, the process allows the business to identify patterns of consumer favorites and behaviours that recommend openings to deliver an improved customer experience.
In conclusion, recent advancements in technology have created a digital age, which has, in turn, provided businesses with new exciting ways to learn and track customers. These practices have helped in delivering customer value by providing opportunities for better customer services, by personalising and customising customer experiences in order to meet their preferences. Additionally, this technology has allowed businesses to offer their customers value-added services. Improving the customer experience and services requires collection and analysis of the right data. Therefore, modern age businesses have to rely on analytics in order to understand the ways the business create demand and the value of customer service and experience they deliver. Therefore, modern marketing leaders need to consider optimising their customer service and experience by collecting relevant data, collaborating with other business, and most importantly shifting their strategy from product-based approach to a customer-centric approach.
- Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of Marketing VS. Sydney, Pearson Education Australia.
- Cassidy, J. (2015). Changing perspectives of customer value in a digital world | Marketing Magazine.
- Edelman, D. (2010). Four ways to get more value from digital marketing. [online] McKinsey & Company.
- Golub, H., Henry, J., Forbis, J., Mehta, N., Lanning, M., Michaels, E. and Ohmae, K. (2000). Delivering value to customers.
- Harvard Business Review (2016). Marketing Analytics Can Improve the Customer Experience – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM GOOGLE ANALYTICS 360 SUITE.
- Salehi, M., Mirzaei, H., Aghaei, M. and Abyari, M., 2012. Dissimilarity of E-marketing VS traditional marketing. International journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 2(1), p.510.