Designing a Customer Value Proposition and Marketing Recommendations for Direct Sales Customers

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to create a Customer Value Proposition (CVP) for a fuel product and create marketing recommendations for re-sellers. In this study, a systematic way for building a CVP and identifying customer needs, as well as the content for the CVP will be presented.

Action research is used as the research approach for this study, because of the nature of the business problem and the researcher’s participation in the process. The data is collected in three different rounds from internal stakeholders and external customers. Methods for data collection include questionnaires, qualitative interviews and a workshop. The CVP and marketing recommendations will be validated by systematically colleting feedback and revising the initial proposal accordingly.

The outcome of the study includes a systematic tool for crafting CVPs, CVP content for one end-customer segment and marketing recommendations for re-sellers. The conceptual framework used in this study is based on the best practice from literature and it forms the tool for crafting CVPs. The CVP is created by finding a fit between the customer needs and the case company’s product’s benefits. The customer needs are identified by interviewing three end-customers from the chosen segment. The CVP consists of points of parity, points of difference and monetary value of the offering. The marketing recommendations consist of suggestions on service offerings which the end-customers require or find valuable.