ABSTRACT
The provision of “value” to consumers by marketers is implicit in the exchange contract. Yet, value is a term fraught with so many interpretations that it is a wonder when consumers and marketers agree that such a contract exists. In fact, the many interpretations provide the impetus for the editor’s desire to present the reader with the chapters in this volume. As an invited author, my initial reaction to having been asked to contribute a “chapter” was that this would be a well-defined task, one that would provide a reasonable set of boundaries for a narrative on the narrow topic of value-as-excellence. Unfortunately, value, even as excellence, was found to be subject to multiple interpretations in the literature. On the encouraging side, certain regularities were found to appear, nonetheless. This is so because value in its excellence form has taken on particular meanings in its many and varied uses. One purpose of this chapter is to take the reader through the many variants of value as used to imply degrees of excellence. A second purpose is to contrast and compare value with the two related concepts of quality and satisfaction.
