ABSTRACT
The value proposition is at the core of the customer-brand relationship. It is what the brand provides customers in exchange for their money, time, and effort. Simply put, it is the promise the brand makes and delivers to customers and what they gain when they buy and use the brand. But unless the value proposition is truly unique relative to competition, useful, and worthwhile to them individually, customers are not likely to enter into a relationship with the brand, let alone continue that relationship. An old maxim holds that nothing ruins a bad product faster than good advertising, since good advertising generates product trial, which quickly highlights the product’s poor performance. In today’s customer-driven marketplace, nothing will doom a product faster than a poorly conceived, internally focused value proposition. The value proposition has value precisely because it is seen as something that is unique to the brand and of true worth to the customer.
