I was shopping with my family at a national retailer recently when I noticed numerous posters and hanging banners throughout the store promoting dozens of new sale items.
Normally, I don’t pay attention to sale signs because every retailer always has something on sale. This, however, seemed different. The verbiage was appealing enough that I dragged my family toward the signs to see if there were, indeed, serious bargains to be had.
Moments later, after piling more items into our already overflowing cart, I turned to my wife and proclaimed that I’d had an epiphany: 2010 was going to be the year of “value.”
Everywhere I look these days — on television, in newspapers and magazines, and on the Internet — retailers, restaurants and other merchants are pounding out a consistent message: “Buy from us. We offer more value.”
This really shouldn’t be a surprise. The economy is still limping along. Consumers are still wary about spending their hard-earned cash. Because of this, businesses have come to realize that in order to survive they must adapt to the new economic realities. They are doing so through a combination of lower prices and increased value.
While this seems like a common-sense approach to combating lagging sales, due, in part, to a decrease in liquidity from one’s existing customer base, the approach somehow feels new. Or maybe it’s just better marketing that’s finally caught my attention.
Whatever the reason, this strategy of adapting to economic pressures by providing a stronger value proposition for clients is something at which this year’s Evolution of Manufacturing Award honorees have proven themselves highly adept.
The 2010 honorees all came to the same realization that other business leaders have: It is no longer enough just to streamline operations and tighten the supply chain. Instead, more drastic measures are necessary to ensure survival as well as position your company to better compete.
There’s a simple lesson to be learned in all of this. If you are not providing your customers with more value on each sale you make, you will quickly find your product or service commoditized.
When that happens, rather than being able to focus on providing quality products and services to clients, you’ll enter a bidding war to become the low-cost provider. At that point, value gets sacrificed and your long-term ability to compete is essentially over.